Page 9 - Pakistan Link - March 22, 2024

PAKISTAN PAKISTAN LINK - MARCH 22, 2024 - P9

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new inte- Disruption of Social Media “The problem is there is no trans-
rior minister said Tuesday the country parency by the government,” said
needed better laws to regulate internet Sadaf Khan, an analyst for Pakistani
free speech, as disruption of social me- Platform X Stretches into Fifth Week campaign group Media Matters for
dia platform X stretched into its fifth Democracy.
week. “Twitter is being banned specifical-
Islamabad has declined to clearly on state TV. ly because it has emerged as a platform
say whether it is behind nationwide X, Facebook, Instagram and Tik- where political disclosure takes place,”
restrictions to the platform, formerly Tok were key planks in the election she told AFP.
known as Twitter, which have left it campaigning of jailed ex-prime min- Information minister Attaullah
rarely accessible since February 17. ister and popular opposition leader Tarar has given mixed signals over dis-
Pakistan’s polls earlier that month Imran Khan. ruption, telling one local media outlet
were marred by allegations of rigging, The former cricket star was barred it “is working” and another that it was
and the outages began after a senior from running and his Pakistan Teh- “already banned” when the new gov-
government official made a public ad- reek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was subject to ernment came to power.
mission of vote tampering. a sweeping crackdown of arrests and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif
“We need to make better laws,” censorship ahead of February 8 polls. -- who secured the office through a
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Most of their campaigning moved shaky coalition after Khan’s candidates
when asked whether his ministry was online, where it was shut down by nu- defied expectations to secure more
responsible for the X shutdown. merous social media blackouts which seats than any other party -- has fre-
“Expression is fine, but making Islamabad blamed on technical glitch- quently published statements on X.
false allegations against people is es. On Monday, he used the platform
wrong -- it’s happening and needs to Rigging claims were also fueled by X has been rarely accessible in Pakistan since February 17 - Kirill Kudryavtsev to congratulate Russian President
be fixed.” a nationwide mobile internet shut- Vladimir Putin for his re-election in a
“We must reassess our own laws down on polling day, which the care- ings killed 28 a day earlier. Lahore on Tuesday afternoon -- but poll slammed by independent observ-
and look into what is being misused,” taker government said was required X remained unavailable to AFP re- the site has been momentarily acces- ers and the West as the most corrupt
he told reporters in remarks broadcast for security reasons after twin bomb- porters in Islamabad, Peshawar and sible at times over the past five weeks. in post-Soviet history.

