A Geo News news anchor, Zohaib Hassan responded to Analyst Mehmal Sarfraz’s analysis on the ongoing situation of the women not being safe in the public spaces.
Mehmal Sarfraz said that all women are feeling unsafe in the country and more needs to be done for their protection. To which the presenter said that, “You are making a sweeping statement.”
Many journalists and other social media users took to Twitter to call out the presenter for his remarks.
The government’s Digital Media Wing (DMW) recently released a report titled, ‘Anti-State Trends: Deep Analytics Report’. The Current analysed the report, which was discussed on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Thursday night. The Current found glaring errors in the report.
Mentioning The Current’s research, Shahzeb Khanzada stated the facts mentioned in our report. “From The Current’s analysis, the 134-page report has 85 pages that have screenshots of tweets, which means that 63.4 per cent of the report is based on screenshots of people who are using a certain hashtag that the government has identified as being anti-state. The number of tweets that are in these 85 pages amounts to 666 tweets out of which 142 tweets are from three accounts, which means that 21.3 per cent of the tweets used in this study came from three people.”
“After further analysis of the three accounts, The Current discovered that all three accounts had a combined following of less than 11,000,” mentioned Shahzeb.
The report was released Wednesday evening around 5:30PM and a few hours later a disclaimer was added to the report. According to journalist Fereeha Idrees, the disclaimer was added after she raised the issue with the DMW for being highlighted in the report as a ‘replies with the most followers’ account.
Shahzeb Khanzada also mentioned that The Current reached out to TweepsMap, which was the primary analysis app used by the government for this report. The maps and information all have the Tweepsmap link on the maps and all charts in the report. We asked the CEO of TweepsMap Samir Al-Battran if they considered the analysis of the report to be authentic since it used their app service. Samir told us, “The government of Pakistan is not authorised to use our service. We will investigate how they got access to our analysis and get back to you on this.”
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry refuted these claims on Shahzeb Khanzada’s programme.
“Were the Twitter trends data compiled without research? Was the press conference held without reading the final draft? Was the patriotism of our own citizens deliberately questioned? How did you determine which tweet is anti and pro-state?,” asked Shahzeb.
“The data could have been complied on a single page as well. We analysed the data for the past two years, around 150 trends were made, and we checked how India and Afghanistan glorified those trends. Around 37 lac tweets were done on the very trends. We spent around 1,000 hours going through those tweets,” said Fawad Chaudhry.
Shahzeb reiterated the fact that the report should have included how India and Afghanistan were involved in generating, promoting, and glorifying the very trends and sentiment analysis of the tweets should have been checked.
” I think you did not read the mechanism and neither did you try to understand the work done in the report,” replied the minister.
“The positive and negative sentiment does not matter, what matters is that people participated in the trend. India did all this because it wanted to portray to the international spheres that there is chaos within Pakistan,” added Fawad.
Former Interior Minister Rehman Malik also thanked Shahzeb for highlighting how his anti-India tweet was also part of the DMW report. “I hope someone from the Govt will apologise to me tomorrow.”
A Turkish news channel ‘Hürriyet Daily News’ shared a picture of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa in a meeting with Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, with the caption: “#Defense Minister Akar, #Pakistani premier discuss bilateral issues.”
Twitterati had a good time responding to the tweet.
A Twitter user wrote, “They know who the boss is.”
Another user wrote, “Na koi phone karta hai, na koi milnay aata hai… [Neither does anyone call nor does any once come to meet] The #SedLyf of #ImranKhan”
One man tweeted PM Khan’s picture with ‘absolutely not’ written as a response to the tweet.
A Twitter user quoted a picture of prime minister Imran Khan sarcastically depicting him after hearing that international media has replaced him.`
A Twitter user questioned, “If Gen Bajwa is Premier then what Imran Khan is?”
Meray Paas Tum Ho star Ayeza Khan took to her Instagram stories to update her fans about a fake account of the actress on Twitter. The handle claims to be Ayeza’s team but isn’t affiliated with her.
It is a verified account and hence caught the Chupke Chupke diva’s attention. She immediately asked her followers to report the account on twitter with over 2.5 lac followers.
She recently updated netizens on her vaccinated status with a picture and a detailed caption on her Instagram handle. The Laapata actor replied back to netizens who questioned her point of posting it on a public platform.
