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  • With big red stamp, Pakistan government portal singles out journalists and ‘fake news’


With big red stamp, Pakistan government portal singles out journalists and ‘fake news’

A combination picture shows screengrabs of tweets by the Pakistan government's @FakeNews_Buster Twitter handle, run by the ministry of information (AN photo)
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Updated 30 September 2020
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With big red stamp, Pakistan government portal singles out journalists and ‘fake news’

  • Official at information ministry who runs @FakeNews_Buster Twitter account says the page “simply tells people the government’s viewpoint”
  • Rights activists say government has picked up the term ‘fake news’ from Trump who routinely uses it to discredit journalists and play down stories against him 
Updated 30 September 2020
AAMIR SAEED 

ISLAMABAD: Suriya Jamal is the director-general of the cyber-wing of Pakistan’s Ministry of Information. Every day she ensures that Internet and social media monitoring reports are prepared for senior officials, Internet campaigns are designed for national events and her team provides seamless IT and communications services support to the ministry and its attached organs.
Since October 2018, however, Jamal’s job has had a new component: running the ministry of information’s @FakeNews_Buster account on Twitter that is meant to highlight articles the government considers to be ‘fake news’, including one in July by Arab News.
Each post on the @FakeNews_Buster Twitter account carries a big red label reading “FAKE NEWS” in English and a line saying: “Disseminating #FakeNews is not only unethical and illegal but it is also disservice to the nation. It is the responsibility of everyone to reject irresponsible behavior. Reject #FakeNews.”
Digital rights activists and journalists told Arab News the venture, which routinely singles out individual journalists, fits a pattern of creating alternative realities meant to sow confusion and is part of the government’s sweeping efforts to dismiss real news it does not like and intimidate journalists who write or speak critically of its policies.
Since his campaign to run for US president, Donald Trump has popularized the term ‘fake news,’ invoking it to undermine opponents, rally his supporters and discredit journalists who aggressively investigated his campaign and now his presidency.
Emboldened by Trump, many authoritarian and populist leaders around the world have seized on the phrase ‘fake news’ as a tool to attack critics.
Pakistan too has taken a shine to the concept.

In July this year, the government said it was preparing new laws to curb coronavirus-related ‘fake news’ on social media platforms in a move that has stoked fears authorities might use the additional powers to choke freedom of speech and chill dissent.
It was not immediately clear what criteria the Pakistani ministry of information applies in its effort to identify what it considers to be ‘fake news,’ and Jamal declined to answer questions beyond that the @FakeNews_Buster account labeled stories as ‘fake’ after seeking information and ‘clarifications’ from relevant government departments and officials.
“We simply tell people about the government’s viewpoint,” she said. “How is this harassment?”
In a joint statement last month, a group of Pakistani women journalists demanded action by the government against social media attacks, including campaigns to accuse them of peddling ‘fake news’ for covering the government’s policies critically.
“The online attacks are instigated by government officials and then amplified by a large number of Twitter accounts, which declare their affiliation to the ruling party,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a petition last week.
Azhar Mashwani, an adviser on digital media to the chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, denied government social media accounts were being used to harass journalists or suppress freedom of the press.
The prime minister, he said, had conveyed “clear instructions” through the ministry of information to all government departments to issue rebuttals against ‘fake news’ and take legal action. “But no department has initiated any action so far,” he told Arab News.
“We bring facts to the people,” he added.
In one of many examples where Mashwani has taken to Twitter to accuse journalists of peddling ‘fake news,’ he accused a reporter at Pakistan’s daily Dawn newspaper last month of “twisting and altering” his remarks in a WhatsApp interview for a story about the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party’s use of social media to project a ‘positive’ image of Pakistan.
The reporter published a complete transcript of the conversation, showing that she had quoted Mashwani verbatim. But he continued to post on Twitter saying what was published was a “total misrepresentation.”

In an article last week, the website for Pakistan’s Geo News channel fact-checked a number of news stories that the @FakeNews_Buster account and government representatives had labeled as ‘fake’ on social media, including an Arab News report published on July 7 about the centuries-old Ram Mandir temple in Islamabad where Hindus are no longer allowed to pray.

