ISLAMABAD: Following ban for 3 years, YouTube has been allowed to function in Pakistan again, where the site had been banned for more than three years in the country.
According to the reports, the Ministry of Information Technology has given directions to allow YouTube to function once again in the country.
The popular video-sharing website had been blocked in the country since 2012, when a blasphemous video had been shared over the internet.
When Pakistani authorities asked the website to take it down, the request had been rejected, leading to a ban in the country since then.
It is pertinent to mentioned here that the National Assembly had adopted a resolution unanimously to lift the ban on YouTube, a popular video-sharing website on first week of May, 2014.
During the session, chaired by Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, MNA Shazia Marri submitted a resolution demanding the lifting of the ban on YouTube which was unanimously accepted by the lower house of the parliament. The lawmaker said that the ban be lifted as the website has deleted all objectionable material in question.
During the session, State Minister for Coordination Saira Tarar suggested that a committee be formed to decide whether the ban should be removed or not. But MNA Mari protested, demanding immediate action from the government in this matter and said it affected students and businessmen negatively. No date has been given as to when the ban would be removed as yet.
In Pakistan, the video-sharing website has been blocked since September 2012 when the then prime minister ordered its shutdown over its failure to take down a movie that sparked protests around the world. Despite the removal of the video, the video-sharing website remains banned in the country. YouTube is also banned in Turkey, Iran, Sudan and Tajikistan.
