Pakistan bans ‘obscene’ words on SMS

By Rizwan Khatik - Fri Nov 18, 2:22 pm

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has told mobile phone companies to begin blocking text messages containing “obscene” words.

The country’s telecommunications authority has written to mobile phone firms with a list of more than 1,500 English and Urdu words to be blocked, said Anjum Nida Rahman, a spokeswoman for Telenor Pakistan.

Mobile phone companies Telenor Pakistan and Ufone confirmed to the BBC that the PTA has sent them a “dictionary” of banned words and expressions.The PTA has reportedly ordered operators to begin screening text messages by 21 November.

A letter dated 14 November, apparently written by Muhammad Talib Doger, an official at the PTA, has been leaked to Pakistani media. The letter said the order was legal under a 1996 law preventing people from sending information through the telecommunications system that is “false, fabricated, indecent or obscene”.