ISLAMABAD: The United States Embassy in the federal capital on Wednesday came under fire for a Twitter faux pas.

The controversy started after someone managing the embassy’s official Twitter handle retweeted one of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ahsan Iqbal’s tweets on President Donald Trump losing elections.

Mr Iqbal had, while commenting on a Washington Post article, tweeted: “We have one in Pakistan too. He will be shown way out soon. Insha Allah!”

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members took offence at the US embassy retweeting the tweet because it apparently targeted Prime Minister Imran Khan, although Mr Iqbal had not named him, and they believe that some senior diplomat might be managing the official handle.

Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari angrily accused the embassy of “still working in Trumpian mode in support of convicted absconder & intervening brazenly in our internal politics!”

She asked the embassy to observe diplomatic norms and sought an apology.

The embassy tried to wriggle out of the embarrassing situation by saying that its official “Twitter account was accessed last night without authorization”.

It apologised for “the unauthorized post” and said that posting or retweeting of political messages was not officially endorsed.

Dr Mazari was, however, not satisfied with the embassy’s explanation and apology.

“This not good enough especially after great delay! Account was clearly not hacked so someone who had access to it used it ‘without authorization,” she contended.

She emphasised that it was unacceptable that someone working in the US Embassy was pushing a particular political party’s agenda.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2020