In an apparent bid to prevent the leak of official information and documents, the government has barred all government employees from using social media platforms, reports Kalbe Ali for Dawn.
A notification issued by the Establishment Division on August 25 says no government servant can participate in any media platform without the permission of the government.
The notification gave detailed instructions to government employees under Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1964, governing the participation of government servants in different media forums including social media platforms for compliance.
“Rule 18 of the Rules bars a government servant from sharing official information or document with a government servant or a private person or press,” the notification added.
“Referring to Rule 22 of the Servant Rules, the Establishment Division says that it restrains a government servant from making any statement of fact or opinion which is capable of embarrassing the government in any document published or in any communication made to the press or in any public utterance or television programme or radio broadcast delivered by him or her,” read the notification.
The notification warned all government servants that violation of one or more of these instructions would be tantamount to misconduct and lead to disciplinary action against the delinquent government servant under Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020. Besides, it said, disciplinary proceedings would also be held against the serving government servants in case they were administrators of a social media group where any violation had been committed.
“They (government employees), while using different social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microblogging, etc, to air their views on a host of subjects and sometimes indulge in actions or behaviour that does not conform to the required standards of official conduct, as envisaged in the Rules,” the notification added.