In response to the post by @FakeNews_Buster, Arab News sent a letter to information minister Shibli Faraz, urging the ministry to take down the tweet and explaining the multiple rounds of fact-checking and editing that the story had gone through.
The ministry acknowledged receiving the letter, but had not taken action to remove the post, Baker Atyani, Asia bureau chief for Arab News, said.
“The story was thoroughly investigated, checked, and cross-checked by senior editors of Arab News but unfortunately we didn’t hear back from the ministry or the information minister,” he said. “We have asked in our letter that the tweet should be taken down and the ministry should clarify that the Arab News story was accurate.”
Atyani said Arab News had urged the ministry to take up such concerns with the organization directly, rather than targeting its reporters and editors on social media.
“We believe these kinds of unfortunate claims not only undermine our credibility,” he said, “but also could put the lives of our team who worked on the story at risk.”
When Arab News asked Jamal about the @FakeNews_Buster tweet about its story, she declined comment, saying “Let me check.”
“Whenever I rebut a story, I do it with facts, and this is not harassment of journalists,” Dr. Arsalan Khalid, the prime minister’s focal person on digital media, told Arab News when asked about attacks on journalists by government-affiliated social media accounts. “Ideally when you label a news as fake news, you will have to provide the details through documents or videos and nobody should get offended over it. If it is fake news, it is fake news.”
Farieha Azizi, a digital rights activist who heads Bolo Bhi, said the government used accounts like @FakeNews_Buster to beat back media scrutiny and browbeat reporters, and the strategy to attack individuals, rather than organizations, on social media was a deliberate one.
“I’m not saying that you should start targeting the organizations, but the institutions have a mechanism and people to respond,” she said. “But here you’re singling out individuals deliberately, then multiple accounts start targeting them and give threats only because there was a difference of opinion, or an opinion which they [government and its supporters] don’t like.”
“If the government wants to clarify a news item, it should do it from official sources only,” Aziz added, saying the Pakistan government had picked up the term ‘fake news’ from Trump who routinely used it to discredit journalists and play down stories against him.
Shahzada Zulfiqar, president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists [PFUJ], said the government was “intentionally” using social media platforms to confuse the public and discredit journalists it did not agree with.
He said government representatives used social media to “incite the public, their [government’s] supporters and followers” to attack and abuse journalists by using ‘fake news’ as a tool.
“This is certainly a condemnable act,” Zulfiqar said, “and the government must ensure freedom of press in the country instead of working against it.”
Imran Ghazali, the head of the newly established Digital Media Wing, said he was working to get all official accounts verified so no one could claim to speak in the government’s name and an ‘authentic and data-driven’ flow of information could be maintained on social media.
“Once it is done,” he said, “many of the issues will stand resolved automatically.”

Topics: fake news Pakistan's Government

After primary schools, Pakistan’s Punjab closes high schools as smog crisis deepens

Updated 12 November 2024
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After primary schools, Pakistan’s Punjab closes high schools as smog crisis deepens

  • Record air pollution has triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures, lockdowns in Punjab this month 
  • On Tuesday, provincial capital Lahore, home to 13 million people, had worst air quality globally, according to IQAir
Updated 12 November 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The government of Punjab has closed all educational institutions in the province up to the higher secondary level from tomorrow, Wednesday, until the end of the week because of record-breaking smog that has already prompted the closure of primary schools and government offices and has sickened tens of thousands of people.

Record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, junior school closures and stay-at-home orders in several districts of Punjab, including the provincial capital of Lahore, which has been enveloped in a thick, toxic smog since last month.

On Tuesday, Lahore, home to 13 million people, had the worst air quality of any city in the world, according to live readings by IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company.

“All the educational institutions […] up to higher secondary level shall remain closed and will shift to online mode with effect from Nov 13 within […] DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Rawalpindi divisions […] till Nov 17,” the province’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a notification issued on Tuesday, ordering schools to shift to “online mode.” 

In Pakistan, the higher secondary level refers to upper secondary education, which includes grades 11 and 12. It is also known as intermediate education.

Speaking to reporters, Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat said the decision to close higher secondary institutes was taken “in light of the complaints received from the district.”

“This drastic decision had to be taken to protect children from the deadly effects,” he said. “There is a sense of educational loss, but the decision to close educational institutions is being taken out of compulsion.

Primary schools and government offices had already been closed until Nov. 17 in many districts of Punjab earlier this month, with school closures likely to affect the education of more than 20 million students, according to associations representing private and government schools.

Authorities in 18 districts of Punjab also closed all public parks, zoos and museums, historical places, and playgrounds for ten days last week. 

On Friday, a court in Lahore ordered the government to shut all markets after 8pm. Authorities have already banned barbecuing food without filters and ordered wedding halls to close by 10pm.

On Monday, the UN children’s agency said the health of 11 million children in Punjab province was in danger because of air pollution

“Prior to these record-breaking levels of air pollution, about 12 percent of deaths in children under 5 in Pakistan were due to air pollution,” UNICEF’s representative in Pakistan, Abdullah Fadil, said. 

“The impact of this year’s extraordinary smog will take time to assess, but we know that doubling and tripling the amount of pollution in the air will have devastating effects, particularly on children and pregnant women.”

