Here’s what is happening across the border: The mobile app that helped Imran Khan win, and journalist alleges ‘press censorship in Naya Pakistan’.
Victory reception goes awry for FM-to-be
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar, the country’s probable next finance minister, sustained injuries after falling off a horse Sunday in Islamabad, reported The New International.
#AsadUmar fell off horseback but is safe Alhamdolillah. Can’t take risks now that his abilities are about to be tested very severely and its not horsemanship. Pakistan and PTI has lot riding on his success in getting our economy out of the dump..
— Lt General Ghulam Mustafa – (Retd) (@_GhulamMustafa_) August 5, 2018
According to a report on Geo TV, Umar was trying to mount the horse when his foot slipped and he fell. He complained of back pain soon afterwards and was taken to hospital. Umar, who is said to suffer from a chronic back problem, was discharged with an all-clear after a CT scan.
He was attending a reception hosted by his supporters in Budana, a village on the outskirts of Islamabad, when the accident occurred.
Upcoming Finance Minister #AsadUmar injured during horse riding but now he is safe.
He got treatment at local hospital not from London. Tabdeeli Started ? pic.twitter.com/FQujUfZyHi
— Sohail Wali (@SohailWaliPK) August 5, 2018
Wishes of a speedy recovery soon flooded social media.
#AsadUmar leaves for his house while thanking the amazing people who showed up at the hospital to check up on him. We're the BEST nation when it comes to being there for one another. Glad to see the political future of this "Zinda-dil qaum" in safe hands, Insha Allah Taala. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/5RGwjMBItB
— Maleeha Hashmey (@MaleehaHashmey) August 5, 2018
Asad Sb, Glad that you are safe after the fall, but you are needed to fix Pakistan’s Economy & not Islamabad’s horses, please take care of yourself & stay safe! @Asad_Umar
— Moeed Pirzada (@MoeedNj) August 5, 2018
Another blasphemy murder? Artist killed in Lahore
Allegations of another murder by Pakistan’s ‘blasphemy vigilantes’ – Islamist fundamentalists driven to violence by perceived insults to the religion – had social media users up in arms last week, but police and the victim’s family have denied the reports, The Express Tribune reports.
Sindh-based artist Qutub Rind, 32, was reportedly assaulted on 17 July by his landlord and an aide in Sanda, Lahore, where the victim was a student at National College of Arts, said to be one of south Asia’s first art schools. The prime suspect, Ahsan Ali, subsequently accused Rind of blasphemy, but police as well as Rind’s family said the dispute actually stemmed from rent.
The report quoted Rind’s uncle as saying that while the artist had paid rent, the owner claimed he had not.
Blasphemy is a hot button in Pakistan, where vigilante assaults on those perceived to be guilty are not exactly rare. A February report in The Guardian quoted research compiled by the Pakistan thinktank the Centre for Research and Security Studies to state that vigilantes had committed 65 murders linked to blasphemy since 1990.
How a mobile app helped Imran Khan win
The allegations of military help aside, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is said to have employed technology in a big way to rally voters in last month’s general election, where the former cricketer emerged with the single biggest tally.
A phone app and a database of over 50 million voters are being touted as Khan’s chief weapons in the closely fought poll, Reuters reports.
Party workers revealed to the news agency that they used a constituency management system (CMS) created by a former US-based real estate businessman Tariq Din and tech consultant Shahzad Gul.
According to the report, ahead of the election season “PTI focused on 150 constituencies it felt it had the best chance of winning. Party workers said they used scanning software to digitise publicly-available electoral voter lists to create” a database.
Individual CMS units tasked with different constituencies then mined the database, “identifying voters by household, zeroing-in on ‘confirmed’ PTI voters, tagging them on the app, and ensuring they turned out on election day”.
“In the run up to election day, PTI workers were also able to print out ‘parchis’, or slips, that voters needed to enter the polling station. PML-N workers had to help voters fill the paper slips with a pen,” the report added.
“Work that would take days of weeks is being completed in one to two hours,” said Amir Mughal, tasked with using the CMS to elect Asad Umar, a lawmaker who won his seat in Islamabad and is set to be Khan’s new finance minister.
Weeks before the elections, Khan had sent out a WhatsApp video message urging PTI candidates to embrace CMS. “The faster you apply this system, the easier your life will become,” Khan said in the message.
Opposition alliance to decide its PM pick today
Senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), which is reportedly planning to move court over allegations of rigging in last month’s election, will be meeting Monday in Lahore to decide their prime ministerial nominee, reported The Express Tribune.
According to reports, PML-N has allegedly acquired evidence of rigging in 38 constituencies and decided to file a petition in the High court.
It was earlier reported that an alliance of 11 oppositional parties, including the PML (N), had agreed at a multi-party conference (MPC) to form an alliance against Imran Khan’s PTI in the National Assembly. They decided “to field joint candidates for the offices of prime minister, National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidates”, the report added.
While the PTI secured 115 of the 272 contested seats in the 25 July, the opposition alliance has 120. A majority government in Pakistan needs 137 seats.
Party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the party’s nominee for the post of Punjab chief minister, assembly speaker and assembly deputy speaker will also be decided at the meeting.
Geo TV journalist alleges show censored, tweets full video
Journalist Syed Talat Hussain has alleged that a Geo TV panel debate touching upon allegations of poll rigging was censored by the channel.
In a seven-tweet thread, he used the hashtag “#NayaPakistan”, the slogan of Imran Khan’s PTI, to suggest the freedom of press was at risk under the new regime.
https://twitter.com/TalatHussain12/status/1026128545209307136
https://twitter.com/TalatHussain12/status/1026128945857605632
According to Hussain, the panelists on the show included senator Rubina Khalid (Pakistan Peoples Party), Miftah Ismail (PML-N) and Afsar Khan (Awami National Party), who held a discussion on reports that “stamped ballot papers along with voter cards were retrieved from a trash dump in Karachi”.
He also said he had apologised to another guest whose “narrative” was “chopped and mauled beyond recognition”.
https://twitter.com/TalatHussain12/status/1026137301175463936
He subsequently posted a video of the censored show on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/TalatHussain12/status/1026192593166712832?s=19
Contributors: Manisha Mondal, Rupanwita Bhattacharjee, Sharanya Munsi, Anagha Deshpande, Soniya Agarwal and Hansa Kapoor