Pakistan’s current political crisis has affected the nation in multiple ways, but at the same time, astonishingly it has awakened the civil society, which was ignorant of the many evils that have consumed this fragile nation. Surprisingly social media has empowered this nation beyond the realm of possibilities and voices of the unheard have started making a dent in political state of affairs at large.
Recently, ARY and Dawn news have been spreading false information, which was obtained by non-credible sources, but propagated with immense confidence at the same time. Twitter users started bashing the above-mentioned news channels for spreading non-credible information without any proof of its validity, which lead to the tarnishing of Pakistan’s image, and also deflated the prestigious position of the armed forces.
The current political crisis aided with its ‘Inqilabi’ and ‘Azadi’ supporters has brought about a new wave of social media awareness in Pakistan. I believe this is the second phase of technological empowerment through social media after the 2013 elections, which has made the civil society of Pakistan more active and vocal about their opinions. The constitution of Pakistan guarantees the fundamental human right of freedom of expression but the true depiction of this freedom comes to life when we see the various trends on social media but the root of the problem lies in its effectiveness as a dominating revival force or is it just restricted to ‘enlightened’ political ranting to get a greater number of followers.
The ‘Twitterati of Pakistan’ started unleashing their ferocious echoes through Twitter by voicing their opinions against the spreading of false rumours by the media, ARY in particular because it had the magnitude to further intensify the ongoing political crisis. Challenging the status quo in Pakistan can prove to be a very dangerous task even if you are just voicing your conflicting opinion but times have been seeing paradigm shifts rising within the social media arena.
Twitter users took aim at Pakistani broadcasters Dawn News and ARY for spreading rumours. Dawn News erroneously reported that Army Chief Raheel Sharif asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (no relation) to step down. Meanwhile, ARY News falsely reported that a planned parliamentary meeting will demand the resignation of the Army Chief. #Pakistan‘s military quickly denied the reports.
Twitter users targeted Pakistani broadcasters ARY and DAWN news for arousing the general population of Pakistan’s interest and later criticism when they ‘erroneously reported’ the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif had demanded the resignation of the serving Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif.
Some humourous criticism of this amusing absurdity. You can also search using the hashtag #BanARY.
Nadeem Farooq Paracha
