Pakistan Paindabad blog (run by this author), along with several others hosted on Blogger - a popular blog-hosting service, has been blocked by the Pakistan government.
Replying to an e-mail, Mr. Danish of The Blogger Team said that the “Pakistan government has been blocking all Blog*Spot pages from being shown within that country”.
The world generally perceives Pakistan as a troubled nation with terrorists swarming within its border. This is not true. Due to obsessive attention to crisis news, the international media do not report the other realities of Pakistan. Pakistan Paindabad was launched on September 2006 as a humble attempt to make the world aware about the "normal" and beautiful aspects of this South Asian country.
In its short history, the blog-site has received support from many netizens. Some readers, particularly of Pakistani origin, have become habitual visitors; a few contribute articles, and even send spectacular photographs of the country to be published in the site.
Thus it is surprising that the site has been deemed unfit for the readers in Pakistan. Else why is it accessible everywhere but in that country?
President Pervez Musharraf has frequently pleaded for enlightened moderation. He has publicly lambasted the conservative elements in the society. A recent story in Pakistan Paindabad had lauded Mr. Musharraf for playing a proactive role in changing the anti-woman Hudood ordinance.
But the inaccessibility of blogs complicates the idea of enlightened moderation. This blogger urges President Musharraf to stop wasting time on harmless sites and immediately de-block them.
Pakistan Paindabad – Long Live Pakistan.
Article comments
1 - Roger Choate
Hi Mayank, how does one know when a blog is blocked by a government? How do they do it?
I believe blogs have also been blocked by the Indian Government. What is the story behind that?
2 - Mayank Austen Soofi
Hi Roger, it is simple to find out. Pakistan Paindabad is not being accessed by people in Pakistan.It was not merely the complaint of one individual. I enquired with various people there and everybody said that they can't log onto it.
I'm also a member of statcounter.com which enables me to view several data related to my site. For instance, I could find out people from which countries are coming to Pakistan Paindabad. The maximum hits were from US followed by India. There were visitors even from places like Philippines and Kenya. But there was no click from Pakistan which was extremely amazing.
For further confirmation, I sent an e-mail to Blogger's helpdesk (my site is hosted on Blogger). They said that Pakistan government is blocking the site.
Yes, blocking blogs is not just the unique trait of the Pakistani government. India is no different. Few months back the government here blocked all the blogspot sites (citing what else but the much abused 'national interest'). However following unprecedented protests, it passed the blame to an over-excited bureaucrat and lifted the ban.