PESHAWAR: Awami National Party has criticised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for announcing to hire communication/social media influencer internees and warned to raise voice against the initiative.

Party’s provincial spokesperson Samar Haroon Bilour in a statement here on Tuesday alleged that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had planned to spend a big amount of Rs1 billion public funds on training of social media activists to work for its publicity in the province.

The government, she said, wanted to target the opposition parties through social media. She added that the rulers failed to come up to the expectations of people and it had therefore announced hiring over 1,200 social media activists to work for moulding the public opinion.

The ANP leader said that results of the first phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had baffled the PTI leadership which was making all-out efforts to change public opinion in its favour and thus it was taking all possible measures to restore public confidence.

“The government is unable to dodge the people through false social media propaganda tools because the voters are well aware about the incompetence of the rulers. PTI candidates will face historical defeat in the next elections,” she claimed.

She said that such tactics on part of the government were meant to pave the way for winning local government elections in the second phase. The ANP, she said, would raise voice against such initiatives at all available forums.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2021