OVER the weekend, another ‘open letter’ addressed to the army chief and attributed to former prime minister Imran Khan was posted on social media. The long missive gained considerable traction, as anything related or attributed to the jailed ex-premier usually does, with many discussing, dissecting and debating its contents and what their implications could mean in the present political context. But the question also arose: were these Mr Khan’s own words, or someone else’s version of what he may have said during his limited interactions with his confidants and legal counsels? After all, his first ‘letter’, too, was apparently never inked on paper.

The jailed leader does not seem to have any facility to correspond directly with the outside world. He certainly does not have access to social media. His surrogates frequently tussle over who gets to meet him and who does not, and Mr Khan has often complained that he has little control over those allowed to visit him. There are very few within the PTI who seem to know who actually runs the former prime minister’s social media accounts, and quite a few have previously expressed their exasperation with the more hard-line stance taken by them, which has undermined their own efforts at finding diplomatic solutions to the party’s problems. This presents a complicated situation. With quite a few groups within the party vying for influence and control of the official narrative, there is no way to tell what the PTI’s official stance is on key matters. However, as bad as this is for the party, it is also dangerous for the state. The policy to tightly control Mr Khan’s visibility in mainstream media and to keep him silenced and sequestered has inadvertently increased ordinary people’s reliance on alternative mediums for information. Mr Khan is followed by millions on social media. This means that whatever gets posted from his accounts gets immense visibility, even if it is not exactly what he may be thinking at any given point. So far, Mr Khan has not had any known issues with how his accounts are run. However, the danger remains that his accounts’ operators may cause much harm, even if inadvertently, over a small miscommunication. All stakeholders need to avoid anything which may escalate tensions and create an environment where hostilities spin out of control.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2025