Pakistan’s foremost constitutional religious body has come under severe criticism after it issued an edict declaring the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access restricted online content as ‘un-Islamic.’
According to the Dawn newspaper, the CII chief Raghib Naeemi said that using VPNs to access “immoral or illegal content” was against Sharia law.
This unprecedented statement from the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), an advisory body to parliament on harmonising legislation with Islamic principles, has triggered massive outrage among social media users as well as even some religious scholars.
In a compelling response, Maulana Tariq Jameel, a renowned religious figure Maulana Tariq Jameel argued that if concerns about viewing adult or blasphemous content are valid, then mobile phones themselves should be labelled un-Islamic.
Senator Allama Nasir Abbas, the chief of the Shia organisation Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen (MWM), said the country was being ruled by an “incompetent and corrupt elite” who were not even the true representatives of the people.
“They make laws in such a way and are using decrees … as per their whims,” Senator Abbas added.
Wahaj Siraj, the CEO of telecom company Nayatel, said technology has always been neutral and only its use or misuse made it ‘Halal or Haram’.
The issue of VPNs came to light after the Interior Ministry asked the Pakistan Telecom Authority, the electronic media watchdog, to take action against their illegal use as they were being used for terrorism.
Nighat Dad, the executive director of the Digital Rights Foundation, said the action to block VPNs was “contradictory” to the rights of privacy granted in the Constitution.
Senator Palwasha Khan has called a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on IT and Telecom, which she heads, on November 18. The meeting will discuss restrictions on what the telecom regulator called “illegal” use of VPNs in Pakistan.
Khan questioned if the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will be monitoring the content watched by users.
Meanwhile, one CII member told Dawn that the statement was Naeemi’s “personal views” and not the council’s collective opinion.
The fresh VPN row comes after Pakistan faced significant disruptions to VPN services over the weekend, with users reporting “restricted access” and “throttled connectivity” on popular providers.
The disruptions were reported after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif shared a post on X congratulating former US President Donald Trump, which sparked debate on digital access and scrutiny.
VPNs are crucial for many Pakistanis to access blocked websites, including X, which faced restrictions since February due to national security concerns.
