Lahore High court this morning ordered authorities to temporarily block social networking service Facebook over publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the site. Pakistani muslims stepped up to condemn the contest for blasphemy, as the depiction of any prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam.
A group of lawyers called the Islamic Lawyers’ Movement went a step further and petitioned the court to order a ban on Facebook in Pakistan.
Justice Ejaz Chaudhry, the presiding judge of the Lahore High Court directed the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to block Facebook until May 31 2010, when the court will open a detailed hearing into the case, and to submit a written reply to the apeal by that date. A ban is to be enforced in the meantime.
"We have already blocked the URL link and issued instruction to internet service providers,” Khurram Mehran, a spokesperson for the PTA,
The Facebook page for "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" had just over 40,000 supporters while the opposing "Against Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" had more than 53,000.
