As Prime Minister Imran Khan delivered a fiery speech in Dargai and claimed victory against what he called were “three stooges” in the ongoing war on no-confidence-motion, social media, especially Twitter, reacted strongly and ran memes about the opposition leaders.
The tweeps ran campaigns and made different trends. Interestingly, all the main opposition parties which have ruled the country for years seemed quite far away from the social media campaigns supporting the ruling PTI. The PTI dissidents, who are supporting the opposition parties in the upcoming no-confidence-motion, also came under fire on social media, but mostly the target was the opposition.
From “#Zameer Barai Farookhat [consciousness for sale] to #CongratulationsPakistan and from #Stop politicalCrisis to “#ImranTereJannisar-beshumar, beshumar [Imran your lovers, they are countless in numbers], there were different debates on Twitter on the current political situation in the country.
People held discussions using videos and pictures – mostly of the opposition leaders, and gave them different names and titles. Though some of the debates were unethical, with the opposition leaders being abused, mostly they were interesting. It was not just the opposition parties that faced criticism on the social media but Prime Minister Imran Khan too faced criticism, with his memes being made and PTI targeted.
In a post, a user gave Prime Minister Imran Khan the title, “Sultan Ojaruddin Kashkoli” – a title in Urdu which could be translated as ‘The King of devastation with a begging bowl’. Unfortunately, this title was posted in a campaign on Twitter with a hashtag which ethically was wrong, although many opposition leaders were also discussed there under the same hashtag.
In another post, Prime Minister Imran Khan was targeted with his picture in which he could be seen tight-lipped, wearing black shades, with both hands up to his forehead, and with the caption: “Mein tu Heran hun apki kam aqli aur sadgi par, mein chorta gya aur ap mante gay,” [I’m amazed at your dumbness and simplicity for believing in my tall claims]. There was also a trend against PTI under the hashtag “PTI Leero Leer” in Punjabi, which means [PTI is torn apart].
But the criticism and jokes the opposition faced were unprecedented.
“#PDMMafiaexposed” was another trend that targeted the entire opposition parties. The PML-N, PPP and JUI-F and their like-minded parties seem to have failed to counter social media campaigns against them.
The criticism was so strong that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in his ‘serious’ press conference, tried to give a tough response to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s fiery speech in Dargai on Sunday. The words, expression and temperament of Bilawal Bhutto, while addressing the press conference as well as his counter narrative, was very strong but not as interesting for the social media audience.
Bilawal demanded that notice be taken of the PM’s social media team and the campaigns run by the ministers. “The PM is trying to make the institutions controversial,” he said while referring to the social media of the ruling PTI, which he accused of running “campaigns” and doing “propaganda”.