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office the cipher, PTI’s Barrister Gohar Khan
on Thursday said that concerns raised Poll Concerns Raised during Donald Lu Hearing termed them a “complete lie”. Speaking
over the Feb 8 general elections during to the media in Rawalpindi, he alleged
a US Congressional hearing “reflected a ‘Misunderstanding of Domestic Situation’ that the US diplomat “denied every-
a misunderstanding” of the country’s thing” about his meeting with Majeed.
domestic situation and electoral laws. Noting that it had been almost 20
The comments come a day after US The same document was the basis hours since the hearing, Gohar high-
Assistant Secretary of State Donald of ex-premier Imran Khan’s allegation lighted that there had been no state-
Lu told a Congressional panel that if of a US conspiracy to oust his gov- ment from Majeed on Lu’s testimony.
the Election Commission of Pakistan ernment in 2022. The PTI founder is He called for a “re-investigation” of the
(ECP) failed to investigate allegations currently on trial for mishandling the matter, adding that PTI founder Imran
of irregularities in the Feb 8 elections, same confidential document. Khan had “demanded it strongly”.
it will “retard” America’s relationship During the US Congressional hear- “We call on Asad Majeed to give his
with Pakistan. ing on Wednesday, Lu termed the al- statement and to reject what he said
Asked if the ECP’s failure to inves- legations against him by Imran — the that there was no meeting,” the PTI
tigate irregularities would impact US- crux of the ‘cablegate’ cipher contro- MNA said.
Pakistan relations, Lu had said it would versy — as a “conspiracy theory, lie and “A conspiracy was indeed carried
be an impediment to the relationship complete falsehood”. out against Pakistan, and a day later,
of 76 years if Pakistan did not have a When asked if the election results the no-confidence motion was moved,”
democratic process that upholds its would have been different if alleged Gohar said, echoing Imran’s stance on
own Constitution. irregularities were not committed, Lu the cipher.
“It will retard our ability to have the said that was for the ECP to decide. “In his statement, Asad Majeed says
type of relationship we want, in secu- said “some statements made there While noting that Pakistan respect- However, the diplomat agreed with the ‘I had a meeting and these were the
rity matters, on [the] business front (during the hearing) reflected [a] mis- ed the prerogative of legislative bod- suggestion that the ECP should hold contents’. [However,] Donald Lu says
and people to people. All that suffers understanding of Pakistan’s domestic ies to discuss international issues, she re-election if it found evidence of sub- that no such thing happened,” he said.
if Pakistan is not a full democracy,” the situation and electoral laws”. stressed that “the deliberations of these stantial rigging in some constituencies. “He (Lu) is denying everything,
diplomat had replied. According to state broadcaster legislative bodies should contribute “The US does not go around rec- which is why we are saying that if this
“We have never used the term ‘free Radio Pakistan, the spokesperson ex- [to] promoting positive dynamics in ognizing new governments,” he said, is the case, then Asad Majeed should
and fair’ in characterizing these elec- pressed the hope to “engage in mean- bilateral ties based on mutual respect when Congressman Greg Casar, a clarify this again,” the PTI chairman
tions,” Lu had said in response to a ingful discussion with the United States and understanding”. Texas Democrat, asked him if Wash- added.
question from Congressman August to address these misunderstandings”. It should be mentioned that Lu is ington recognizes the new government About Lu’s comments on the gen-
Pfluger, a Texas Republican. Zahra emphasized that Pakistan the diplomat whose supposed warning in Pakistan. The US administration, eral elections, Gohar highlighted that
Responding to a query during a valued its close relations with the US to former Pakistan Ambassador to the he said, works with the government in the diplomat said the US “never used
weekly media briefing, Foreign Office and believed in constructive engage- US Asad Majeed was the subject of a power. the words ‘free and fair’ for the elec-
spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch ment with it. cipher sent by the envoy to Islamabad. Commenting on Lu’s remarks about tions”. - Dawn

ISLAMABAD: Days after Pakistan ed to be sent that this [cross-border
struck militant bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan Does Not Want Armed Conflict terrorism] has grown too much.”
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said He added that Pakistan wanted to
that Islamabad does not want an armed With Afghanistan, Says Khawaja Asif convey to the Afghan interim govern-
conflict with the neighboring country. ment in Kabul that “we cannot con-
In an interview with the Voice of tinue like this”.
America published on Wednesday, Asif Afghanistan forces which used heavy Asif warned that Islamabad could
said, “Force is the last resort. We do not weapons, including mortars, to target block the corridor it provided to Af-
want to have an armed conflict with troops across the border in Kurram ghanistan for trade with India. The
Afghanistan.” and North Waziristan. defense minister asserted that Pakistan
On March 18, Pakistan struck Af- Tuesday remained relatively calmer had the right to stop facilitating Kabul
ghanistan’s Khost and Paktika provinc- as guns on both sides of the boundary if it failed to curb anti-Pakistan terror-
es in “intelligence-based anti-terrorist remained silent, barring the Angoor ists operating on Afghan soil.
operations”, which Afghan authorities Adda border. “If Afghanistan treats us like an en-
said killed eight people. Yesterday, Prime Minister Shehbaz emy, then why should we give them a
The Foreign Office had confirmed Sharif asserted that the government trade corridor?” he asked.
the strikes, saying they were aimed at would not tolerate any cross-border Recalling the February 2023 visit to
the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, which terrorism. He also invited “neighbor- Kabul by a high-level delegation led by
recently targeted security forces in ing countries” to “come and sit togeth- him, Asif said he had told the Taliban
North Waziristan, martyring seven er” to devise a plan against terrorism. ministers to not let banned militant
soldiers. Speaking about the Pakistani strike Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP)
The airstrikes were responded to by with VOA, Asif said: “A message need- (Continued on page 10)
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