Harnessing social media: Imran fields questions in live Facebook broadcast

Responds to thousands of queries from viewers around the world

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf [PTI] Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday introduced a new trend by employing the social media—live broadcast on Facebook, as a mode of interaction instead of conventional mediums.

During the interaction moderated by Faisal Javed which lasted for an hour, between 7pm to 8pm, Imran Khan responded to some thousands of questions bombarded on his official page by viewers from the world over.



The party had already disseminated the message of the broadcast a day before the address so that supporters and critics alike could tune in and listen to the PTI chief.

The address was unique in nature in Pakistani politics as leaders either address the masses in rallies or on TV. Imran praised the party’s social media team for the innovative idea.

There were a variety of posts/questions with some saying ‘hello’, some praising him, some criticizing his policies and others asking opportunity to meet. Viewers of live broadcast, on an average, were over 27000 and the broadcast had over 10,000 likes, over 2,000 shares while the overall number of views was more than 100, 000.

Khan concluded his address with a message of change saying “there would be a revolution in 2018 elections.”

To a question about his philosophy of life, Khan said “If you want to be happy then live for others.”

During the address, he did not miss the opportunity to once again raise allegations of rigging and justified party’s poor performance in the LG polls saying “we were fighting against state machinery … and there was pre-poll rigging.”

However, he said that the LG polls had helped his party identify its weaknesses which would be addressed before the next general elections.

Responding to a question regarding less attention to Rawalpindi, Karachi and Balochistan, Khan said that “first priority is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” because we have to perform and set example there. In addition, he said he would go to those places where the party has organizational structure and that it was not humanly possible to be everywhere.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th,  2015.