Lagging behind other parties, JUI-F finally turns its attention to social media

Realising that despite its being one of the largest religio-political parties in the county, it lags far behind other political and religious parties when it comes to presence and popularity on social media, the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has started focusing on this front as well.

On Friday afternoon, the party organised its first- ever social media convention in Karachi in which its supremo, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, especially participated.

To discuss the importance of social media in the country’s contemporary politics and the media landscape, the party’s Sindh chapter had also invited senior journalist Nazir Laghari, known television host Aniq Ahmed, noted analyst Orya Maqbool Jan and anchorperson Dr Danish.

Maulana Ataur Rehman, Dr Rashid Mehmood Soomro, Qari Usman, Aslam Ghori, Haji Abdul Malik Talpur and Muhammad Sami Swati were among the party’s leaders who spoke.

The JUI-F had chosen 10 workers each from 29 districts of the province to attend the convention held in a local auditorium. The selected workers are active on various microblogging sites.

Maulana Rehman, who was the chief guest at the event, asked the workers to spread and defend the party’s ideology on social media. “We know the importance of social media in today’s compunction and propaganda and it is the reason that we are now focusing on that front.”

The JUI-F chief also told the workers that Islamic teachings prevent us from negative and baseless propaganda. “Most of the social media users are youths and prone to misinformation. The party’s workers should counter such negative propaganda and not only inform the youth about the truth but also educate them about Islamic teachings,” Rehman said.

Criticising the mainstream media for ignoring events of his party and not giving them due coverage, he said the party would disseminate and publicise its activities through social media.

Personalities from the media industry hailed the JUI-Fs’ decision to focus on social media and said that it was a good omen that religious parties were now strengthening their presence on micro-blogging sites.

They said most of the political parties in the country were relying heavily on their social media wings to deliver the relevant information and conduct effective online campaigns via mediums such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

They asked the JUI-F workers to use the social media in a responsible manner and avoid abusive language.

Swati, who is the JUI-F’s provincial media coordinator overseeing social media, said the party was making strategy to strengthen its social media presence at the national, provincial, division, district and even neighbourhood levels. “For this purpose, we will form social media teams under the supervision and with consultation of the local leadership,” he told The News.