In response to mudslinging against all powerful institutions, the Pakistan Army has issued stern warnings to social media activists, journalists and others.
The Pakistan army has taken “strong exception” to the mud being thrown at them relentlessly.
Hashtags against the Pakistan army generated over 69,000 tweets and a similar one over 410,000 tweets and in total there were 17 million tweets against Imran’s critics, the Islam Khabar reported citing Twitter statistics.
By May 6, the number of such tweets, such as “Imported Hukumat na Manzoor”, trended in 20 countries numbered 126,607,905.
Pakistan military on Sunday warned politicians and journalists against dragging the armed forces in ongoing political discourse in the country.
In a rare statement, the media wing of the Pakistan military said “unsubstantiated, defamatory and provocative statements” were extremely damaging.
“Recently there has been intensified and deliberate attempts to drag Pakistan Armed Forces and their leadership in ongoing political discourse in the country,” said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement.
“These attempts are manifest through direct, insinuated or nuanced references to Armed Forces as well as their senior leadership, made by some political leaders, a few journalists and analysts on public forums and various communication platforms including social media,” the ISPR added.
According to the Pakistan military, this practice of unsubstantiated, defamatory and provocative statements/remarks is extremely damaging.
A day after the Pakistan army’s statement, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on Monday warned TV channels against airing content against the country’s armed forces and judiciary.
The media watchdog said that legal action under the relevant laws would be pursued in case of any violation by the private electronic media, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
“It has been observed that a few satellite TV channels are airing content which tantamount to casting aspersions against state institutions i.e. armed forces and judiciary,” the regulatory authority said in its directives posted on its Twitter handle.
“Airing such content violated PEMRA rules, provisions of the PEMRA Electronic Media (Programmes and Advertisement) Code of Conduct 2015 and the principles laid down by the superior courts,” it added.
