According to the IT Ministry, more than 1 million freelancers are using VPNs (File photo: Freepix).
Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General Retired Hafeezur Rehman Pasha says that PTA has given deadline for VPN registration till November 30, after which all unregistered VPNs will be closed. . Freelancers using VPNs can lose $400 million annually if they don’t register their VPNs.
Major General Retired Hafizur Rehman Pasha while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Technology meeting on Monday said that the process of registration of VPN by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is going on and so far more than 20 thousand VPNs have been registered. have been registered.
A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication was held under the chairmanship of Senator Palusha Khan, in which the officials of the PTA and the Ministry of IT gave a briefing regarding the overall situation of the Internet in the country and the registration of VPN.
In the meeting, the chairman committee and other members asked the chairman PTA that what strategy has been adopted for the registration of VPN? On this Chairman PTAK said that currently there are 27 top VPNs in Pakistan which are widely used. We have started the VPN registration process from the year 2016. We want to use a VPN registered in the country.
“As per our strategy, all unregistered VPNs will be shut down by November 30,” he said. Chairman PTA said that a one-window facility has been provided for VPN registration on the PTA website. The VPN registration process is completed in 8 hours.
Chairman PTA said that ‘We are registering VPN without any fee. If freelancers or ordinary users also use a registered VPN, then they will not have to worry about any online fraud and the problem of slow internet will be over for them forever.’
Disadvantages of VPN registration and freelancers
Committee members Senator Kamran Murtaza, Senator Afnanullah and Humayun Mohmand inquired from the Ministry of IT about the financial loss to freelancers due to VPN registration.
A member of the Ministry of Information Technology told the Standing Committee in reply that currently 25 lakh people are doing freelancing in the country out of which 10 lakh are using VPN. Freelancing accounts for $400 million of Pakistan’s annual IT exports.
According to these figures, freelancers can lose $400 million annually if they don’t register their VPN. However, there is also a VPN registration facility for freelancers that they can avail.
Consult Attorney General on Legal Matters on VPN Registration: Standing Committee
The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology questioned whether the PTA could block VPNs on the VPN registration issue. Senator Afnanullah said in his remarks that ‘PICA law can ban social media, does VPN come in social media? Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to PTA to shut down illegal VPNs, this is the mandate of Ministry of IT. Officials of the IT Ministry told the Standing Committee in a briefing that ‘the Ministry of IT was not consulted on blocking unregistered VPNs.’
Chairman PTA replied that ‘VPN can be blocked on the basis of access to illegal content. People can watch whatever they want through VPN. We called the scholars in PTA and asked them for help in preventing people from accessing immoral websites.’
The Standing Committee has directed Chairman PTA to consult the Attorney General on the issue of VPN blocking. The chairman of the committee said that ‘PTA should inform us after consultation with the Attorney General and will call a meeting of the standing committee again before November 30.’
The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology has expressed concern over the Islamic Ideology Council’s outlawing of VPNs. In this regard, the chairman committee remarked that ‘religion is being made a spectacle of with such measures.’
Chairman PTA’s position on the slowness of internet in the country
During the meeting of the Standing Committee, the issue of internet slowdown in the country was also discussed. Chairman Committee Senator Palusha Khan asked Chairman PTA whether internet services have been affected? Chairman PTA Major General R. Hafeezur Rahman Pasha told the Chairman Committee that ‘Internet services have not been slowed down at the national level. I will be able to explain if you name specific areas. He has given the reasons why internet services are affected due to the bad law and order situation in some areas of Balochistan province.
