Anything she tweets goes viral on social media immediately – means the objective is achieved in no time. But this is what caused her huge embarrassment on Friday.
The Express Tribune published a report, “Pakistan’s budget has lost credibility: World Bank” in its Friday’s edition.
Maryam shared the report on her Twitter handle with a tweet in Urdu, “The real performance of incompetent and incapable [govt]”.
The tweet immediately went viral on the microblogging site as it was retweeted by thousands of her followers and sympathisers.
It is understood that neither Maryam nor any of her followers had read the story as they shared it on Twitter believing the World Bank report was about the “dismal” performance of the economic team of the ruling PTI.
However, that wasn’t the case. The report was based on what the global lender says “an objective assessment of Pakistan’s public finance management system and its budgets from fiscal year 2015-16 to 2017-18”.
Meaning the report was a critique on the economic policies of the PML-N government, led by now jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
PTI Senator Faisal Javed Khan ‘thanked’ Maryam for “highlighting their [PML-N’s] worst performance ever in the history of Pakistan”.
Welldone!!! We must appreciate @MaryamNSharif for bringing it up and exposing them. Please keep on highlighting their worst performance ever in the history of Pakistan. It takes courage to tell the truth. Hats off to you. #Brilliant https://t.co/nZHyitUTRP
— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) July 26, 2019
Thanks for sharing this. Really appreciate it. We have been saying this for long and finally you agreed. Please keep on highlighting their worst performance ever in the history of Pakistan. https://t.co/ngQAGPPOvp
— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) July 26, 2019
After realising the faux pas, Maryam deleted the tweet from her Twitter handle after almost four hours – but not before discerning users had already saved screenshots of her tweet.
Maryam Nawaz and Hina Butt tweets deleted after 5 and 3 hours. Link to story they'd shared images of: https://t.co/xriVuqZjqO pic.twitter.com/326ZNe2Kjh
— ∞̵̡̞̙̬͔̞͓̯̗̫̮̰̹̝̓̒̃͊̇̈́͝ (@spopalzai) July 26, 2019
Senator Faisal poked fun at Maryam for deleting the tweet, saying “No need to delete the tweet. You did the right thing and you should be proud of it for telling the truth. People loved it and praised you.”
Please don't be ashamed of what you did. No need to delete the tweet. You did the right thing and you should be proud of it for telling the truth. People loved it and praised you. May ALLAH always give us strength and courage to speak the truth. pic.twitter.com/dN7KFmK5DK
— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) July 26, 2019
Hundreds of PTI supporters and leaders used Maryam’s faux pas to heap criticism on the PML-N with Punjab minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chauhan saying that the PML-N has Maryam’s obsession with Twitter to blame for the sorry state of the party.
Takeaway from this episode: Read before you tweet or retweet.
[/fbvideo]
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