A crackdown on activists and supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) accused of organising smear campaigns against state institutions – the army and the judiciary – on social media, has been afoot for two weeks. Informal in declaration and opaque in its execution, it has so far resulted in at least a dozen arrests.

According to an official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), about a dozen activists have been detained in the Punjab. The official would not share details.

“They are being interrogated by the anti-terrorism wing,” he added. According to media reports, the mastermind of the “anti-army” campaign has been arrested and has identified other members of his network resulting in at least six other arrests.

Hours after Imran Khan’s removal as prime minister, the house of Arsalan Khalid, head of the digital media wing of the PTI, was raided. His phone and laptop were confiscated, the PTI said.

Khan lost his premiership in a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly after a series of unconstitutional acts to stop the vote from going ahead. Following his ouster, some of the charged PTI supporters expressed their anger on social media publishing comments blaming the military establishment and top judiciary.

There were millions of tweets within a few days with the top trending hashtags targetting the army, the judiciary and the new government.

“Wow! Deep shadows cast over Arslan Khalid’s house as it got raided & his family’s phones taken away. Not surprising because “deep-seated” intolerance for criticism leads to irrational rage. But criticism on social media often spontaneous unlike coups! #WeStandWithDrArsalanKhalid,” tweeted former human rights minister Shireen Mazari.

A formation commanders’ conference was then reported by the Inter Services Public Relations to have taken notice on “the recent propaganda campaign by some quarters to malign [the] Pakistan Army and create division between the institution and society.” “[The] Pakistan Army has always stood by the state institutions to guard [them] and always will, without any compromise,” it added. This was followed by a press conference by the ISPR director general.

The PTI leadership distanced itself from “individual acts” on social media. However, on its official social media account, the PTI urged party activists to report to the party if they or anyone they
knew was getting threats or was being targetted or politically victimised.

“Arbitrary arrests are certainly condemnable and Pakistani law enforcement agencies have a track record of intimidation,” says Nighat Dad, a digital media rights activist. She says arrests on the basis of political dissent or criticising certain powerful institutions cannot be justified.

“The state needs to be very transparent and to follow the procedures given in the law i.e., arrest warrants and presenting the detainees before courts,” she says “otherwise it will have a very negative impact on society and freedom of expression.” “Criticism which does not have a real-world harm cannot be tackled in a such a regimental way.”

“The Pakistani authorities must stop using the draconian Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act to punish people who are simply exercising their right to freedom of expression online. For far too long, successive governments have used this law as a tool to crush peaceful dissent and intimidate supporters of political opposition. Instead of stepping up their efforts to quash dissenting voices, the Pakistani authorities should end their repressive crackdown on right to freedom of expression,” Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s South Asia research director said. She urged the immediate release of those detained.

Hearing a PTI petition, the Islamabad High Court barred the FIA from harassing political activists. The petition stated that illegal raids were being carried out at the homes of PTI activists and cases were being registered against them at the behest of the new government. It said the families of PTI workers were also being harassed. The court ordered the FIA to stop the harassment of political workers and social media activists.

Last week, addressing party workers on Twitter, former prime minister Khan said, “There are also humans in institutions. If one or two individuals do something wrong, the entire institution is not responsible. If one person makes a mistake, this does not mean that the whole institution is at fault.”

Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry told a news channel that relations between the establishment and Khan had been strained for months. “We tried our best to remove misunderstandings with the establishment but did not succeed,” he said.

The writer is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets at @waqargillani