The decision to install a national internet firewall was made during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government’s tenure under former prime minister Imran Khan, show newly surfaced documents.

Such documents relate to a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office concerning the national firewall.

A “letter” detailing this meeting, dated November 4, 2020, was sent to the information technology secretary. It states that a meeting regarding the National Firewall System took place on October 22, 2020.

The purported letter instructs the IT ministry to present the case for approval to the relevant authority. It suggests that options for implementing the firewall, along with recommendations from stakeholders, be considered.

In addition to this, the letter emphasises that the National Firewall System should be developed and installed and a “national social media application modelled after WeChat should also be created.”

On Sunday, State Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that the government has not throttled the internet at any level.

At a press in Islamabad, Shaza claimed that the government had neither shut down the internet nor slowed it down. She went on to claim that a majority of the consumers in the country were using VPNs to access some functions of social media sites, especiallyenter link description here downloading. She added that the VPN use was putting ‘pressure’ on the internet causing it to slow down as a whole.

The minister also said that the disruption to internet service was ‘natural’ and had occurred for only one or two days.