After almost four days that felt like an eternity to internet users, the government listened to the pleas of the people and finally restored mobile data services across Pakistan last night.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Tuesday that mobile broadband services would remain suspended across the country for an “indefinite period” on the interior ministry’s instructions, amid protests following PTI chief Imran Khan’s arrest.
On Friday, the Islamabad High Court granted protective bail to the former prime minister in three terrorism cases registered against him in Lahore and the Zille Shah murder case. It also barred the authorities from arresting the PTI chairman in cases registered across the country until Monday, May 15.
The same day, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah announced that they would be keeping the internet blocked “till the arrest of miscreants who set fire to people’s houses.” But much to people’s surprise, mobile data services and the suspended social media platforms were restored a few hours later.
Despite the announcement by the PTA, Pakistanis are still facing issues accessing social media websites and apps like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube without VPNs more than 12 hours later.
But for the people whose internet did work, even for a few hours, they celebrated the short-lived glee with memes.
People rejoiced over the fact they don’t have to use VPNs anymore. FYI — VPN stands for virtual private network and is an application that helps you bypass firewalls by changing your IP location.
It was finally time to say goodbye to virtual locations and return to Pakistan.
Say to bye to the beloved VPNs for now — though they’re always there for internet users in a country where internet services and websites often get banned.
Whether you were in the US or the Netherlands, its time to come back to Pakistan.
One user had enough with the foreign ads — when you use a VPN, your websites think you’re in whatever virtual location you’ve set it to.
Another said that they had been in the UK for past two days and now finally “landed” back in Pakistan. Talk about living in a virtual world — for real.
Even though internet services were restored, its speed was questionably slow for one user.
This meme perfectly summarises the situation.
Life with the internet is indeed like Fawad Khan smiling — we love both.
Mobile data is back and Twitter can’t stop celebrating — with a VPN