In the face of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party leveling allegations of vote rigging against the PML-N at the February 8th polls, and calling for protests, X has remained inaccessible to Pakistani citizens.
Regardless of a directive from the Sindh High Court to restore access, X has, curiously, been offline for just around three weeks.
Top government official Liaqut Chatha’s accusations that Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa partook in extensive election interference on February 8th triggered a nationwide outcry.
Unsurprisingly, following these disclosures, X became a platform for public demands for an audit of the election results and the reinstatement of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s allegedly “stolen mandate.”
Social media was set alight after the commissioner confessed to being compelled to alter the outcomes of 13 National Assembly seats in favor of the PML-N, putting independent candidates supported by PTI at a disadvantage.
Claims are swirling that the nation’s change in governance—led by newly appointed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the preceding interim government—refuses to offer any justification for the continued downtime of X.
Furthermore, there seems to be little interest in giving justifications for denying Pakistani users access to the platform—a move often formalized and justified by authorities in this nation under prevailing circumstances.
However, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the body that regulates internet access throughout the country, unequivocally denies the allegations of an intentional block on X.
