VPN usage was brought up at a Senate committee on IT and Telecom meeting that was chaired by Senator Palwasha Khan.
According to Chairman PTA, the authority is getting complaints about social networking apps, such as 22% of requests from X (previously Twitter), 65% of complaints from Meta, and 95% of complaints from TikTok.
Senator Humayun Mohmand questioned whether it would be against the rules for an assembly member to use a VPN.
Chairman PTA retorted that, similar to China and Dubai, the authority is trying to oversee internet limitations in Pakistan.
Twenty-five thousand people have registered their VPNs with the authorities, according to the PTA chairman. He also stated that a campaign is being launched to encourage registration, and unregistered VPNs will eventually be blocked.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had introduced a one-window process for whitelist IP and VPN registration in an effort to guarantee the continuous functioning of enterprises, including software houses, contact centres, freelancers, and foreign embassies.
The PTA and PSEB websites now offer a unified “one window” operation for the registration process.
Over 20,000 IPs have already been registered since 2020 thanks to this continuous effort, which is managed by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Ministry of Information Technology (MOIT), Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), and Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA).
The goal of the program is to guarantee that companies may continue to conduct secure internet operations.
It is recommended that businesses register their VPNs in order to protect their online activity and optimise their workflow.
Businesses can visit the PTA website to register easily.
Installing a firewall might be difficult.
It is important to note that senior writer Hamid Mir, represented by attorney Imaan Mazari, filed a lawsuit in the Islamabad High Court opposing the installation of a firewall and the shutdown of the internet.
In his appeal, the applicant said that the firewall’s installation had seemingly resulted in a sharp decrease in internet speed, harming the young people who are the backbone of the digital economy.
