Islamabad lifts ban on Facebook

Islamabad:

Fans ask Mush to 'save' Pak

London: Former Pak president gen Pervez Musharraf said that he has a huge fan following on Facebook, which is urging him to return to Pakistan to lift it from chaos. Musharraf, who is living in London on an unannounced exile, said 80% of his fans are youngsters in the age group of 18 to 34. "In five months my fan club has risen to 2,00,000. The youth is dismayed at the situation prevailing in Pakistan," he said

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A Pakistani court on Monday lifted a ban on social networking website Facebook which had carried a competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad, but access to any "blasphemous" material will remain blocked, officials said.

The Lahore high court ordered Facebook unblocked after getting assurance from the government that "blasphemous material" would no longer be available in Pakistan, lawyer Azhar Siddique said.

"The government has assured the court on behalf of the website that the blasphemous material would not seen in Pakistan," said Siddique, a representative of the Islamic Lawyers Forum, who sought ban on Facebook.

"The court ... told me that I can file a contempt of court petition if blasphemous material is again seen on the website in Pakistan, because it is a violation of Pakistani law." The Pakistan telecommunication authority said it had received officials instructions to unblock Facebook.

The Pakistani authorities had also blocked access to video networking site, YouTube, to contain un-Islamic content, but this was partially lifted last week although links to videos containing "sacrilegious or profane material" remain restricted.

The contest to draw caricatures of Prophet Mohammad was described by its organisers as a "snarky" response to Muslim bloggers who had objected at the creators of the Comedy Central television show South Park depicting him in a bear suit.

While many Pakistanis supported the online crackdown, some said the government should have blocked specific videos or pages instead of blocking entire websites. On Sunday, Bangladesh also blocked access to Facebook over "objectionable material about the Prophet Mohammad.