Pakistan’s new leadership rushing to gain control of govt digital media

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The new leadership of Shehbaz Sharif in Pakistan is rushing to gain control of the government’s digital media after the ouster of Imran Khan.

The social media team of former Prime Minister Imran Khan has archived the official Twitter account of the Prime Minister’s Office and the bureaucracy and political leadership of the new government are rushing to take charge of the official digital assets, which are being used full-throttle in this era of technology against opponents as well as to propagate agenda of those in power, reported Dawn.

A new Twitter account has been created for the incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif after the previous one was archived as social media platforms have emerged as the new battleground for the new government and the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)-led administration.

Soon after taking charge, the new administration has ordered the suspension of all activities of the government’s Digital Media Wing (DMW), including its website, and its employees have been directed not to come to work anymore, reported Dawn.

As soon as Shehbaz Sharif took over, the official Twitter account of the Prime Minister’s Office, @PakPMO, was archived, and the PML-N social media team created a new account for Mr Sharif, @PMO_Pk.

Created in 2018, @PakPMO was the first official social media account of any prime minister of Pakistan.

While it was a useful and modern means of direct communication between the government and the public, archiving a verified account was a political decision of the PTI leadership.

This is contrary to the practice adopted by various institutions where the verified accounts continue to operate as usual, regardless of who’s in office, reported Dawn.

Meanwhile, the officials who archived the account defended their decision, claiming it was an international practice.

“This is done even in the US. And the official account is archived, not deleted, to protect the data on it, as there are chances the new handlers of the account may delete its history,” said Imran Ghazali, former general manager of the DMW.

The DMW was set up in 2018 to work as a strategic unit of the government to effectively counter fake/libellous news and highlight the development agenda of the then government.

It was responsible for curating the digital content for official social media assets of the government on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

The DMW was a reincarnation of the Social Media Wing of the Press Information Department (PID), but all the employees of DMW belonged to the private sector.

Soon after Shehbaz Sharif took office earlier this month, the head of DMW, Ghazali, quit.

While the GM and another senior official of the DMW have resigned, and another post remains vacant, the contracts of the remaining 20 employees of the wing were valid up to August. (ANI)