Over the past three and a half years, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has written to social media platform X on three occasions, seeking the closure of an account operating in the name of PTI founder Imran Khan, but received no response, it emerged on Thursday.
The disclosure was made in a PTA report submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and seen by Dawn, in connection with a petition concerning allegedly “inflammatory posts” shared from an X account bearing the name of the incarcerated former prime minister.
According to the report, PTA first approached X on August 21, 2022, requesting action against the account, but the platform did not respond.
A second request was sent via email on April 18, 2024, seeking the blocking of the account. The correspondence cited relevant court orders, along with details of Imran Khan’s convictions and sentences — 14, 10, and seven years — in the Toshakhana, cypher, and unlawful marriage cases. Once again, the authority said, X did not reply.
The report further revealed that on November 27, 2025, PTA asked X to block 47 tweets from the same account. Of these, only one tweet was restricted by the platform.
PTA noted in its submission that over-the-top (OTT) services operating in Pakistan remain unregulated as they are registered in their countries of origin. As a result, the companies are not necessarily bound by the laws of the country from which users access their content.
The authority observed that social media platforms do provide official channels for users and regulators to lodge complaints, but added that selective blocking of content is difficult as these services operate through secure channels.
“Another option is to block internet traffic to these services,” the report stated. “However, selective blocking cannot be enabled, and only complete access can be revoked on a best-effort basis.”
PTA also recalled that in October 2021, it had requested social media companies to comply with Section 7(6) of the Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules by registering with the authority and appointing a local compliance and grievance officer. It noted that no affirmative response had been received so far.
On Wednesday, the IHC heard the petition regarding the X account and questioned how proceedings could continue when authorities were denying Imran Khan’s counsel access to him. In recent weeks, members of his family and party leaders have reportedly faced increasing restrictions in meeting him.
During the hearing, the court remarked that PTA’s response to the petition was “unsatisfactory”.
The petition challenging the alleged inflammatory posts was filed in the IHC in September last year. In a written reply submitted earlier, Adiala jail authorities denied that the X account was being operated from within the prison.
The superintendent of Adiala jail stated that the PTI founder remains under strict surveillance and has no access to prohibited devices, “particularly mobile phones”.