RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor, Thursday reportedly forwarded a list of over 250 social media accounts using the names of Pakistan’s armed forces to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for a crackdown against them.

There are a number of accounts on the internet, supposedly belonging to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Javed Qamar Bajwa and Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen Naveed Mukhtar and other senior officers like Lt-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa.

These accounts being operated by unauthorized persons and individuals who have assumed the role of speaking on behalf of armed forces, are gaining attention on social media while giving misleading impression that statements posted from these accounts are the official statements of the armed forces.

The FIA has, in turn, notified the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) regarding the accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube impersonating them to be operating on behalf of the armed forces while using the names of the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy.

The steps taken by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) against over 250 accounts including 45 Twitter accounts, 94 Facebook pages, 101 Youtube accounts and 15 Instagram accounts, has quashed the criticism from certain quarters that are assumed statements on the said accounts to be the official statements of Armed Forces. The sources in the PTA, however, claimed, “Whenever PTA receives any such complaint, it takes it up with the relevant organisation for an appropriate action against it, as per procedure.”