Pakistanis face internet disruptions during social media event by Imran Khan's PTI

Islamabad, Jan 20 (PTI) Pakistan's internet users faced major interruptions on Saturday night when the former prime minister's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was organising an event on social media platforms.

The party had announced that its virtual event would begin at 8 pm, the precise time when internet users faced outages and slow speed.

PTI confirmed that it faced the problem and blamed the government for it.

"Reason why the Internet is not working, this is happening blatantly with no regrets whatsoever with a loud & clear message to the world that this illegal government doesn't care a bit about fundamental human rights or right of free speech," it said in a message.

Dawn reported internet monitor Netblocks as saying that a nationwide disruption to social media platforms.

"Confirmed: Live metrics show a nation-scale disruption to social media platforms across Pakistan, including X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube," the internet tracking agency said at 7: 12 pm.

It added that "the incident comes as persecuted opposition leader Imran Khan’s political party, PTI, launches its second virtual gathering”.

The party faced a similar disruption on January 7 when the PTI held a virtual fundraising telethon.

A spokesperson for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) rejected the complaint by saying that all social media networks were active and the authority had not received any complaints. PTI SH RUP RUP RUP