Pakistan urges G-7 to ask India for ending ban on Twitter accounts

UNITED NATIONS: A top Pakistani diplomat has urged the G-7 industrial countries, which are meeting at summit level in Germany, to demand from India to lift its “massive restrictions on information”, including all the Pakistan accounts New Delhi has blocked.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Ambassador Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, pointed out that India, “in another display of hypocrisy”, had signed a G7 statement to “protect freedom of expression online and offline”.

Now, he added, the G7 have the right and responsibility to demand that India lift its massive restrictions on information including all the Pakistan accounts Delhi has blocked.

“This suppression of information violates India’s obligations under ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and is yet another sign of the escalating fascism enveloping RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) ruled India,” the Pakistan envoy said.

Earlier in Islamabad, the Foreign Office voiced alarm over the Indian government’s policy of blocking access to information after New Delhi asked social media giant Twitter to block the accounts of Islamabad’s diplomatic missions.

The FO spokesperson, in a tweet on Monday, expressed deep concern over the “diminishing space for plurality of voices and access to information in India”.