Internet problems in Pakistan may last another 90 days: PTA

picture: online

On January 20, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) offered technical justifications for the blackout, citing ongoing system upgrades, but the projected timeline of "2 to 3 months" only exacerbated public concerns. Pakistani netizens, who had already been dealing with recent internet disruptions, faced another dark day.

Director General Ahmed Shamim Pirzada, along by Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi and FIA Cybercrime Director of Operations Waqaruddin Syed, addressed a skeptical press conference.

The timing of the outage, which coincided with a previously planned online event by a specific political party, fueled speculation of deliberate throttling.

This suspicion was supported by similar delays on December 17 and January 7. Minister Solangi echoed the technological fault explanation and acknowledged the risk of more hiccups.

The public's suspicions were not alleviated by the weak reassurance, especially given the strange timing of the blackouts.

This inadequate promise did little help reduce public anxieties, especially given the backdrop of suspiciously timed blackouts.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority PTA's prior statement, blaming a "technical problem" during the January 20th outage, only increased public mistrust.

Pakistan's tech-savvy public voiced evident outrage at the perceived lack of openness and the lengthy timeline for settlement.