President of the Insaf Students Federation in Karachi, Arsalan Ghumman, told The Express Tribune that the official Facebook pages of PTI leader Imran Khan, the student wing Insaf Students Federation, and several, more including that of Dr Alvi were hacked into and hidden from the public’s eye.
“The pages were hijacked at 3 pm on Friday. We are in touch with the Facebook authorities to recover them,” he said.
Ghumman added that the last post on the PTI page was of a story published in The Express Tribune about Lyari activists joining their party. “After posting the story on the wall, I couldn’t see the page. I refreshed it but it was there no more.”
The president said that they have an idea of who planned the attack, but said it was too early to make any accusations. “We are planning to hold a press conference soon, when we will tell you about the miscreants.” He said that they have a number of administrators on their Facebook pages, but do not suspect them. The party’s accounts on Twitter are safe.
Web manager of the social media team at PTI, Imran Ghazali, told The Express Tribune that they were investigating the matter, and would pursue it legally. “Our leader Imran Khan has also taken notice of the matter, and has condemned it.”
Ghazali said that the hackers wanted to disrupt their political activities on the social networking website, but were wrong to think that they would be successful. “We are the only political party in the country which is the most active and popular on social media. Our webpage, ‘We want Imran Khan to be the next Prime Minister’ is liked by 0.45 million Facebook users, while the official Imran Khan page is liked by 0.35 million users.”
He said that the hackers had first broken into his Gmail account to log on to the Facebook pages. “I have recovered my Gmail account. Now we are trying to get back our Facebook pages but it will take time.”
COMMENTS (48)
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These ugly acts will not be able to stop the tsunami of PTI now inshaAllah PTI and imran khan is in peoples heart now ... so nothing to worry but then again by hacking the pages it shows the cheap mentality of status quo forces ....
This act will increase the popularity of PTI, you will see more fans once thee pages are restored, more people will be curious to like these pages and come to facebook. Imran khan is real change bringer on the social media such as facebooknand twitter, people will use Internet more than before as they played cricket thanks tonimran khan charisma.
PTI workers are most active on social media
Waiting to see PTI back on social media.
Do not worry PTI lovers, this kind shameful tacts can not stop the Tsunami. Come on Imran khan, nation is with you and Allah is with you. Come on rock the status-quo.
(Hehe) thanks God I.K did not blame for this to this democratic party ;)
A sad and shameful incident
They Cant even handle Facebook pages and they dreaming of Governing the Country Lol.
Thay can hack or so , But can't Pull From our Hearts..
it must have hurt very badly to PTI as there were millions of fans on their different facebook pages.
Imran khan lives in our heart no matter what happens my vote only goes to imran khan because PTI=change...........
Want to see those pages back soon. It is always fun to see energy and activity of PTI workers. Youth are really keeping these social media sites interesting.
don't worry ...we are always with you...
had it been PPP, PMLN pages then some chaps here would had whined by blaming it to ISI :d
It is indeed a very sad day for PTI Social Media Team. We have more than 1 million followers on these pages and we have got to this support with years of hard work on our social media pages.
We are very hopeful that we will be back in full action with ALL our pages recovered. InshAllah we will come back even stronger with full security protocols. Ours is a dedicated team of volunteers unlike the other political parties with paid employees on social media.
We thank you all for your support but do keep the pressure on facebook to get the pages back ASAP.
sad news...:( we know who can do this...:(
@aslam:
PTI doesn't need cheap publicy stunts. It is a symbol of change and the most popular party in the country amongst all groups and sections of society whether it be youth, women or the elderly. Noone can stop the tsunami irrespective of the conspiracies against it.
Your comments exhibits ignorance. If it is a publicy stunt then can you please provide some evidence otherwise keep quiet.
Shame on the people who did this filthy act but what can you expect from people who are sucking blood of Pakistani's..They will be highly disappointed insha'Allah when nothing of what the do will give them any benefit and imran khan will become the Prime minister of this holy land...You can't erase the love for PTI from its followers no matter what you do.Even blood can't wash it ..Imran khan and PTI forever..Long live Pakistan <3
some pages remain, for updates go to www.facebook.com/ISFMultan ISF Multan, ISF Lahore, and ISF Punjab pages are still running guys.
For latest updates & to stay tuned go to WWW.INSAF.PK
so hurt :(
I have to wonder , if PTI's "social media team" was naive enough to keep simple or same passwords or if they actually think that a hacker would be stupid enough to not hide his traces and IP addresses .. But let us see how Facebook helps them. This will be an interesting one.
insaf.pk is the alternative for updates
Well this is honestly undemocratic. I mean if the someone wants to confront Pakistan Tehrik e insaaf then they should do it by giving logic, that is how democracy works, but doing such acts is shameful and i condemn it. As it is not acceptable. Still the vote for PTI.
@mubasyra: Thanks. That is really HEARTENING. :) Insafians Rock.
You could hide pages from internet for some time, but how can you wipe the Love for Imran Khan and PTI from our Hearts and Minds??????????????
No one can stop the change !!!
Well, sorry state of mind of person or party who did it, IF they thought this will harm the support! they have rather sparked a new idea, now "suspects" are sitting ducks for PTI volunteers. although i hope this doesnt turn into a cyber war of this type and Cybercrime unit succeeds in unraveling the culprit as a complaint has been filed. Oh n lastly I so want to tell the PTI social media volunteers that dont down the morals we are with you.Proud of all of YOU for your efforts.
low tactics, don't worry PTI. you live in the people hearts. tsunami will become more stronger if they keep on doing this.
@Colonel: nice gauge you are using to judge whether someone can be a good leader or not. some of the most computer savvy and proficient facebook users are under 15 years old, maybe they can govern better. Or maybe Zardari should stay since no one hacked his page.
we will have change such thngs will nt stop pti
This is pathetic who ever did through this act PTI will get more sympathy and fame.....so keep going IK roxxxxxxxx
For sure who hacked the page is one of the corrupt person of Pakistan who dont want any positive change in the country ,but this still doesnt matter bcx PAKISTAN IS STILL WITH IMRAN KHAN :)
The withdrawal the PTI fans are gonna feel is going to have a negative impact on the whole country. These pages were the one place where they could find so many like minded (loving,agreeing) people. Now the fans are gonna go out in numbers and abuse all the rest. Sigh!! the only force holding them back has now been hacked.
Responsibility and authority should be distributed ...... one person should not hold all accounts info ...... PTI should rethink ....
Tsunami pages baha ke le gaya!
@Tehreek-e-Insaf FATA: They Cant even handle Facebook pages and they dream of Governing whole Country, amazing
Cmon PTI!!! Dont Worry! We shall prevail. YES WE KHAN!!
this is just a publicity stunt, we know they will get the pages "recover", shame on you PTI
hahahhahaha lol
There must have been a substandard security policy otherwise its not easy to hack Facebook pages.
Dont worry PTI team, this will not stop the tsunami.. fortunately, NOTHING can stop the tsunami!
The corrupt status-quo dont want to see change, they are desperate. Do whatever, nothing can stop PTI.