EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE AGED POLITICIAN, Imran Khan, has certainly proven his capability in recent days of coalescing a Spanish Inquisition-esque affair in mere minutes from the comfort of his home at Zaman Park. As soon as he beckoned his call, Lahore’s Canal Road was chock full of protestors and pyrotechnics alike, all strategically manipulated by Khan to further his agenda of being an insidious propaganda machine. His success comes as a result of his unique ability to prey on the naivety of the Pakistani youth—it comes as no surprise that this is also the largest tenet of his target demographic.
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Spreading fake news and conspiracy theories in order to fuel his ambitions comes easily to Khan: it is almost as if this is as easy as left-hand work for him. The likes of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have become safe havens for his divisive rhetoric and hate speech, aimed solely at sowing discord and dissent within the country. He has single-handedly turned Pakistani media into a turf war, so as to determine which political rival can hurl the most abuse at each other in a single session. This approach to politics—which has quickly become synonymous with a culture of misinformation, fake news, and sheer distrust—has all been singlehandedly fueled by his party’s lust for domination on social media. It is nothing short of a malignancy on the fabric of Pakistani society to witness the devolution of constructive thought in real-time. Imran Khan’s obscuration of public thought has resulted in the corrosion of democratic values and principles. He is detrimental to the country’s political stability as it stands. Nothing in life is for certain, but one thing is for sure—Imran Khan is social media’s tried and true prime minister.
