Tarar laments social media's fake news

Minister discloses Gwadar attacker named as missing person

ISLAMABAD:

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Monday regretted that content regulation seemed to be missing on social media which has become a source of fake news.

The minister remarks, during a news conference in Islamabad, comes as users continue to face disruption of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for over nearly a month.

The X website has been largely offline since February 17, with occasional service restorations, mainly after former commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Ali Chatta made a statement in front of the media claiming that the “elections were rigged”. On the other hand, a majority of users use VPNs to access the platform.

He said the Gwadar Port Authority was attacked and the responsibility for this attack was accepted by the Balochistan Liberation Army. The terrorist, Karim Jan, killed during the attack on the Gwadar Port Authority was included in the missing persons list, the minister added and said, when Karim Jan’s body was handed over to the heirs, it transpired that he was declared a missing person from August 2022.

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The minister said that it was very alarming that the BLA terrorist was involved in the Gwadar Port Authority attack, but the campaign was being conducted for two years by dubbing him as a missing person.

He said that these were very sensitive matters, adding that Gwadar was a commercial hub, part of CPEC, and an attack on it was an attack on the national economy.

To a query, the minister said the Punjab Governor had decided on the matter related to the fee of Ahad Cheema's children in accordance with the law.