'We Continue to Work to Understand Govt's Concerns': Musk's X Amid its Ban in Pakistan

Islamabad: A day after the Shehbaz Sharif-led government banned Elon Musk's popular microblogging site X citing security issues, the social media platform said it continues to work with the Pakistani govt to understand their respective concerns.

In a brief statement, X’s Global Government Affairs team said, "We continue to work with the Pakistani Government to understand their concerns."

This comes as on Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) heard a petition filed by journalist Ehtisham Abbasi against the problem in accessing X. The petition stated that the Musk-owned social media platform, formerly called Twitter, was suspended in Pakistan on February 17 after former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaquat Chattha accused the chief election commissioner and the chief justice of being involved in 'rigging' the February 8 'general elections.'

Furthermore, on behalf of the ministry, Interior Secretary Khurram Agha submitted a report on the IHC highlighting the "failure of Twitter/X to adhere to the lawful directives of the government of Pakistan and address concerns regarding the misuse of its platform necessitated the imposition of a ban."

The report said the interior ministry on February 17 "asked for blocking of X (Twitter) immediately till further orders" on the reports of intelligence agencies.

Similarly, the Sindh High Court, summoned a response from the Interior Ministry on the ban on X by May 9 and ordered it to rescind its February 17 letter in a week, which had disrupted the service.

(Inputs from PTI)