Pakistan Embassy Serbia’s Twitter goes rogue, tweets against inflation
Claims staff hasn’t been paid for three months
Pakistan Embassy in Serbia went rogue on Friday and tweeted against what they claimed to be the non-payment of the embassy staff’s salaries.
The tweet, which went live at 10:56am Pakistan time, read that the inflation in the country has broken all previous records.
The person using the embassy’s Twitter account tagged Prime Minister Imran Khan and asked “how long do you expect @ImranKhanPTI that we government officials will remain silent and keep working for you without being paid for the past 3 months”.
With inflation breaking all previous records, how long do you expect @ImranKhanPTI that we goverment official will remain silent & keep working for you without been paid for past 3 months & our children been forced out of school due to non payment of fees
— Pakistan Embassy Serbia (@PakinSerbia) December 3, 2021
Is this #NayaPakistan ? pic.twitter.com/PwtZNV84tv
The Tweet also claimed that their children have been expelled from schools “due to non-payment of fees”.
“Is this #NayaPakistan?” the tweet read.
In another tweet, the person apologized to the prime minister for their act. “I am sorry @ImranKhanPTI, am not left with another option.”
Dr Arsalan Khalid, Focal Person to PM on Digital Media, claims that the account has been hacked and the foreign office is conducting an inquiry.
The Twitter account of Pakistan’s embassy in Serbia is hacked as per information from foreign office and @ForeignOfficePk is conducting an enquiry into it.
— Dr Arslan Khalid (@arslankhalid_m) December 3, 2021
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that the social media accounts of the Pakistan Embassy in Serbia have been hacked.
The Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia have been hacked.
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) December 3, 2021
Messages being posted on these accounts are not from the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia.
Last month, the prime minister ordered an inquiry against Hammad Shamimi, Senior Joint Secretary Cabinet Division, for his remarks against the government on social media.
“One similarity between the PTI and the [Afghan] Taliban is that both are wondering how to run the government after coming into power. And both have invested their hopes in Abpara,” Shamimi had allegedly shared. After the post, he was suspended.
In August this year, the federal government almost barred its employees from expressing their views or engaging in discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other similar applications.
The Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1964, prohibits government servants from participating “in any media platform except with the express permission of the government”.
The memorandum says that under Rule 22, government servants were not allowed to make “any statement of fact or opinion which is capable of embarrassing the government in any documents published or in any communication made to the press or in any public utterance or television programme or radio broadcast delivered by him or her.”
