Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry has said the government has no intentions to impose a ban on social networking sites (SNS) in the future. His statement came after the interior ministry on Friday had suspended major social media apps on Friday for several hours.

While regretting the blockage of social media sites across the country from 11 am to 3 pm on Friday, the newly re-instated information minister promised that he will try his best that the measure is not taken again in the future.

"I regret the three-hour suspension of social media and seek an apology over it," Chaudhry said in a statement and added, "every effort will be made to prevent a shutdown of social media in the future,"

The federal minister said a defunct organization was using social media services to spread provocative messages in the society and the concerned quarters had to take pre-emptive measures to control the spread of objectionable material.

It is pertinent to mention that the interior ministry's decision to impose a four-hour ban on social media networking sites coincided with the cabinet's decision to proscribe a religiopolitical party.