Subscribe Me and Unsubscriber PTI: Shahbaz Orders Bureaucrats

Ahmed Rayyan

Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif reportedly made it mandatory to all civil servants of the provincial government to get connected with him on social networking micro-blogging sites immediately.

A notification in this connection has been issued to all ministries and departments of Punjab government recently with an “advice” to all bureaucrats of different grades to like official page of CM Page and follow him on Twitter.

Sharif has official launched its official Facebook page and Twitter account in November 2011 aimed at creating his influence on the social media while connecting with his supporters and fans interactively.

Sharif is quite active on social networking that shows that nearly 126,606 people likes his page on Facbook and 26,925 people talk about it. He shares photos of Punjab Assembly proceedings, his official visits on different places highlighting his activities in the province.

On the micro-blogging site, he tweeted 1,494 times in past seven months and there are 35,959 followers of him on Twitter.

Unsubscribe PTI

It is surprising that CM asked all government servants to unsubscribe on Facebook and Twitter immediately as a compulsory instruction to follow.

The CM’s order is clearly violation of freedom of choice as far as human rights are concerned. It is because a civil servant is not bound to subscribe any particular person or forcefully asked to unsubscribe any specific party or person.

Although Sharif could have asked all government officials to follow him on social media for directions and actions, and it will be one of the best examples he could have set for e-governance practices at top level but his order seems CM fears of the influence of a specific political party, PTI, so he imposed his dictator’s approach on them.

PTI has been strong presence on social media particularly on Facebook and Twitter that helps it targeting youth and educated people to approach without spending huge money. And it has been proven that it championed in its strategy for convincing a large number of people to make them supporters through social media.