Social media post controversy: Pakistan’s defence minister asks Imran Khan to keep mum to reduce tension

Islamabad: Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday asked Imran Khan to keep his “mouth shut” if he wants to ease the political tension in the country, days after a controversy arose over a social media post by the former prime minister.

A post attributed to Khan, the incarcerated founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, on May 26 on X said: “Every Pakistani should study the Hamood ur Rahman Commission Report and get to know who was the true traitor, General Yahya Khan or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.” The post also had a video attached that showed black and white clippings from the 1970s.

The Hamood ur Rahman Commission Report was a report by the official commission of inquiry into the reasons for Pakistan’s defeat in the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh out of what was then East Pakistan.

Khan’s May 26 post garnered a lot of traction over the days with hundreds of RTs (re-tweets) and thousands of ‘Likes’ and was shared by multiple handles of the party and its followers.

On Friday, Defence Minister Asif commented: “I think the founder of PTI wants to increase tension.”

Asif also asked Khan to keep his 'mouth shut' if he wanted political tension in the country to lessen.

Asif told Geo News that the former prime minister, who remains incarcerated at the Adiala jail since August 2023, is trying again to create a situation like that on May 9.

Last year, after Khan was arrested, hundreds and thousands of his followers and party workers vandalised a dozen military installations, including the Jinnah House (Lahore Corps Commander House), Mianwali Airbase and the ISI building in Faisalabad. The Army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi too was attacked by the mob for the first time on May 9.

The minister said attempts are being made to retract the tweet related to the former Bangladesh president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“Barrister Gauhar (Khan) clarified that the social media team did not seek permission before tweeting,” said the minister, adding that this was the first time that the party had to retract a post on their social media account.

The tweets were, however, neither retracted nor deleted.

Asif said he has a different stand on the history of the Bangladeshi politicians and the tragedy of East Pakistan and added, “By exaggerating the tragedy of East Pakistan today, you want to increase the tension.” Geo News said that the minister further alleged that whether it was in politics or sports, the former premier had stung everyone who had done good to him and, commenting on Khan's relationship dynamics with the former military men when he was in power, claimed: “General (Qamar Javed) Bajwa's father, General Faiz (Hamid) was his uncle, now (he is) dumping all the debris at them.”

Two days ago, PTI’s Barrister Gohar Khan said that Khan’s post had nothing to do with him as the former prime minister did not see the text of the posts that were uploaded to his account, Geo News said.

Gohar also defended the tweet and said it was taken out of context as he said, “The context and comparison that we drew with 1971 was in a political context and not otherwise — nothing about the army.” Meanwhile, a Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) cybercrime team on Thursday decided to initiate action against Khan over his controversial tweet on social media and reached Adiala jail where Khan has been incarcerated since last year.

Geo News, quoting sources within the Adiala Jail, said the former prime minister refused to become part of the FIA investigation. “I will answer any question in the presence of lawyers,” Khan added.