The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Wednesday directed Internet service providers to block Facebook until May 31 because of an online competition to draw sketches of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The order followed a decision by the Lahore High Court temporarily banning Facebook in Pakistan after the country's media reported that the competition would be held on May 20. “The court has ordered the government to immediately block Facebook until May 31 because of this blasphemous competition,” Azhar Siddique, a representative of the Islamic Lawyers Forum who filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, told Reuters. “The court has also ordered the Foreign Ministry to investigate why such a competition is being held.” A spokesman for the PTA, the country's telecommunication watchdog, said the government on Tuesday ordered Internet providers to block only the Facebook page showing these caricatures. But on Wednesday the court ordered the entire Facebook site blocked. By late afternoon, Facebook was unavailable to Pakistan's computer users, although Blackberries and other mobile devices appeared able to access the site. But some warned the court's response could backfire. “Blocking the entire website would anger users, especially young adults, because the social networking website is so popular among them and they spend most of their time on it,” said the CEO of Nayatel, Wahaj-us-Siraj. “Basically, our judges aren't technically sound. They have just ordered it, but it should have been done in a better way by just blocking a particular URL or link.” On the Facebook information page for the contest the organizers described it as a “snarky” response to Muslim bloggers who “warned” the creators of the Comedy Central television show “South Park” over a recent depiction of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Publications of similar blasphemous sketches in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.
