PTI to move high courts over ‘harassment’ of its activists

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Tuesday decided to move high courts over alleged harassment of its social media activists across the country in the wake of protests and trending online campaigns related to Imran Khan’s ouster.

The party’s central secretary general, Asad Umar, announced on Twitter that a petition has been drafted in this regard which will be filed in the high courts today.

The development comes amid a barrage of social media posts and accounts peddling rumours about the military in the wake of the ouster of the Imran Khan-led government through joint opposition efforts, prompting arrests of several of them.

Earlier on Tuesday, Azhar Mashwani, the former focal person for digital media in Punjab, had urged the party leadership to move the courts against the alleged harassment of PTI social media volunteers by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The residence of former prime minister Imran Khan’s focal person on digital media Arslan Khalid was also raided by unidentified persons hours after the party was ousted in the wee hours of Sunday.

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The PTI had taken to their official Twitter handle to announce the “extremely disturbing news”, claiming that Khalid’s home was raided and that his family’s mobile phones were taken away. It maintained that Khalid had “never abused anyone on social media and never attacked any institutions”.

FIA arrests

The FIA earlier on Tuesday also swung into action against an ongoing smear campaign against army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and arrested five suspects, including a political activist.

Meanwhile, the director-general of the FIA was informed that at least 2,000 accounts were involved in a smear campaign against the army and its chief.

In other news, the country's top military brass also took notice of the recent propaganda campaign by some quarters to malign Pakistan Army and create division between the institution and society, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Tuesday.

"National security of Pakistan is sacrosanct. Pakistan Army has always stood by the state institutions to guard it and always will, without any compromise," the ISPR statement said.