BlackBerry will exit Pakistan on 30 December following an earlier government ruling which cited security concerns, although the company argued that its real motivation is its commitment to user privacy.

“The Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message. But BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive. As we have said many times, we do not support ‘back doors’ granting open access to our customers’ information and have never done this anywhere in the world,” wrote Marty Beard, the company’s COO, in a blog post.

“While we regret leaving this important market and our valued customers there, remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users’ privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make,” he added.

The executive added that while the company is willing to help investigate criminal activity, it will not give governments an all-access pass to customer information.

Although the government’s directive was aimed only at BES services, BlackBerry said it decided to exit the market completely.

The ministry of interior directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block BlackBerry’s secure Enterprise Services after 30 November, it was first reported in July.

The government has since then extended the deadline to 30 December and BlackBerry said it will delay its exit accordingly.

There are around 5,000 BES enterprise customers in Pakistan, Bloomberg quoted a local newspaper as reporting.

Back in 2010, BlackBerry’s encrypted services faced possible bans in at least five countries, including India and the UAE, unless the company complied with similar requests.

In India’s case, security officials pressed the company for a decryption solution for its corporate emails and messenger services.