Cyber Security & Youtube Ban A reality check is required

Yesterday an op-ed was published in The Nation written by Gul Bukhari in which the worthy writer wrote on the topic of Fundamental rights and Cyber Space. Ms. Bukhari wrote about the ongoing case in Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding the reopening of YouTube in Pakistan. Case is filed by Bytes for All and is valiantly fought by worthy counselor Yasser Hamdani. She talks about various other aspects of that petition that includes pray of petitioner that not just YouTube but thousands of other websites and URLs are being banned in the country by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) without any justification and even in words of petition, without a legal right to do so. She also mentioned the added petition from same NGO about the usage of mass surveillance equipment used in the country by the name of FinFisher. Now no matter how much Ms. Bukhari professes the cause of fundamental rights and cyber rights of Pakistani people or no matter how much abusive Ali Gul Pir becomes to get YouTube ban revoked, fact and ground realities remain utterly in favor of those who professes for the ban. Ms. Bukhari is talking about the rights of people who themselves gave a majority vote in favor of their fundamental rights being curtailed by government. Only 22% of the Pakistani said that they were against government censorship. We were the only country in said poll to have happily given away their ‘Rights’ and this poll didn’t include educated nations like UK or USA but countries like Uganda and Egypt. In the quoted case of YouTube re-opening, opposing lawyer even called the petitioners to be working on Zionist agenda. Even The Friday Times has recently said that the judge who is presiding over the case is also in favor of re-opening of YouTube but he can’t give the orders because he is afraid for his life. There is a bitter reality which is rampant in our society more than corruption and lawlessness and that reality is that our masses don’t give a damn about their rights. They don’t own the conscious which compel them to fight for their ‘fundamental’ rights. Reason for that can be as varied from illiteracy to poverty and from slave mindset to sticking to norms but whatever a coffee parlor or drawing room talker calls it, reality remains that there is greater need to teach Fundamental rights rather than to ‘profess’ for them. We all have belief that once a court makes a decision everything comes to order. And no body among masses thinks that it is them who have to follow those orders. Even an approved law or an order from court is nothing if the people decide not to abide by it. Even if court sends an order today, tomorrow government can introduce a legislation in parliament which will allow it to ‘lawfully’ ban YouTube. I am sure in that case, there will be outrage on roads which will be slightly larger than the rallies that are taken out in favor of condemned Pervez Musharraf. Admit it that we all are using proxies to access YouTube. Leading news agencies of Pakistan are posting their videos on YouTube and surely thousands of views on them are not all from territories other than Pakistan. It is time that we actually start telling our masses the meaning and need of Fundamental rights. Until then there is no court in the country that can even feel the need to give orders for the rights of people who don’t even know that they have those rights.