- Ex-PTI leader criticises Imran Riaz for urging others to join protests.
- MNA says such influencers spreading fake news about Imran Khan.
- “I don’t see any opposition coalition protest happening.”
Member of National Assembly (MNA) Sher Afzal Marwat has claimed that social media influencers backing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from abroad are primarily driven by financial gains, The News reported on Monday.
Speaking on a private news channel’s talk show on Sunday, Marwat criticised influencers such as Imran Riaz Khan for urging others to participate in protests while avoiding them themselves. He said that many of these influencers had now relocated overseas, where they were profiting in dollars by spreading false narratives on social media.
Marwat stated that such influencers had been disseminating fake news such as PTI founder Imran Khan was not getting food in jail or he was suffering from an ear infection to create unrest in the party; whereas, in reality, the incarcerated former prime minister was healthy.
He also criticised such elements for using abusive words and calling others Ghaddar (traitors). He said such abusive behaviour from social media activists had damaged the PTI.
Marwat said such influencers not only abused institutions but even PTI leaders were not safe from their offensive language. He lamented that PTI leaders like Ali Amin, Asad Qaiser, Shandana Gulzar and Ali Muhammad Khan had also become targets of their abuse.
Such abusive behaviour had become uncontrollable and now even the PTI founder was unable to correct it, the estranged leader remarked.
The firebrand lawmaker had been booted out of the former ruling party over repeated violations of party discipline over the directives of the jailed party founder.
When asked whether the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) would participate in the grand protest after Eid announced by the PTI, Marwat said he was not seeing any protest happening.
He conceded internal rifts within the PTI and added that leaders like him who could bravely lead the people and persuade them to take to the streets had been sidelined.
He said Ali Amin had to take care of many other things and added that he did not expect any protest from the leaders who were currently close to the PTI founder.
Imran Khan had last month issued directives to expedite “establishing contact with other opposition parties for protests after Eid” in order to form a grand opposition alliance, focused on certain objectives including restoration of the constitution and democracy.
The JUI-F, however, has recently conveyed its conditions and reservations to PTI about joining the opposition’s grand alliance. The sources have said that the JUI-F’s leadership has apprised Qaiser of conditions — some of which also pertain to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur — if it is to join the opposition’s alliance.
