Pakistan lifted a ban on Facebook on Monday after officials from the social networking site apologised for a page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents, a top information technology official said. The move came almost two weeks after Pakistan imposed the ban amid anger over a page that encouraged users to post images of Prophet Mohammed. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favourable ones, as blasphemous.
“In response to our protest, Facebook has tendered their apology and informed us that all the sacrilegious material has been removed from the URL,” said Najibullah Malik, secretary of Pakistan’s information technology ministry, referring to the technical term for a Web page.
Facebook assured the Pakistani government that “nothing of this sort will happen in the future,” Mr Malik said.
Officials from the website could not be reached for comment. They said earlier the contents of the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” page did not violate Facebook’s terms. The page encouraged users to post images of the Prophet to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of the American TV series South Park for depicting Moha-mmed in an inappropriate manner. Pakistan blocked Facebook on May 19 following a ruling by one of the country’s highest courts. The Lahore high court reversed its ruling because of Facebook’s response, Mr Malik said.