Govt servents barred from using social media platforms

In an apparent bid to prevent leak of official information and documents, the government has barred all government employees from using social media platforms, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division on September 2, no government servant can participate in any media platform except with the permission of the government.

The notification gave detailed instructions to government employees under the 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 program or radio broadcast delivered by him or her.

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 the 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.

 The notification added that Rules 21, 25, 25-A and 25-B of the Rules barred a government servant from expressing views against ideology and integrity of Pakistan or any government policy or decision.

The notification also bars a government servant from offering views on any media platform which may either harm the national security or friendly relations with foreign states, or offend public order, decency or morality, or amount to contempt of court or defamation or incitement to an offence or propagate sectarian creeds.

The notification highlighted that the government servants often engaged themselves with social media such as websites and applications that enabled users to create and share content or participate in social networking/virtual communities/online groups.

“They, 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.

Such actions range from unauthorised relaying of the official information to disseminating the wrong or misleading information to airing of political or sectarian views etc. The Establishment Division has further instructed government servants not to indulge in unauthorised disclosure of official information.

Federal agencies have been instructed to monitor their social media platforms and remove any objectionable content.

All civil servants are required to comply with these instructions, and violations may lead to misconduct proceedings.

This directive follows a similar ban on social media use for government employees that was also implemented during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

Federal secretaries, additional secretaries, department heads, and chief secretaries have been instructed to enforce these guidelines.