Islamabad: Most Pakistanis may be crying

foul over their country being nicknamed "Pornistan" following

media reports that it topped the list of porn searches on

Google but a few admit to watching porn.

"Yes. I have watched (and accessed) porn websites," an

old bearded man confessed to DawnNews, which did a special

report on Internet search trends in Pakistan.

Even as the others grinned at the old man`s admission,

he said: "Perhaps they (Google) may be right. What`s wrong

with it? If I have watched it, then people like you may

definitely have done much more... If people make porn

websites, they make them to be watched".

According to a FoxNews report that quoted Google

Trends and Google Insights, Pakistan tops searches per-person

for various forms of sex.

After speaking to people in Islamabad, Lahore,

Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, DawnNews concluded that there

may be "inaccuracies in Google Trends" and yet the trends are

not altogether inaccurate.

While most Internet surfers denied surfing cyberspace

for porn or sex on camera, they were quite vocal once the

camera was switched off.

"Surprisingly some of those who denied ever having

searched for sex or searched for a porn website, admitted to

their preference for internet browsing once the camera was

switched off," the channel`s reporter noted.

The Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan

has contested the findings of Google Trends, saying not a

single porn site features in the list of the top 40 Pakistani

and international websites visited most often by residents of

the country.

"There are 1.5 to 1.8 billion Internet users worldwide

and Pakistan has only five to eight million Internet users, or

less than 0.5 per cent of global users, and Internet

penetration is less than five per cent of total population,"

said Wahaj-us-Siraj, spokesman for the Internet Service

Providers Association.

While some Pakistanis are in denial mode, others have

reconciled with the findings.

"Why should Pakistanis in Pakistan feel ashamed of

these findings, and try to deny them? By all reasoning, they

are quite likely to be true, since the Pakistani society is

definitely sexually suppressed, and people`s curiosity will

lead them to Google searches," wrote a Pakistani blogger.

"There is very little education there, so they are

unlikely to do scholarly searches. We should learn to face up

to our shortcomings, and reality," the blogger added.

An overseas Pakistani blogger wrote that she was

"disgusted (and horrified) that we (Pakistanis) are prominent

on yet another negative list".

The blogger said: "I`m not that surprised... we have

perverts, just like every other country in the world...

There`s a reason why Internet cafes in Pakistan are filled to

the brim with seedy characters, and it`s not because they`re

just checking e-mail...”

Another blogger concluded that the "Pornistan play up"

in newspapers was yet another way to come up with more

profitable and viable business models in the face of a

changing business and technological landscape.

Asked by DawnNews about Pakistanis watching porn,

parliamentarian Palwasha Khan said she had bigger issues to

tackle.

"The parliament is a floor where much bigger issues

take dominance," she said.

PTI