KARACHI: After rumours of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) imposing a ban on porn sites in the country, a new PTA letter floating online orders the imposition of a “system” to ban select words in mobile SMS messages.

A set of two extensive lists in English and Urdu have allegedly been compiled by the PTA. The list of English words crosses the 1,000 figure, while the Urdu list contains over 550 words.

A scan of the letter (dated November 14, 2011) sent from Muhammad Talib Doger, Director General (Services) PTA, states that the filtering of content through SMS must be considered under the scope of “Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009″ and the SOPs laid down to control spamming. The letter is written with reference to a meeting held with mobile phone operators on October 18, 2011 in Islamabad.

PTA has ordered the implementation of the system within seven days of the issuance of the said letter. All operators have been asked to submit a monthly report to PTA regarding the number of blocked text messages.

“Spamming” has been defined as:

The transmission of harmful, fraudulent, misleading, illegal or unsolicited messages in bulk to any person without express permission of the recipient, or causing any electronic system to show any such message or is being involved in falsified online user account registration or falsified domain name registration for commercial purpose.

Download Complete Words List:

English: Click to Download PTA Banned English Words List
Urdu: Click to Download PTA Banned Urdu Words List

PTA SMS Spam Words List