Topics: Pakistan Punjab Lahore

Bus carrying wedding guests falls into river in northern Pakistan, killing 18

Updated 12 November 2024
AP
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Bus carrying wedding guests falls into river in northern Pakistan, killing 18

  • Accident took place on Gilgit Baltistan region as bus was heading to Chakwal in Punjab 
  • So far only one woman had been found alive and was being treated at hospital, officials say 
Updated 12 November 2024
AP

MANSEHRA, Pakistan: A bus carrying about two dozen wedding guests fell into the Indus River in northern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 18 people, officials said.
It happened in the Gilgit Baltistan region as the bus was heading to Chakwal, a city in Punjab province, government spokesman Faizullah Farqan said.
He said a search for bodies continued, and so far only one woman had been found alive and was being treated at a hospital.
Police said it was unclear what caused the crash, and officers were yet to record the lone survivor’s statement.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari offered condolences and asked rescuers to expedite efforts to find missing passengers.
Road accidents are common in Pakistan due to poor infrastructure and disregard for traffic laws and safety standards. In August, 36 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in two separate bus crashes.

Topics: Pakistan bus crash

Pakistan says developing nations need $6.8 trillion by 2030 to meet climate pledges

Updated 12 November 2024
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Pakistan says developing nations need $6.8 trillion by 2030 to meet climate pledges

  • PM Sharif calls on donor countries to give 0.7 percent of gross national income as development assistance, use existing climate funds
  • Premier says debt cannot become “acceptable new normal” in climate financing, calls for focus on non-debt financing solutions
Updated 12 November 2024
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday developing countries would need an estimated $6.8 trillion by 2030 to implement less than half of their current nationally determined contributions (NDCs), or national action plans for reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts defined by the Paris Agreement.

Nearly 200 nations have gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, for COP29 climate talks this week to thrash out the details of a deal known as the New Collective Quantified Goal, designed to deliver billions of dollars of climate finance to the regions that need it the most. But the United States, Europe and others say they will only commit to the fund if the list of countries contributing to it is widened to include the likes of China, South Korea and Singapore, and the resulting deadlock could block progress during the talks.

Meanwhile, COP29 follows a year of weather disasters that have emboldened developing countries in their demands for climate cash. 

Pakistan is ranked the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, devastating floods killed over 1,700 people and affected over 33 million, with economic losses exceeding $30 billion. International donors pledged over $9 billion last January to aid Pakistan’s flood recovery but officials say little of the promised funds have been received so far.

“Developing countries will need an estimated $6.8 trillion by 2030 to implement less than half their current NDCs,” Sharif said in an address on the sidelines of the World Leaders’ Climate Action Summit.

“Donor countries should fulfill their commitment to provide 0.7 percent of their gross national income [as development assistance] and capitalize existing climate funds.”

One such commitment, the $100 billion Annual Climate Finance pledge established over a decade ago at COP15, is now reported by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to have reached only $160 billion, Sharif said. 

“Despite this number remaining a tiny proportion of the defined need, a significant part of this financing is dispersed in the form of loans, further enhancing the debt burden on developing nations and potentially pushing them toward mounting debt traps, I call them death traps,” Sharif added.

“Pakistan alongside many other developing countries calls for stronger, more equitable climate finance mechanisms. Debt cannot become the acceptable new normal in climate financing which is why we must resume focus on non-debt financing solutions, enabling countries to fund climate initiatives.”

Sharif also called on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to set up a committee to review NDCs “periodically.”

“We need to double adaptation financing from present level and loss and damage funds must be enhanced and directed toward resilient infrastructure and other pressing needs,” Sharif added.

Governments last year pledged $800 million toward a new ‘loss and damage’ fund to help poorer nations being hit by climate-fueled disasters. The fund, which has a director and a host nation, will now be deciding how the funds should be dispersed and calling for more contributions at COP29.

On Tuesday, the world’s top multilateral banks, including the World Bank, European Investment Bank and Asian Development Bank, pledged to ramp up climate finance to low and middle income countries to $120 billion a year by 2030 as part of efforts at COP29 to agree to an ambitious annual target.

Reaffirming a goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average by 2050, the new figure is a more than 60 percent increase on what the group of 10 multilateral development banks (MDBs) had funneled to poorer nations last year, according to a statement released during the UN climate summit.

The new figure includes $42 billion to help adapt to the impacts of extreme weather, a 70 percent increase over the 2023 number.

