In the hallowed halls of the Pakistan Senate, a proposition advocating the proscription of prominent social platforms, encompassing Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube, has found its way, as reported by Dawn.
Slated for discourse during the Senate’s Monday session, the resolution is orchestrated with the intent of safeguarding the burgeoning generation from what is construed as the adverse and ruinous repercussions of these digital realms, as per documents obtained from the Senate secretariat by Dawn.
Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi, once aligned with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), is poised to table the resolution. Although the PPP terminated his affiliation last month without formal allegations, the Senate secretariat continues to recognize him as a PPP Senator.
The resolution posits that these cyber platforms are nurturing norms incongruent with our religious and cultural fabric, fostering animosity among people based on language and faith. It accentuates the utilization of such platforms for disseminating detrimental and malevolent propaganda against the armed forces as counterproductive to the nation’s interests.
The resolution avers that these platforms act as conduits for the dissemination of spurious information on various subjects, endeavoring to manipulate and endorse spurious leadership to beguile the younger populace. This call for an across-the-board embargo on major social networks aligns with the ongoing tumults affecting X, previously recognized as Twitter, subsequent to widespread censure directed at the judiciary and establishment post the general elections on February 8, per Dawn’s report.
The PPP has disentangled itself from Tangi’s resolution, affirming his need to desist from invoking the party’s nomenclature. Nayyar Bukhari, a distinguished PPP figure, elucidated in a communiqué that the party has dissociated from Tangi and issued a show cause notice for deviating from party doctrine.
Despite Tangi’s ousting, the party underscores his persistent appropriation of the PPP’s identity. Bukhari disclosed that Tangi, whose rudimentary membership stands rescinded, is poised for retirement from the Senate on March 11.
The party implored him to desist from affiliating with the PPP, underscoring the annulment of his foundational membership and the issuance of a show cause notice as justifications for refraining from the party’s nomenclature, as documented by Dawn.