Daily Times

The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued on Monday a notice to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to file its reply to a petition against launch of 5G technology in Pakistan.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar took up the petition. Over the course of the hearing, Justice Amjad Ali Sahito, a member of the bench, questioned whether the government has issued a 5G licence. To this, the petitioner replied in the negative.

Issuing a notice to the PTA, the bench observed that the court will proceed with the case after the telecommunication regulator files its response to the petition.

The citizen stated before the court that 5G technology not only poses health risks but also affects the ecosystem. He argued 4G technology too poses health risks but is less dangerous than 5G.

Last month, Federal Minister for Information Technology Syed Aminul Haque had said that Pakistan eyes the launch of 5G network services in the country by December 2022. He said this while meeting a high-level delegation of the Huawei company, which was led by its Middle East Regional Head Charles Yang. “We have set the target of December 2022 for launching the 5G services in the country,” he said.

Separately, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday commuted the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a seminary student into life-term.

A two-judge bench of the high court heard an appeal filed by Fazl Mehmood who challenged a trial court’s verdict that found him guilty of murdering a man named Raziullah. The court observed that the convict cannot be pardoned at any cost. A trial court had handed death sentence to Fazl for murdering Raziullah during a brawl in 2015. The Bahadurabad police had registered a case against him.