ISLAMABAD: YouTube was shut down in Pakistan during Imran Khan’s speech in Peshawar users across the country.Internet tracker Net Blocks tweeted: “Metrics confirm that YouTube is disrupted on multiple internet providers in #Pakistan as former prime minister Imran Khan live streams; the restrictions come despite the lifting of PEMRA’s ban on Khan’s speeches by the Islamabad High Court.”
Ahead of the former prime minister’s address, multiple users had started complaining on Twitter that the streaming website was not working for them. #YouTubeDown also emerged as a top trend on the microblogging website Twitter.
In response to the reported blockage, PTI turned to Facebook and Twitter to air its chairman’s speech.
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry claimed that the country has “officially turned into a banana republic” after the barring of Imran Khan’s speeches on channels and YouTube. The move was also criticised by other Twitter users.
The blockage comes after the PTI chairman, earlier in the day, said he’d had enough of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) “cabal of crooks” propagating to malign him.
PDM — the ruling parties who have formed the government after ousting Khan from the prime minister’s office in April — severely criticised Khan’s recent comments against the military and its top brass.
The armed forces were also livid following the PTI chairman’s Faisalabad jalsa speech, where he said that if a “patriotic” army chief were appointed, he would not spare the incumbent rulers.
In response, Khan tweeted that he was following the “intense propaganda” launched by the PDM’s “cabal of crooks” against him, which stems from them being “petrified of PTI’s soaring popularity”.
“Today in [the] Peshawar jalsa, I will give [a] proper reply to all those who have deliberately been distorting my words to malign me. Enough is enough,” the former prime minister warned. –Agencies
