Panic grips government’s camp

PM calls for countering PTI influence via effective media strategy

ISLAMABAD:

Back-to-back legal victories for PTI founder Imran Khan have jolted the ruling coalition to the extent that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday not only sought its allies’ opinion on the political situation in the wake of Supreme Court’s ruling in the reserved seats case but also called for an effective media strategy to highlight the government’s narrative.

Just a day after the ruling coalition lost reserved seats in the National Assembly and hours after a court acquitted PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife in Iddat case, the Prime Minister admitted that the government as well as PML-N needs to come up with better media strategy for disseminating its message to the masses.

“The government as well as the PML-N should focus on making the media strategy more effective to expose the organized campaign against the government, state and national security institutions, and to keep people aware of the facts,” PM Shehbaz said.

“The elements that spread instability and uncertainty in the country should be exposed,” the premier said in a meeting with PML-N parliamentary leader in Senate and Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Senator Irfan Siddiqui in a meeting at the PM House on Saturday.

The notion of making a strong media strategy has come against the backdrop where the ruling coalition, government ministers and supporters believe that the judiciary is deciding cases on the basis of media & social media influence and popularity of a political party — PTI.

However, PM Shehbaz’s call for revisiting the media strategy has come when the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, is banned in Pakistan and, from PM to ministers, are using it via proxy services. To add insult to injury, it was reported that the government is also busy building a firewall for social media to control narratives.

Meanwhile, amid a series of setbacks and at a time when the government and its allies are weighing the option of seeking a review, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has also called a party meeting on Monday to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling and the overall political situation.

Some party insiders also revealed that the government and party would also deliberate on what they got by keeping Imran Khan in jail when he has been getting relief in one after the other case while they are burning their political capital by taking tough decisions to bring economic and political stability in the country.

Currently, the government is reeling from the two recent ‘judicial blows’ as Imran Khan’s consecutive victories have not just shaken the political landscape but pushed the ruling alliance on the back foot.

The cabinet members’ admission that the government was considering increasing retirement age has also added fuel to the fire as it has widely been discussed in media and social media that the outcome of reserved seats case was allegedly somehow linked with extension of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), among others.

So much so, the law minister admitted in a talk show that the government was mulling on increase retirement age to subside financial burden but clarified that the CJP had already conveyed that he was not interested in any extension.

Nevertheless, it gives credence to the notion that the matter was under consideration when it was being denied.

The first blow came on Friday when the Supreme Court gave a landmark decision in favor of PTI in reserved seats in the National Assembly, delivering a significant blow to PML-N-led ruling alliance’s aspirations for a two-thirds majority in the lower house of the Parliament.

Apart from undermining the PML-N-led alliance’s aspiration for a two-thirds majority, the top court’s majority decision has rekindled PTI’s hope that it can take more election-related matters to the courts and change the current parliamentary as well as political equation.

The second blow came on Saturday when a district court acquitted Imran and his wife from the Iddat case, which even the government allies were reluctant to call a justified case. Before that, Imran got relief in cipher and Toshakhana cases.