Thursday, 12 August, 2021 I 3 Muharram, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 43 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
IndIan, afghan socIal medIa accounts used to malIgn PakIstan: nsa
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ational Security adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said on Wednesday that a well-coordinated and calibrated social media campaign flaring anti-state trends on micro-blogging website twitter was hatched to malign Pakistan in the prevailing tumultuous situation of afghanistan. addressing a media conference alongside Federal Minister for information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, the nSa launched a special analytical report prepared by islamabad Policy Research institute titled “Disinformation and Propaganda Campaign to Sabotage afghan Peace Process” which critically deciphered the hashtags propagated to harm Pakistan’s image at the regional and global level. Dr Moeed said Pakistan had presented a dossier to highlight its clandestine strides to damage Pakistan’s interest. the world, however, turned a blind eye to indian terror-
ist activities against Pakistan as the dossier was sent to the states all over the world and the comity of nations expressed lull over it. He said Pakistan was meticulously focusing the situation in afghanistan and the think tanks under the national Security Division had worked tremendously to unearth the propaganda campaign on twitter. the nSa underscored that many indian and afghan accounts on twitter ran a fullfledged campaign against Pakistan and mobilised anti-state trends to damage its role in the region. “#SanctionPakistan trend on twitter has gained huge momentum that created massive hype on the media. it has been perpetrated to attribute afghan leadership’s failure on its soil with Pakistan,” Dr Moeed mentioned. He added that senior afghan officials were involved whereas some of them were exposed during the campaign. the nSa elucidated the entire propa-
coronavIrus In
PakIstan
CONFIRMED CASES:
1,080,360
LAST UPDATED AT 9:46 AM ON AUGUST 11, 2021
DAY'S DEATH TOLL:
NEW CASES:
81
4,856
RECOVERED:
DEATHS:
972,098 24,085 SINDH:
PUNJAB:
403,964
367,054
KPK:
BALOCHISTAN:
149,532 AJK/GB: 27,899/8,941
31,298 ISLAMABAD:
91,672
ganda campaign as a thematic contourbased of five themes namely, discredit Pakistani government especially its army, give air to subnational movements that have no mass on the ground both Pashtun and Baloch, direct targeting of China Pakistan Economic Corridor, get Pakistan on the blacklist of Financial action task Force and point all blame on Pakistan for chaos in afghanistan. He underlined that during the entire campaign 30-40 percent Bot activities (Robotic activity for generating content on social media) were involved in generating anti-Pakistan trends. “afghan and indian official state accounts have been taking part in the propaganda campaign through synchronized planning,” he added. Yusuf said a “targeted, deliberate and conscious” disinformation campaign was being constantly run by accounts in india and afghanistan, some of which were linked to the state apparatus, in order to defame Pakistan in the international arena. “i must remind you that Pakistan is a victim of the war in afghanistan. We suffered more than 80,000 casualties with $150 billion loss in economy, therefore, stop blaming the victim,” he added. the nSa emphasised that the actual failures were in the 20 years of what happened in afghanistan. “this [propaganda] will not work because the kind of data we are showing you through forensics is irrefutable,” he said. He added that many in positions of power at the global level were busy trying to shift the blame and create fake news about Pakistan, “but we will respond to it through data analysis”. He also urged Pakistanis not to believe everything on social media, asking them to check and verify if they saw a trend going in a particular direction. News Desk
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PDM rejects electoral reforms, criticises govt for rising inflation ISLAMABAD staff report
the Pakistan Democratic Movement, an alliance of anti-government parties, has met once more after about two months of hiatus, wherein members of the opposition discussed strategies against the ruling Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf and how to ensure transparency within the elections. Jamiat Ulema-e-islam-Fazl and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the opposition alliance had decided to focus “all its attention and energies” on ensuring that transparent elections were held in the country. He asserted that electronic voting machine were the “simplest way to rig elections” as the alliance rejected the government’s “unilateral” electoral reforms and azad Jammu and Kashmir’s election results. “We believe that the public has the right to select its representatives and will not allow it to be stolen in any way. We believe that an election-thieving, selected government is imposed on the country. We reject any kind of electoral reforms and legislation (by them).” Rehman said the PDM also believed that the national accountability Bureau and the
‘Discrepancies’ in UK decision to keep Pakistan on red list: Dr Faisal ISLAMABAD staff report
Pakistan has reminded the United Kingdom it forcefully acted to eliminate Covid-19 transmission and fared far better over the duration of the pandemic than its regional counterparts, following the uproar over the latter’s decision to retain the former on its red list of countries from which almost all travel is banned. Pakistan, which reported its first confirmed cases of the contagious disease in February last year, experienced far fewer deaths, faster economic recovery and the preservation of a greater range of personal liberties as it fought to keep the threat at bay while avoiding stricter restrictions to keep the economy afloat. Pakistan was placed on the red list along with the Philippines, Kenya, and Bangladesh in april. Days later, india was also put on the list. During the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also postponed his scheduled trip to india for an indefinite period. over the weekend, london updated the ranking of Bahrain, Qatar, the United arab
Federal investigation agency have become “political organisations and lost their independence and objectivity” and were being used to take “political revenge” from the opposition. Condemning the inflation within the country, the JUi-F chief said that the Pti’s “broken records of inflation, unemployment and oppression” had made life impossible for the ordinary citizen. Fazl said the government has “bled the people dry” with historic inflation and unemployment, in its bid to meet the conditions of the international Monetary Fund. “We reject each and every electoral reform put forward by this selected government, and we believe that naB and Fia have become political institutions, who have lost their standing, as they are being used against the opposition,” he said. the PDM demands cases registered by the Fia against journalists be taken back, he said, adding that the government employs such tactics to gag the press. “Freedom of expression has been throttled. Worst dictatorial [and] black-handed tactics have been imposed on the media.
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more inside
Nawaz can’t return home due to health, coronavirus issues, LHC told STORY ON BACK PAGE
3 more provincial capitals fall to taliban: afghan officials STORY ON BACK PAGE Emirates and india, despite it displaying a worrying trend of Covid-19 pattern, moving it to its amber list: one pre-departure test, plus quarantine at home for 10 days on return in England for its nationals. Conspicuously absent from the list was Pakistan, a development that garnered heavy criticism from MPs and ministers — both in Pakistan and the UK. Commenting on the move, Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari accused london of “showing clear political proclivity towards india”. Responding to the devel-
opment through a letter, Minister of State for national Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan told his British counterpart, Sajid Javid, london’s decision to keep islamabad on the red list was received “with dismay” in Pakistan. Shared by Mazari on twitter Wednesday, the letter suggested that in order to reduce the health risk associated with travel during the crisis, England may shift attention towards “interventions focused directly on traveller, rather than on other metrics”.
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Electronic voting only way to prevent rigging: Faraz STORY ON PAGE 02
Pak-afghan border at Chaman reopened after 5 days STORY ON PAGE 03