New Delhi: A press conference by Gen Ahmed Sharif, the Director General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations, hasn’t gone down well with the people of the country – including PTI supporters who are now suggesting that he “visit a psychiatrist & psychologist”. The sharp reactions came in after the ISPR DG asked the party to apologise for targeting military installations on 9 May last year.
The Pakistan Army now faces backlash on social media and citizens have turned the press conference into a meme event.
“The only apology pending for about 7 decades now is the one military’s industrial-political complex owes to a population which was never fully granted the constitutional right of self-representation and was grown under mass suppression, persecution and limited freedoms”, an X user wrote while another said, “Mr #DGISPR, With due apology Sir you need to visit some psychiatrist & psychologist because all the statements given by you in today’s press conference are hilarious, ridiculous & a laughing stock”.
Many choose not to be so respectful. Memes rolled in with users photoshopping Sharif onto everything – from Bollywood dance numbers to spiritual gatherings.
One user put his picture in the viral video of followers of a monk going berserk after getting his blessings.
Another dug up his father’s Wikipedia page, which talked of conspiracy theories involving djinns and energy crises.
Another user posted a picture of Sharif emerging from a gutter while another posted a meme of him running away from a crowd charging him with shoes. One called him a ‘duffer’ with a joker’s face.
What the General said
It all started with Gen Ahmed Sharif laying down some ground rules for dialogue with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party and demanding an apology from PTI for the events that occurred on 9 May last year. He also insisted that the party abandon what he termed “politics of anarchy”.
“There can be no dialogue with an anarchist group,” he said, adding that the “only way forward for the anarchists is to apologise sincerely, abandon the politics of hate and indulge in constructive politics [instead]…talks are for political parties, not institutions,” Sharif said.
He also added that “Nothing is hidden about 9 May. The public, the army and we all have irrefutable evidence that “some political leaders” issued orders to their supporters to selectively target military installations.”
Sharif’s press conference soon became the ground for a Pakistan Army vs Imran Khan supporters battle, with the latter calling for the trial of military officials under Article 6 for alleged interference in politics.
At an official press conference addressing the General’s comment, PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan said the conference reflected “a mind full of contradictions because, at the end of it all, I could not understand anything”.
PTI social media head Jibran Ilyas said General Sharif had unknowingly become the ‘12th Man’ for PTI.
“Have to say, Social Media is on fire today! #DGISPR ne Maryam Nawaz ko comprehensively defeat kardiya, when it comes to rejuvenating insafians. Shukriya #12thMan”, he tweeted.
PTI senior leader Asad Qaiser responded to Sharif’s call for apology saying: “Allah maaf kare laikin maafi to kabhi hamne apne baap se bhi nhi maangi. Idaaro ko apni constitutional limits mein kaam krne chahiye (God forgive me, but I have never even asked my father for forgiveness. The army should stay within its constitutional limits).”
Amid cheers for PTI and criticism for the Army, voices emerged questioning the military’s involvement in political affairs and emphasising the need for transparency and accountability.
“To begin with, why is a military spokesperson commenting on political voting patterns, extrapolating tempered results (as per common journalistic consensus) and using it to further a civil-military rift which exists because of this very absurdity of seeing uniforms in politics?”, a social media user wrote.
Independent journalist Kiyya Baloch added: “Call it a tragedy or misery of this society, an on-duty army officer appears at a press conference and asks a politician and a political group to seek an apology for nothing. In fact, the army and Generals must apologize for meddling in politics.”