Ayeza is currently starring in Laapata opposite Ali Rehman Khan and Sarah Khan.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda, on live television, called Nigeria a ‘chota ghareeb sa mulk’ [a small poor country].
Twitterati immediately started drawing comparisons between Pakistan and Nigeria, trying to school the senator with facts.
A Twitter user wrote, “Imagine the embarrassment for the Foreign Office (FO) if the Nigerian Ambassador lodges a formal protest with them tomorrow.”
Sports journalist Faizan Lakhani reacted to the comments by posting a video of Prime Minister Imran Khan face-palming himself.
Journalist Shiraz Hassan wrote, “I don’t know in what context he said that but we know that Nigeria has already won two medals in #Tokyo2020 – both by women athletes.”
Another Twitter user wrote, “Pakistan 2020 GDP: $263.6B, Nigeria 2020 GDP: $432B. How Mr. Vawda came to the conclusion that Nigeria is ‘small and poor’ really escapes me.”
A woman named Wishah Abubakr has accused her husband, Shahzawar Bugti, the son of Nawab Akbar Bugti, of domestic violence and sharing her private videos on social media.
“After seven years of an abusive marriage, I left my husband. I had no other option but to leave my husband and take my daughter with me,” she said in a video.
Wishah also alleged that her husband hired a target killer to kill her but when she escaped, her husband made her private videos viral.
“Now my husband threatens to kill me,” she added.
She further said that one Noor Mukadamn has gone as she could not appeal to the people before she was killed. “I am requesting you before getting killed. Please share my message.”
Wishah also asked for help on Twitter from IG Punjab, Inam Ghani.
Wishah posts regular updates on her social media accounts.
Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) issued new directives to news and current affairs television channels, on the recent coverage of torrential rain and urban flooding in the country.
The notice issued by PEMRA says: “It has been observed with grave concern that while reporting/airing news/ footages on natural calamities, torrential rains, and flooding, news channels generally rely on videos which are widely circulated on digital platforms such a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp instead of mobilising their own field teams for providing actual /real-time footages to the viewers, which is not only the responsibility of the channels but also mandated.”
The statement further said that these “sloppy videos” create “unnecessary panic and fear” not only among the inhabitants of the cities being reported but for the loved ones living across the country or even abroad.
The authority said, ” All satellite TV channels are once again directed to produce their own footages/packages and train their reporters/ news teams to be vigilant, responsive and active and cover each event/ occasion themselves so that viewers could get real-time factual information rather than relying on videos available on social media platforms.”
Journalists lashed out at the new PEMRA directives.
Jounailt Shahzad Iqbal tweeted, “Ruling party #PTI & Govt use social media for narratives but social media footages of rain in Islamabad that killed two people can’t be used?”
Iqbal further wrote, “It will also mean media won’t be able to air any footage of atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) or attacks on Palestinians by Israeli forces because we don’t have our reporters in the field.”
Journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi wrote, ” Every channel in the world uses eyewitness footage from emergencies/disasters/conflict zones. It’s a bizarre directive until you realise the motive – keep TV channels on a tight leash when it makes the government look bad.”
Journalist Zebunnisa Burki criticised the new directive and tweeted, “Pemra seems to have gone completely off the rails.”
Journalist Benazir Shah questioned, “Guess PEMRA has not heard of ‘citizen journalism.’ If a video has been verified by channel why can it not be aired?”
Singer and activist Shehzad Roy responded to a strange marriage proposal on social media with a witty response.
Roy shared a photo of a cup of green tea and sweets on Twitter with the caption: “One must always prefer green tea over mithaee, kyoonkay zindagi mein jo thori khushi mil sakti thi, wo bhi na milay.”
One must always prefer green tea over mithaee, kyoonkay zindagi mein jo thori khushi mil sakti thi, wo bhi na milay pic.twitter.com/iy7qDu5wGw
— Shehzad Roy (@ShehzadRoy) July 31, 2021
One female fan responded to Roy’s tweet by proposing to him. “I will make you green tea every day with my blood please marry me.”
Roy’s hilarious answer was quite a hit. He tweeted, “Please don’t say such things otherwise people will start calling me a vampire.”
Please don’t say such things otherwise people will start calling me vampire https://t.co/4FQHc6OewA
— Shehzad Roy (@ShehzadRoy) July 31, 2021
Some Twitter users compared Shehzad Roy to Keanu Reeves who doesn’t age after his vampire comment.