New Delhi: The US embassy in Islamabad came under fire after it retweeted a post by Pakistan’s opposition leader, referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan as a “dictator and demagogue”.
Without naming Khan, Ahsan Iqbal, a former minister, and a PML-N leader tweeted a screenshot of an article by The Washington Post titled ‘Trump’s defeat is a blow for the world’s demagogues and dictators’.
“We have one in Pakistan too. He will be shown the way out soon,” Iqbal said in the tweet, in an apparent reference to Pakistan PM.
On Tuesday night, the US embassy re-tweeted the post, drawing flak from the supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
After facing fierce backlash, the embassy deleted the post and issued an apology for sharing the tweet.
“The US embassy Islamabad Twitter account was accessed last night without authorisation. The US embassy does not endorse the posting or re-tweeting of political messages. We apologise for any confusion that may have resulted from the unauthorised post,” it wrote on Twitter.
Pakistan’s Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said that it was unacceptable that someone working in the US embassy is pushing a particular political party’s agenda.
“Account was clearly not hacked so someone who had access to it used it ‘without authorisation’. Unacceptable that someone working in the US Embassy is pushing a particular political party’s agenda,” the minister said.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill also slammed the US embassy and said for the first time ever an embassy was seen “insulting” its own lawfully elected president. “We expect some heads to roll. This is unacceptable!” he said, PTI reported.
Free Press Kashmir is now on Telegram. Click here to Join.
FPK Android App for 2G. Click here to Download.
