Pakistan has cracked down on “immoral” love chat services offered by mobile phone companies, stifling hopes of illicit romance in the conservative Muslim country where dating is frowned upon.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said the ban was enforced last month due to protests from parents and lawmakers, but critics warn it is the latest attempt at creeping censorship.
The PTA first pulled the plug on dirt-cheap chat rates and late-night discounts in November last year, but operators simply started offering the services under different names.
So, the regulator tightened the ban late last month, ordering telecom companies to scrap immediately “all kinds of chat services, irrespective of the time of day.”
In a country where parents keep young people on a tight leash and dating is considered inappropriate, late-night chatting over the phone or Internet can be a way to find love below the radar.
In Pakistan, girls can be beaten or even killed by male relatives if there is any hint they are having a relationship and parents like to strictly control the marriages of their offspring.
A 20-year-old university student who did not want to give his name told reporters that the ban had hit him hard as he is now unable to chat with random girls and find new dates.
“The cruel world has once again conspired against lovers and made it difficult for them to communicate,” he said.
“It was so inexpensive and an easy way to find a date,” he added.
The 25-year-old manager of a boutique in Islamabad said that he had found the “love of his life” through the service.
“I am going to marry her,” he said.
“We chatted, we exchanged numbers, we started talking and I was surprised to find out that she lived nearby,” he said.
There are no public data about how many people used the romantic chat, but of the 68.6 percent of the population with access to a mobile phone, it is likely to have been a small number.
Normal call charges are about 2 rupees (US$0.02) a minute and 1.50 rupees for a text message, but chat services were offered at an hourly rate for a fraction of those rates.
A customer would dial a particular number after which a computer generated voice or text message guided subscribers through various options.
For example, if you want to chat to a girl, press 1, a boy, press 2, then you select your preferred age group before being connected to another caller by SMS conforming to your criteria.
Two of Pakistan’s five mobile phone companies said they had shut down romantic chat rooms, but would continue to offer calling services that stick to general interests such as hobbies.
Another company said they had shut down all chat rooms and two others were not reachable for comment.
Saeeda Khan, a 45-year-old mother of three, welcomed the ban.
“I am worried as they’re busy all night on the phone with their friends and cousins,” she said.
Khan said she worried about “what kind of people” are in the chat rooms and that children “are exposed to strangers.” “I would never approve of chatting with unknown people,” she said.
Mobile phone companies have filed petitions in the Supreme Court against the ban, but no date has been set for a hearing.
Pakistan’s oldest English-language newspaper Dawn has accused the PTA of acting as an “unwanted morality brigade.”
“The intermingling of young men and women is not a matter that should concern the state which has nothing to gain except opprobrium by acting as self-appointed guardian of society’s morals,” Dawn wrote in an editorial earlier this month.
“[The PTA] should mind its own business,” it said.
The PTA defends the move as a response to public anger, but the ban has raised fears about growing censorship in Pakistan.
The government frequently shuts down mobile networks to prevent militant attacks and access to YouTube has been blocked for a year over a low-budget US film deemed offensive to Islam.
In November 2011, the PTA also tried to ban nearly 1,700 “obscene” words from text messages, which included innocuous terms such as “lotion,” “athlete’s foot” and “idiot.”
In 2010, Pakistan shut down Facebook for nearly two weeks over blasphemy and continues to restrict hundreds of online links.
Independent technology think-tank Bytes for All, Pakistan, said that the fresh ban was a violation of human rights.
“Any regulation on the basis of ‘morals’ falls under moral policing, which is unjustified, undemocratic, dictatorial and a violation of fundamental rights,” Bytes for All coordinator of advocacy and outreach Pakistan Furhan Hussain said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was