‘Criminal ring’ led by Imran behind anti-state smear campaign: Maryam

PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz has claimed that PTI’s “criminal ring” led by former prime minister Imran Khan was running a smear campaign on social media against the state institutions after his ouster from the power earlier this month.

In a series of tweets, the ruling party leader said the malicious campaign and “lies” about foreign conspiracy were spread by a handful of people employing hundreds of fake accounts and bots.

“Another IK [Imran Khan] lie exposed, another Conspiracy unveiled. Turns out that the slander campaigns against State institutions & lies about international conspiracy were churned out & spread by no more than a handful of people employing hundreds of fake accounts & BOTS,” she wrote on her official Twitter handle.

“All of this was led by IK himself. We have tracked down the criminal ring from PTI. More facts will surface in the coming days. No lie will save you Now ! InshaAllah,” she added.

Moreover, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said on the microblogging website, Twitter, identified PTI’s bot army and marked their fake trends as spam.

“PTI’s bots are still constantly spamming the digital space while making changes to the words and spreading misinformation. Pakistani people aren’t fools who’d buy in to these lies,” she added.

Last week, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) swung into action and launched a crackdown against an ongoing smear campaign and detained five suspects, including a political activist.

The arrests were made during several raids carried out in Lahore, Multan, Karachi, Islamabad and Rawalpindi by the cybercrime wing of the federal agency.

The crackdown was prompted by an online campaign against state institutions, including the chief justice of Pakistan and the army chief, following the dismissal of the PTI government.