The Editor,
I am writing to you regarding our whole nation’s concerns on increasing instability in the country. We all are well aware of the fact what issues our country is facing right now including political and economic instability, local and international loans, unemployment, poverty, restrictions, etc. Now, government has decided to install firewall to monitor everybody’s social media activities and can detain anybody on just using their right of free speech. It means there will be no privacy or security. It seems nothing other than a way for government to avoid criticism and questioning over their own disqualification in certain matters. Just to recall that the twitter, considered to be one of the most popular social media apps in the world and an effective platform to deliver your voice at international level, is already banned in Pakistan. I’m afraid such steps will make Pakistan not anymore different from an authoritarian regime like in North Korea where nobody can even point towards government or other powerful institutions and no matter whatever they do, nobody can question or criticize them. The question is, can it be even worse?
Recently, our people celebrated 77th year of independence, hoping as usual for its prosperity and betterment. Amid this, I came across a strange but honest compliment. A guy posted, “what an irony we have to use virtual private network (vpn) to even post a status of our Independence Day”. In fact, it is the reality and the reason our youth doesn’t want to stay here anymore and is using all possible ways to go to foreign countries for a promising future. Government must learn a lesson from what happened in Bangladesh. As our population largely consists of youth and these young people can retaliate at any time.
So, it is the need of the hour to reconsider things and to not deprive anybody of their natural and positive rights. It is the time to remember that Pakistan is a democratic country.