Pakistan bans websites that carry Muhammad cartoons

The government of Pakistan is attempting to block access within the country to all websites that host caricatures of the prophet Muhammad — and to shut down blogs authored inside Pakistan that post such material. On her blog, Michelle Malkin has posted a roundup of links related to the story.

Snip from report in Pakistan's Daily Times:

[Pakistan's] attorney general has been asked to explore legal avenues for implementing a global ban on these sites. A three-member bench, consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Buttar and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, issued notices and directed the attorney general to inform the court next Monday as to how it could prevent access to such objectionable material on the internet worldwide. The bench was jointly hearing the petition of Dr Mohammad Imran Uppal and Maulvi Iqbal Haider, seeking a complete blockage of sites carrying the cartoons and their depictions.

Iftikhar Rashid, chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Shahzada Alam Malik were also present in court. The federal government, the Telecommunications ministry, PEMRA, PTA, Yahoo Incorporated USA and 1&1 Co, the host of websites carrying the cartoons, are respondents in Imran Uppal’s petition.

Advocate Qamar Afzal stated in his arguments that the availability of the caricatures on the Internet, which have hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims worldwide, should be declared “intellectual terrorism”.

Link (Thanks, Michelle Malkin), here's a copy of the order posted by the BBC, and here is a related update on Malkin's blog. She adds, "The 12 banned blogs, via my friend Nordish, are.."

DrawMohammed.com
DrawMohammad.com
The Nordish Portal
Draw Mohammed Week
Mohammed drawings
Free Speech?
Plus + Ultra
Jesus and Mo
Zombie's Mohammed Image Archive
Dumb Religion
Wear the MohammedBomb
Drawchrist.com

Previously on BoingBoing:
Net censorship in Pakistan: blogspot banned