Balochistan mobile data suspension: High Court issues notices to AGP

QUETTA: The Balochistan High Court on Wednesday admitted a constitutional petition for hearing challenging the suspension of mobile internet services in the province, issuing notices to the Attorney General of Pakistan and the Balochistan Advocate General.

A two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Rozi Khan Barrech and Justice Sardar Ahmad Haleemi, heard the petition filed by Consumer Society Chairman Khair Muhammad Shaheen.

After hearing the petitioner’s arguments, the court directed the authorities to submit a written reply before the next hearing on August 15.

The court warned that if a written response was not filed, the federal interior secretary and the secretary of telecommunications would be summoned in person.

In the petition, Khair Muhammad Shaheen argued that the government’s suspension of mobile internet services was a violation of fundamental human rights, disrupting education, daily life, and business activities in the province.

He further stated that the services had been cut off without providing solid reasons, and that inter-district and inter-provincial public transport had also been suspended.

Read More: Mobile data service suspended in Balochistan untill August 31

Earlier, Pakistan suspended cell phone data services for three weeks in the province of Balochistan in a bid to block communications among miscreants behind a surge in recent attacks, an official and the government said.

In an order seen by Reuters, the government said the services would be suspended until the end of the month because of the law and order situation in the province, home to key Chinese Belt and Road projects.

“The service has been suspended because they (militants) use it for coordination and sharing information,” Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the provincial government, said on Friday.

Officials said there are 8.5 million cell phone subscribers in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by size, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. But it is thinly populated, with just 15 million from a national population of 240 million.