Govt not behind complaint to Twitter regarding lawyer Reema Omer's tweet: info minister

Published January 23, 2019
"This is absolutely an academic debate; why would govt question that debate?" said Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in response to Reema Omer's tweet. — File
"This is absolutely an academic debate; why would govt question that debate?" said Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in response to Reema Omer's tweet. — File

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has denied the government's involvement in reporting lawyer Reema Omer's tweets — that debated the status of military courts in the Constitution — to the micro-blogging site.

On Monday, Omer said that Twitter had received "official correspondence" that her tweets were in violation of the Pakistani law.

"Interesting times where 'officials' see references to the law — i.e., the Constitution + judgements of high courts — as a violation of the law," she had said.

Responding to her tweet, Chaudhry clarified that the government did not have any correspondence with Twitter over Omer's tweets.

"This is absolutely an academic debate; why would govt question that debate?" he asked.

"Thank you, Sir. Appreciate your clarification," Omer replied.

She, however, said "it leads to more questions: Is Twitter making up these emails? Is some impostor pretending to be a government official making these complaints? Or are these complaints being made 'officially', but without the government’s knowledge?"

In recent months, users, both local and international, have reported that they have received notices from Twitter labelling their tweets in violation with Pakistani law.

Earlier this month, DawnNewsTV anchor and senior journalist Mubashir Zaidi said that he had received an email from Twitter saying that his tweet regarding the murders of politician Ali Raza Abidi and SP Tahir Dawar was "in violation of Pakistani law according to a complaint it received" from Pakistan".

Opinion

Editorial

Campus crackdowns
25 Apr, 2024

Campus crackdowns

WHILE most Western governments have either been gladly facilitating Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, or meekly...
Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...
By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...