Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Omar Ayub on Monday claimed the narrative of “digital terrorism” voiced by the military spokesman was a means to undermine the party and sideline it from the political process.
Earlier, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told a press conference in Rawalpindi that the nation must unite against militants and digital terrorists. “Digital terrorism is being done on social media. The Army is standing up against terrorists and digital terrorists. The time has come for the entire nation to stand up against them,” he said, without singling out any entity or group. The presser followed the arrest of PTI’s Raoof Hasan by Islamabad Police for allegedly running a digital media cell propagating anti-state narratives.
In a press conference convened in response to the ISPR chief’s press conference, Ayub condemned Hasan’s arrest and vowed to exercise all available means to secure his release. Flanked by PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan and party leader Asad Qaiser, he said police had seized all records from the PTI’s secretariat. Hoping courts would soon release Hasan over lack of evidence, he questioned why the PTI had not been provided a FIR on the party spokesman’s arrest.
Describing Hasan’s arrest as an act of “desperation” of the government, he claimed it was aimed at preventing the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict on reserved seats.
Gohar, meanwhile, criticized the government for not taking Parliament into confidence over Vision Azm-e-Istehkam. He also alleged that efforts were underway to dent the PTI’s presence in Parliament, claiming several PTI lawmakers had gone “missing” since the Supreme Court issued its short order in the reserved seats case. He alleged that the police had confiscated all affidavits of PTI’s MNAs and MPAs regarding their affiliation with the party during the raid on the PTI’s Central Secretariat. “We believe this raid was aimed at preventing the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict,” he alleged.
The PTI chief also confirmed that police did not arrest him and he had stayed with Hasan after the latter’s arrest owing to his ill health. He said police had asked him to leave as there was no case against him.