PTI leadership becomes hostage to its social media, select group of diaspora

• Few top PTI leaders contacted party's US chapter to stop propaganda.
• PTI supporters arranged protests in US during army chief's last visit.
• Party leaders fearful of their aggressive followers rather than law enforcers.
  

ISLAMABAD: Top leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has become hostage to the party's social media and select groups of its supporters among the diaspora, who the leadership agrees are aggravating problems for the party and its jailed founder chairman but they are unstoppable.

Following the recent PTI march to Islamabad, campaigns have been launched against the Pakistan Army and its chief on social media and on-road screens in some US cities. Some top party leaders have contacted PTI's US chapter to stop the propaganda, but their requests have fallen on deaf ears.

On condition of not being named, a key PTI leader said that they are hesitant to issue public statements against this anti-army propaganda because of fears that they would be dubbed "ghaddar (traitor)" and trolled by the party's social media. 

What is unbelievable is that even the PTI's official social media is controlled from abroad and is not under the control of even the party's incumbent Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, and Information Secretary Waqas Akram Shaikh.

Background interactions with different senior PTI leaders show that the party's leadership is under tremendous pressure from its social media and some select groups of diaspora supporters that they (the leaders) avoid speaking in public about anything negating the propaganda, even if it is untrue or exaggerated.

According to a party insider, during the army chief's last visit to the US, some protests were arranged by the PTI supporters there. A PTI leader from Pakistan contacted the party's US chapter to stop them as they were not considered in the interest of Pakistan.

Another senior party leader said that the PTI leaders have no fear of agencies or law enforcers but of their aggressive followers and social media activists. While referring to the recent PTI's march to Islamabad, a source said that the KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur appeared to be a hostage to the hostile crowd he was apparently leading.

The source added that after Bushra Bibi repeatedly addressed the rally and resolved to march to D-Chowk Islamabad, Gandapur was totally helpless and knew that the charged crowd would not allow him to take a different stance. Gandapur and other top key party leaders were inclined to stop the march at Sangjani.

During the recent background contacts between the government and the PTI, a party leader asked this correspondent not to mention the names of those in contact with the government for an amicable solution otherwise they and their houses may be attacked by the party's aggressive followers.

Information Secretary Shaikh, when approached, said that those running on-road screen campaigns in the US against the army and its chief are doing it on their own and there is neither such policy nor any direction from the PTI. He said that those involved in these malicious campaigns are also not listening to us (PTI leadership).

Regarding the PTI social media, he said that the party does not have any paid social media. It comprises volunteers, supporters, and voters of the party. He said that most of these social media activists are young and act according to their own will and wishes. 

"They are not controlled by us," he said, adding that social media is even otherwise not in control of anyone. Regarding the PTI's official social media platforms, Shaikh said that these platforms are managed by PTI men, some of them are in Pakistan, and others are operating from abroad.

Originally published in The News