Twitter still banned in Pakistan, clarifies PTA

A lawyer representing Pakistan’s telecommunications regulator recently misled the court by claiming that the government had lifted the ban on X, formerly Twitter, despite the platform still being inaccessible in the country.

The statement, made in court, sparked confusion among both social media users and the legal community, who believed that X had been restored after a seven-month suspension. However, the claim proved to be untrue, and X remains blocked.

During a September 12 hearing at the Sindh High Court, Ahsan Imam Rizvi, a lawyer for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), stated that the Ministry of Interior's February 17 directive to block X had been revoked. Rizvi reiterated this multiple times, attributing the information to instructions he received from the PTA.

This declaration led many on social media to believe that the microblogging platform was accessible again, but the PTA soon contradicted the claim.

Later the same day, the PTA issued a press release clarifying that X was still “not accessible” in Pakistan.

The platform remains blocked and is only accessible through VPNs. No explanation was provided as to why the PTA’s legal representative made the incorrect statement in court.