The National Assembly was informed on Friday that PakistanTelecommunication Authority (PTA) is taking effective measures for removalor blocking of offensive content pertaining to religion and the integrityand defense of the country.

Responding to a question during the Question Hour in the House on Friday,Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said that PTAhas so far blocked around one million Uniform Resource Locators containingobjectionable content. He said promoting pornography, blackmailing womenand personal attacks cannot be tolerated. He said pornography andanti-Pakistan content should immediately be reported to PTA for blocking ofsuch material.

Ministry of Climate Change, in a written reply, informed the House thatthere are approximately ten thousand brick kilns in Pakistan out of which1286 have so far been converted to Zigzag technology. It also informed theHouse that State Bank of Pakistan has announced a subsidized loan at therate of 6 percent with a ten year payback period.

The House has now been adjourned to meet again on Monday at 5pm.