PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ensure the removal of any blasphemous and objectionable material from the social media short-video sharing platform TikTok.
A bench comprising Justice SM Atiq Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmed presided over the critical hearing of the petition seeking to ban TikTok in Pakistan.
The petition was filed by Advocate Imran Khan requesting the court to direct the respondents — PTA, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and Ministry of Information — to ban TikTok in Pakistan permanently for persistent breach of guidelines and violation of the Constitution.
The court addressed concerns over the platform’s content, specifically focusing on blasphemous and objectionable videos.
Jehanzaib Mehsud, the lawyer representing PTA, informed the court, “We have submitted our comments today.”
The petitioner’s lawyer said they had in their petition appealed to the court that TikTok be banned, arguing, “While we do not oppose the sharing of positive content, the platform is also being used to share blasphemous material.”
