November 21, 2012:
Pakistani telecommunications companies have been ordered to ban the use of encryption (including that used in VPNs) and monitor all telephone and Internet traffic crossing the border. This is to begin early next year. The main reason for this new policy is the need to keep obscene or blasphemous (to Islam) material out of Pakistan. The ISI (intelligence agency) would also have an easier time spying on people but the order mentioned blasphemy and obscenity, not espionage, as the main reason for the new policy. As with similar orders in the past, this one is expected to be largely ignored or circumvented.