Banking On Bilawal

Yesterday, twitter outrage got new fillip thanks to Pakistan banning twitter on Sunday. Mohammad Younis Khan, Pakistan Telecom Authority’s spokesman told AFP that, “The website has been banned by Ministry of Information Technology and the decision was conveyed to us. There was blasphemous material on Twitter”. The PTA taking umbrage at this refusal to cooperate by the gods-that-be at twitter instantly and imperiously announced that twitter would be blocked permanently.

While everyone on twitter immediately took up arms and cudgels against Pakistan’s authoritarian ways, they should have held their horses because there was no way the twitter ban would last too long. Not for any reason other than because the President almighty’s little beta, Bilawal Bhutto would be deprived of his favourite pastime while accompanying papa around the world – tweeting. Furiously. With incorrect grammar. And incomplete thoughts.

Thanks to this diktat, we were resigning ourselves to a life on twitter without gems by @BBhuttoZardari such as “AOA India Peace be with you. I have just landed in Delhi. 1st ever visit,” when he visited India (read our piece – http://www.newslaundry.com/2012/04/aoa-lol-rofl/), followed by “Would much rather invest in healthcare so we can heal each weather”. You know what the poor dear meant. Heart in the right place, but not too savvy with proof-reading. Or the random, “Main baghi hoon” on Dec 27, 2011 and the more recent and almost Nostradamus prediction, “Beware! If anyone dare oppress a member of a minority or has usurped his or her rights, tortured, or took away something forcibly I will fight on behalf of the minority against the Muslim on the day of Judgment”.

And fight he did, we are assuming. Because miraculously last evening, the PTA stopped being outraged by twitter’s anti-Islamic behaviour and within 8 hours of announcing it, they had lifted the ban.

The announcement was made by Gilani’s daughter and the government’s goodwill ambassador for women’s empowerment, @FizaBatoolGilan who tweeted, “The Prime Minister has ordered the IT Minister to restore Twitter service in Pakistan”. Instead of claiming that public pressure is the reason for the change of heart, we think the twitterati should thank Papa Zardari and Beta Bhutto for their good work. Both of whom though, have maintained an unnatural silence on the matter. ROFL-LOL-WTG, Bilawal. (That’s Way To Go, for you abbreviation virgins.)