Pakistan Embassy in Serbia Mocks at Imran Khan, Foreign Office Claims Twitter Handle was “Hacked”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 3: A tweet purported to be from the Pakistani embassy in Serbia on Friday clearly show that Pakistan’s economy is in ruins and the national government does not have enough funds even to pay salaries to its employees but its foreign ministry claimed that the tweet was ingenuine.
Prime Minister Imran Khan was at the centre of the Twitter controversy as the official handle of Pakistan’s embassy in Serbia posted a message severely criticising the PM back home.
“With inflation breaking all previous records, how long do you expect Imran Khan that we government official(s) will remain silent and keep working for you without been paid for past 3 months and our children been forced out of school due to non-payment of fees. Is this naya (new) Pakistan?” the embassy tweeted.
“I am sorry, Imran Khan, am not left with another option,” the tweet added, along with a parody music video on the Pakistani Prime Minister. The music video was created by a popular artist and YouTuber Saad Alvi as prices of basic commodities continued to soar in Pakistan. The spoof video gives a musical twist to Imran Khan’s viral ‘Aap ne ghabrana nahi hai‘ line, the artist takes a jibe at the debilitating inflation in the country, and netizens seem to hooked. Titled ‘Aap ne ghabrana nahi’ (don’t panic) the singer pokes fun at the PM and asks citizens simply to ignore those items, reminding all of Khan’s line — don’t panic. “Aap paise jama kar kar ke bas tax tum bhaaro; phir pet ko patti baandho aur bas bhook se maro (You just save up and pay the tax; then tie your stomach and die of hunger),” the artist is heard singing in the song.
The prime minister went viral for his line, which quickly became a catchphrase to troll him as he urged citizens not to worry in an address to the nation during Coronavirus pandemic, “Aap ne ghabrana nahi hai [You should not panic]. It is our belief that life and death are in the hands of Allah,” he had said in March 2020.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, said the social media profiles of its Embassy in Serbia were hacked. “The Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia have been hacked. Messages being posted on these accounts are not from the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia,” it stated on Twitter.
The foreign ministry is looking into the matter, Dr Arslan Khalid, the official who handles Khan’s social media, said while reacting to the embassy’s tweet to claim that the postings found on the embassy twitter handle in Serbia was not a genuine one. The official, however, had not commented on the parody video that also expose Pakistan’s poor economic conditions.
In the comments section, many asked who is running this handle, and whether the account has been hacked. Yet, some defended whoever posted the tweets as an act of desperation.
In October, it was reported that inflation for the last three years in Pakistan had reached the highest level in the past 70 years, which led to protests by opposition parties. Food prices have doubled, while the prices of ghee, oil, sugar, flour and poultry have reached record high.
“The country is paying the price for inflation, economic devastation and unemployment and the government has no realisation that it is not only the poor but even those holding white-collar jobs that have been crushed by it,” the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief Shahbaz Sharif had said.
