Social media accounts linked with a political party involved in campaign against judiciary

Accounts linked to a political party were involved in the recent social media smear campaign against Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Supreme Court judges, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.

The social media accounts linked with a political party were involved in the recent campaign on social media in which uncalled for, immoderate and intemperate language was used against the superior judiciary, judges and their families.

An old letter according to which spouses of retired judges were exempted from body searches at airports was intentionally used against the superior judiciary.

The October 12 letter of Aviation Division was first posted by social media account J B, which is linked with a political party, on December 16. After that this letter was posted on social media on December 16 night at about 11:39pm by the account of Umer Mahmood Hayat.

These accounts have already been found involved in running a campaign against the judiciary and judges in the cases of former PTI chairman Imran Khan.

Some social media activists also fueled this targeted agenda against judges and judiciary.

The social media accounts of a political party took active part in the campaign against judiciary, with the supporters of a political party on social media and some vloggers making social media trends in this regard. Screenshots of some TV channels were also used to promote the smear campaign.

Later, the Supreme Court stepped in to counter this campaign and issued a clarification but it was already too late as by this time the campaign had reached at its height.

It merits mentioning here that even after the clarification of the Supreme Court, the managers of these social media accounts did not give any explanation to their followers nor did they apologise.

According to analysts, the social media campaign was run in the hope to affect the decisions of various pending cases at the courts.

Legal experts believe that there is a need to take action against handlers of these social media accounts.

Reporter: Ahmad Mansoor