Pakistani citizens on Friday begun a campaign to confer the Nobel peace prize on their Prime Minister Imran Khan for his 'gesture of peace' as he announced on Thursday that his government plans to release captured Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.
An online petition has already gathered more than 50 thousand signatures and on Friday, even before the captured Indian pilot has been released, the hashtag — #NobelPeacePrizeForImranKhan — reached on the top Pakistan trends of Twitter. Around 22.6K tweets with the hashtag had been published at the time of writing of this article.
Imran's announcement has been described by many to have de-escalated the war-like situation between the neighbouring countries after the terror attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama on February 14.
(Captured at 3.20pm on March 1, 2019)
The petition said "his (Imran Khan's) aims of ensuring lasting peace in the region and discouraging revival of militarism should be recognized and greatly appreciated."
Comedian Jeremy McLellan questioned whether former US President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize could be given to Imran Khan.
Interestingly, Tamil Nadu-originated trend #GoBackModi is also trending in Pakistan as a top 3rd trend. #PakistanLeadsWithPeace and #ThankYouImranKhan are other top trends.