Himalayan News Service

Islamabad, July 3:

Pakistan yesterday requested India to link it to the worldwide web, five days after its Internet links with most parts of the world were cut off. “We have asked India to link Pakistan with the international web,” a spokesman for Pakistan Telecommunication Corp Ltd (PTCL) said. The response from India was awaited, he added. Asked how long it would take to connect Pakistan through India, the official said, “Not more than a few hours.” Pakistan’s Internet links were snapped on Tuesday due to a fault in an undersea optic fibre cable. Pakistan has sought international help to rectify the fault but has yet not succeeded. Bad weather has further delayed the arrival of a ship at Karachi from Dubai to repair the cable, which is Pakistan’s sole Internet link with the rest of the world, excepting the satellite links PTCL recently acquired, sources said.

They said 40 and 50 per cent of the cable had been damaged and it could take days to detect and remove the faults. Eighty per cent of Pakistan’s Internet users have been facing connectivity problems since last Tuesday. Twenty per cent have been able to connect through satellite links. “Since many big Internet Service Providers have shifted to satellites these days, these links are also getting choked,” Habib Ahmed, of the private Shoa.com said. PTCL spokesman Ansar Bhatti said the country’s Internet system had improved somewhat after it was linked via satellite. He said the immediate laying of another submarine optic fibre cable, SEA-ME-WE-4, was a priority since it would provide an alternative system to the SEA-ME-WE-3 line. Bhatti attributed the delay in the arrival of the repair ship to the lack of insurance cover, because of which it could not sail in rain or bad weather. PTCL officials are still in the dark about the reasons for the fault, which could be known only after the repair ship arrived since it would be bringing technicians from the company that had laid the cable.