Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), the body that regulates Internet services in Pakistan, banned/blocked The Baloch Hal, Balochistan’s first online English newspaper, in November 2010. The PTA should lift the ban on the newspaper in order to allow the people in Pakistan the opportunity to know about the situation in Balochistan. Being a part of The Baloch Hal, I believe banning a newspaper with a moderate voice like The Baloch Hal will further deteriorate the situation as the whole country is blank about what’s happening in the largest province. Read editor Malik Siraj Akbar’s interview in The News, Pakistan’s second most circulated and influential English newspaper.
“The initiative has to come from the centre”
By Beena Sarwar
Does one laugh or cry at the answers given by people on the streets of Lahore when asked what they know about Balochistan? Most can’t even name a city in Pakistan’s largest province (‘Punjab Balochistan ke barey mein kitna janta hai’, Sharjil Baloch, BBC Urdu online, March 1, 2011).
The ignorance is not limited to the ordinary Lahori. Malik Siraj Akbar, editor of the Baloch Hal online daily, can recount stories about the ignorance of journalist colleagues in Karachi and Lahore. But let’s leave these stories aside just now. The point is that there is little awareness in the rest of the country about the situation in Balochistan, never mind the names of its cities.
Read the whole interview here.
[...] a violation of freedom of expression that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) continues to block Baloch Hal in Pakistan at a time when this voice needs to be heard across the country now, more than ever. [...]