Pakistan Suspends Mobile Phone Service as Voters Head to Polls
- Measure aims to maintain law and order, interior ministry says
- Action comes less than 24 hours after bombs kill at least 20
Campaign posters hang over a street in Lahore on Feb. 2.
Photographer: Betsy Joles/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Pakistan suspended mobile phone services as voters lined up to cast ballots in its general election Thursday, defending the measure as a way to maintain order even though critics said it would curb vital access to information during the controversial polls.
The recent surge of terrorist incidents made it necessary to “shut down mobile services nationwide temporarily to maintain the law and order situation and tackle threats,” the interior ministry said in a statement. The move comes less than 24 hours after two bomb blasts targeting the offices of different political leaders killed at least 20 people in Pakistan’s northwest Balochistan province.