Topics: Pakistan COP29 Shehbaz Sharif

Emerging fintech operator in Middle East, Pakistan to acquire FINCA Microfinance Bank

Updated 12 November 2024
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Emerging fintech operator in Middle East, Pakistan to acquire FINCA Microfinance Bank

  • FINCA operates in 108 cities in Pakistan, providing state-of-the-art deposit and payment solutions 
  • ABHI established global headquarters in Abu Dhabi in Jan. 2024, has expended to Dubai and Saudi Arabia 
Updated 12 November 2024
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Abhi Private Limited, an emerging fintech operator in the Middle East and Pakistan, and leading tech conglomerate TPL Corp. Limited, are all set to jointly acquire FINCA Microfinance Bank Limited, a statement from Abhi said on Tuesday. 

FINCA Pakistan, part of a global FINCA network, operates in 108 cities across Pakistan, providing state-of-the-art deposit and payment solutions, including micro-credit facilities aimed at improving livelihoods. 

ABHI established its global headquarters in Abu Dhabi in January 2024 and has also expanded its business through partnerships in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

“The strategic alliance between Abhi and TPL Corp. aims to reshape financial inclusion efforts across Pakistan by combining FINCA’s extensive microfinance network and expertise with Abhi’s innovative digital solutions and TPL Corp’s presence in retail, insurance and technology sectors,” Abhi said in a statement. 

“By bringing together these complementary strengths, the partnership is set to diversify and expand access to financial products and services that cater to underserved communities, including rural populations, small businesses, and lower-income individuals.”

The acquisition will combine TPL’s diverse business portfolio and FINCA Pakistan’s established presence and deep knowledge of the market, with the combined entity being “well-positioned to introduce customer-focused solutions that can make a tangible difference in underserved regions.”

“At Abhi, we’ve always believed in creating accessible financial solutions for everyone,” said Omair Ansari, CEO & Co-founder of Abhi. 

“By joining forces with TPL, we’re making a stride toward expanding our reach and delivering impactful financial products to millions of Pakistanis who have previously lacked access to essential services.”

Looking ahead, Abhi, TPL and FINCA plan to focus on delivering a new range of financial products “tailored to underserved communities, driving financial inclusion and contributing to the nation’s economic growth.”

“FINCA Pakistan delivered on its promise to develop a nationwide microfinance network that is creating economic opportunity throughout Pakistan, especially for women,” said Jeff Smith, chair of the FINCA Pakistan Board of Directors. 

“Abhi and TPL share FINCA’s commitment to expanding access to financial services for small entrepreneurs. The infusion of new capital and more comprehensive digital services have the potential to significantly accelerate financial inclusion in Pakistan.”
 

Topics: FINCA Abhi TPL Arab News Pakistan

Top leaders of Imran Khan’s party briefly arrested, released in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi

Updated 12 November 2024
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Top leaders of Imran Khan’s party briefly arrested, released in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi

  • Leader of the opposition in the national assembly and other PTI leaders had arrived at Adiala jail to meet Khan
  • Ex-PM has been in jail since August last year and faces a slew of legal challenges he says are politically motivated 
Updated 12 November 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Top aides of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan were briefly detained before being released in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi as they arrived to meet their leader at a local prison, his party said on Tuesday, with police saying they were arrested for breaking a law against public gatherings. 

Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, and several other leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had arrived at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail to meet Khan when they were arrested for what Punjab Police has described as violating Section 144 of the Pakistan Penal Code, a legal provision that empowers district administrations to prohibit the assembly of four or more people in an area for a limited period. 

“PTI workers were detained for violating Section 144 but were released after being issued a warning,” Punjab Police Spokesperson Sajjadul Hassan told media. 

The PTI says the leaders were detained to block them from meeting Khan who has been imprisoned since August last year and faces a slew of legal cases, from corruption to terrorism, which he says are politically motivated. 

“PTI leadership has been set free, after being kept in custody till the time for scheduled meeting with Imran Khan was over,” the party said in a text message to reporters.

In a post on X, the PTI said the arrests showed the “blatant misuse of power” of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s PML-N party, which it said was “aimed at silencing PTI leaders and anyone standing with Imran Khan.”

“This assault on political freedoms is a grave warning for all citizens. The nation must stand up for itself, get organized, and peacefully protest,” the PTI said. “This is not an issue of any one person or party; it is a matter of Pakistan’s survival and integrity.”

Since his ouster from the PM’s office in 2022 in a parliamentary no-trust vote, Khan has been embroiled in over 150 cases and has been sentenced in several, including to three years, 10 years, 14 years and seven years to be served concurrently under Pakistani law. Khan’s convictions were later overturned in appeals but he cannot be freed due to other, pending cases against him.

He has maintained his innocence and has argued that the cases are an attempt to sideline him politically by keeping him out of the public area. The government denies it is persecuting Khan or his party. 

Topics: Pakistan PTI Imran Khan adiala jail Omar Ayub Khan

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