“What are you afraid of?” Hina Bayat on government restrictions on the internet

Veteran Pakistani actress Hina Khawaja Bayat has slammed the government for sluggish internet speeds affecting the country, saying poor connectivity is crippling businesses and affecting livelihoods.

In a recent social media post, Bayat expressed her frustration, highlighting the contradiction between the government’s claims of improving the economy and the reality of widespread slow internet speeds.

Reports surfaced this week that Pakistani freelancers on Fiverr were showing up as “unavailable” on the platform, causing widespread concern and uncertainty in the community.

“On the one hand, we are mourning the deterioration of our economy and on the other, the government has slowed down internet speeds nationwide,” he said.

Bayat pointed out that frequent internet outages and slow speeds hamper business, which could lead to widespread unemployment.

“How do you intend to improve the economy by shutting down the internet? What are you afraid of? In this modern age of technology, why are you denying us access to the internet?” she asked.

Bayat accused the government of destroying the economy and businesses.

“Are you trying to end Pakistan? Are you doing what our enemies couldn’t do – intending to destroy the country this way?” she exclaimed.

The actress concluded by calling on the country’s top executives to address the issue of slow internet speeds as soon as possible.

This comes as social media and international news agency Reuters reported that the government is installing a firewall system, leading to severe disruptions to internet services across the country.

Pakistani internet users have been facing slow internet speeds and problems sharing messages and attachments on various social media and communication platforms for the past week.

Sluggish internet speeds combined with a nationwide ban on X (formerly Twitter) for nearly six months, citing “security concerns,” have further complicated the work of freelancers.

Many have seen the outage in light of the government’s recently announced firewall initiative, which is being tested in phases.

However, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) denied that the problem is caused by the firewall. According to telecom industry sources, the test has been completed and the network is expected to return to normal operation within the next two weeks.