ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf on Wednesday said as a part of ‘information warfare’ against Pakistan, social media accounts from Afghanistan and India were being used to discredit Pakistan and its armed forces and target China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through hybrid war.
The NSA accompanied by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, shared with media, data pertaining to anti-Pakistan social media trends that were launched between 2019 and 2021, the majority of which have been traced to India and Afghanistan, with the aim of running a "targeted, deliberate and conscious disinformation campaign against Pakistan.
The NSA said the government's social media teams and think tanks have worked extensively to gather evidence that shows that social media accounts from Afghanistan and India are being used repeatedly to malign Pakistan.
He said that there have been five themes of these social media trends including discredit Pakistan government and especially Pakistan Army, fan fictitious sub-nationalism, directly target CPEC through hybrid warfare, push Pakistan into the FATF blacklist and blame Pakistan for the chaos in Afghanistan.
He said that there have been efforts to blame Pakistan for all the failures that accumulated in the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan.
He said that as US troops began to withdraw from Afghanistan and the Taliban took control of cities and provincial capitals, "there was a growing narrative against Pakistan with the aim to save themselves from being blamed for their own failures".
He said it was also very unfortunate that some high level officials in the Afghan government are part of this, some of which have come forth as well.
“A targeted, deliberate and conscious disinformation campaign against Pakistan, directly linked to accounts in Afghanistan and India, some unfortunately linked to the state apparatus which are constantly trying to malign Pakistan in the international arena, discrediting the Pakistan government and Army, talking about fictitious sub-nationalism, targeting the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and trying to put all blame of what is happening in Afghanistan on Pakistan," the NSA said. “Stop blaming the victim,” he said adding that Pakistan is a victim of the war in Afghanistan with 80,000 plus loss of lives and $150 billion loss in the economy. “Stop blaming the victim. The failures are in the 20 years of what happened in Afghanistan,” he said.
"We will keep exposing information warfare because we know what kind of disinformation campaign is happening just to absolve the Afghan leadership of their own failures and those who put in billions and billions of dollars into Afghanistan," Moeed Yusuf said.
He said this information warfare is a "key pillar" of the hybrid warfare against Pakistan but the country now has the capability to demonstrate "without any doubt" what is happening against Pakistan.
The NSA said the real tragedy is that rather than focusing on putting all its efforts for a political settlement in Afghanistan which is Pakistan's priority and effort, many in positions of responsibility are trying to "shift the blame", trying to create such disinformation campaigns.
He urged Pakistanis not to believe everything on social media and they should check and verify contents particularly when they see a trend going on in a particular direction.
"Our security forces, security apparatus and government is vigilant and InshaAllah we are safe, and will remain safe,” he maintained.
He said there was nothing to worry about but the fake news disinformation campaign is going on and we will not shy away from pointing out who is doing that.
He pointed out that most recently a #SanctionPakistan trend spread online and it merited an investigation to see whether it was organic.
Talking about #SanctionPakistan trend, he said that he has just come from the US, and "neither is there such talk, nor is it true or without any merit".
He said that around 9th and 10th August this trend saw a sharp rise and people were left shocked but "the truth is that the US, that had invested a trillion dollars into the war, simply wished to no longer fight it".
Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said the two years of data of social media trends show that such trends were started by the Pashtun Tahfuz Movement (PTM) which was getting support from India.
He said that PTM was running 150 anti-state trends on social media to spread baseless propaganda against Pakistan. “The biggest players of this campaign in Pakistan are the PTM and its workers,” he said.
He said that death of Karima Baloch was a top trend despite the fact that she was a Canadian citizen saying that PTM tweeted 20,000 times that Pakistan killed her.
The minister also pointed out as to how the PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari was accused of covertly visiting Israel. "Israel ran a social media trend regarding this which saw 10,000 tweets posted."
The information minister said that the PMLN media team and JUIF also participated in this trend with full zeal.
He said the Indian television channels while using the Noor Mukaddam murder case, uploaded several hours of videos to defame Pakistan.
He said that all the social media trends between groups in Pakistan stem from foreign involvement while several social media accounts from abroad are involved in attempts to fan sectarian hatred.