The authorities in Pakistan suspended Internet services on Sunday as former imprisoned PM of Pakistan, Imran Khan started to deliver his audio speech via artificial intelligence.
Mr. Khan who delivered his four-minute speech on Sunday night using AI said: “Our party is not allowed to hold public rallies. Our people are being kidnapped and their families are being harassed,”
While referring to the state crackdown on PTI, which has seen dozens of party leaders arrested he said “History will remember your sacrifices,”
Additionally The PTI also informed that the internet rally was organised to bypass a government ban on public rallies as it gears up for general elections, scheduled on February 8.
Meanwhile, NetBlocks an organization which meets cyber security and Internet Governance also confirmed Internet Outage in Pakistan on Sunday night.
While quoting the Internet Censorship, NetBlocks, said in a post on X, (formerly Twitter) “Metrics show major social media platforms were restricted in Pakistan for [nearly] 7 hours on Sunday evening during an online political gathering; the incident is consistent with previous instances of internet censorship targeting opposition leader Imran Khan and his party PTI.
Furthermore, the opposition parties also accused the PaK government of causing internet disruptions in order to prevent Khan’s supporters from watching his online speech.
However, the Pakistan Telecommunication Officials on Monday denied the reports regarding the internet outage and urged the media to be more cautious about sharing “unconfirmed news” about it.
Khan has been in jail since August following his conviction in a case related to the illegal selling of state gifts he received as premier from 2018 to 2022. Though he got bail in that case, he remains in custody after he was indicted for allegedly leaking state secrets.
Khan was ousted as PM after a no-confidence motion was moved against him.