Pakistan Today

PTI decries Chiniot blasphemy posters bearing party’s name as effort to malign

Abdullah Niazi

The Pakistan Tehreek i Insaaf has denied any link to threatening posters appearing in Chiniot labelling journalist Ahmed Noorani and activist Ahmed Waqas Goraya ‘blasphemers.’ Party leaders have gone on to say that the posters bearing the name of the party is an attempt to malign them.

Posters bearing pictures of Ahmed Noorani, a reporter for The News, were seen in the KP district. The poster read “This hapless person associated with the Jaang group is infamous in the world for declaring the blasphemer Waqas Goraya a national hero. He is the one who was most critical of the courts for taking action against social media blasphemers. Alhumdullilah today he too has been asked to present himself before the Supreme Court.”

The poster as subtext adds that “The entire country is backing the Supreme Court” before going on to ascribe the poster’s origins to the Pakistan Tehreek i Insaaf’s District Chiniot chapter.

It is worth noting that Ahmed Noorani had recently come under fire for publishing a story a day before the release of the JIT’s report which proved wrong and for which he later apologised. He was later also issued a contempt of court notice for a different story, however, this had nothing to do with what the poster implies.

The PTI has since then decried the posters as not being of their doing after they began circulating on social media. Party leader Ejaz Chuadry on twitter replying to a user that asked him about the posters said “I have inquired about it, not by PTI, some unknown has done it just to malign PTI.”

 

 

 

Ahmad Waqar Goraya too responded to the posters over twitter saying “Stated many times,I have never been admin of “Bhensa”.I criticised holycows, liars linking me with Bhensa and then threatening a journalist.” Similarly, the man featured in the poster, Ahmed Noorani, said about the poster through a tweeted statement “AND I know these banners are being placed against me because I EXPOSED real conspiracy in this story. I will continue.”

 

 

 

 

 

Another factor of interest that arose from the matter was the tracking down of the original source of the posters. It seems that if the PTI leader’s statements are true, and the posters have come from someone as an attempt to malign his party, they were stolen from a post made by a facebook page called “Pakistan Defence Official,” which ironically is not the official page of ‘Pakistan Defence.’ The page had posted on July 11 a picture the same as the poster with the exception of the attribution to the PTI in the bottom left corner.

 

 

Ahmad Waqar Goraya took this discovery one step ahead calling the poster a military conspiracy. “This banner was made by ISPR/ISI M wing few weeks ago. Was posted on Pak Defense page.” he said in another tweeted statement.

 

 

 

Meanwhile the poster and its questionable origins did manage to create quite a stir on social media with a number of prominent persons commenting on the situation and asking the PTI to clarify the situation. PTI leader Ejaz Chuadry clarified the party’s position on the matter in response to a condemnation posted by journalist Naseem Zehra who said “PTI high-ups should disallow this kind of hounding-mixing religion is lethal-SC alone can judge Noorani’ on JIT story.”

 

 

 

Meanwhile social activist and vocal critic of the PTI Jibran Nasir was also critical of the posters saying “A mainstream party whose head aims to be our next PM allows its District Chapter to use false blasphemy allegations to intimidate critics.” When shown the PTI’s rejection of the posters, Jibran Nasir claimed “I didnt see any tweets from PTI’s main account. A very senior member of the Party responded saying that Noorani does run blasphemous pages.” He went on to refer to the banners put up by PTI candidates in a local election showing depicting Mumtaz Qadri as a heroic figure which the PTI had also condemned back then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No confirmation or proof has yet been attained as to the origin of the poster and whether or not it was or was not posted by local PTI leadership in Chiniot. It has however managed to bring with it controversy aplenty.

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