PTI leaders, social media team face off over Shahid Afridi controversy

• PTI social media team bashes Afridi after old video goes viral. 
• Marwat asks social media team to say good things about Afridi.
• Ali says both Imran Khan, Shahid Afridi are national heroes. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Sher Afzal Marwat and Ali Muhammad Khan blamed their party's social media team for starting a propaganda campaign against former cricket captain Shahid Afridi.

The controversy started after an old video of Afridi circulated on X, formerly Twitter, during which he talked about the no-confidence motion against then-prime minister Imran Khan, his promises before coming to power in 2018 and his government's performance. 

Afridi made these comments when he was in London in 2022 to raise funds for his charitable organisation. 

After the video went viral, Imran Khan's supporters and social media team started criticising Afridi.

Marwat blames PTI social media team for propaganda

Marwat, taking the matter into account, blamed PTI's social media team for the propaganda, requesting them to say good things about Afridi.

"I personally confirm that the campaign against Shahid Afridi is false and irrelevant," said the PTI leader on X on March 23. 

"I know that Shahid Afridi holds Imran Khan in high regard and the propaganda against Shahid Afridi seems to be in the hands of those who want to settle a personal score with him."

In his latest tweet, Marwat said that he wants to "clarify that after watching Imran Riaz Khan v-logs and tweets and past statements of Shahid Afridi, I believe he was reckless at some points".

"Nevertheless, We must honour each other’s right of expression and ought to avoid heads on over petty issues," he added. 

Meanwhile, Ali Muhammad Khan said that both Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi are national heroes. 

"Shahid Afridi has always considered the PTI founder as a hero and has repeatedly stated that," said Ali, adding that if any statement made by Afridi is inappropriate then that would be his personal opinion. 

Mashwani asks Marwat to delete his tweet

PTI's social media activist Azhar Mashwani reacted to Marwat's statement on Afridi and social media team, saying that he should delete his tweet. 

Citing Marwat's statement about reacting to false propaganda from PTI's platform, Mashwani said that PTI's platform promotes Imran Khan's narrative, not propaganda.

Mashwani told Marwat if he has any complaint about party's internal matter then he has all kinds of forums to raise the issue. 

"Every other day you [Marwat] issue a statement on a party leader or an internal party issue which diverts the attention of our supporters on social media from important topics and groups with different views start fighting each other," he added. 

'Imran Khan was my idol': Afridi

On the other hand, Afridi, while speaking about the criticism, said that it has become difficult to differentiate between truth and lies. 

"The difference between a journalist and troll is that the former investigates as slandering someone is the easiest thing to do," said the former cricketer. 

"I stand by my words that Imran Khan was my role model and I started playing cricket because of him, otherwise, I would not have become a cricketer. My narrative will not change because of lies and propaganda and neither it will serve the PTI or Imran Khan," he wrote while posting journalist Imran Riaz's tweet.