HISTORY is replete with examples of nations surmounting big challenges with resilience. They did so by forging a consensus across social and political divides to present a united front. Pakistan has been going through tumultuous times marked by governance failures, deep social divisions, economic meltdown, and deteriorating law and order situation.

However, the political conflicts seem irreconcilable in the country amidst deep distrust and rigidity among political forces.

Political battles have now shifted to social media platforms that political parties find handy to attract tech-savvy young voters. They craft and propagate their narratives on social media to appeal to their political base.

However, there is no system of independent fact-checking or regulations to control or prohibit propaganda and false content on such platforms.

This has resulted in people falling victim to frivolous social media campaigns of political forces against their opponents and key institutions without divulging the truth.

The vested interests find more traction to propagate their narratives due to lack of critical thinking skills among the youth that is a result of years and years of debatable education system.

Media campaigns aimed at discrediting political opponents and national institutions have seen an upsurge in recent months.

This is evident from the fact that, today, almost all key institutions have ‘lost’ credibility in the public eye, and people generally do not take long before dragging them into political infights. This makes governance even more challenging.

Some reports in mainstream media suggest that the country’s hostile neighbours and their sympathisers have stepped up their presence on social media to malign our national institutions by taking advantage of the existing deep social divisions.

With the downside of unchecked, unregulated social media platforms now beyond doubt and debate, the government should strengthen defamation laws and devise regulations to discourage false content from being aired. The best deterrent is to get hold of those indulging in such practices, which does not take much these days, and punish them.

Asad Aziz
Khushab

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2023