Govt not behind complaint to Twitter regarding lawyer Reema Omer’s tweet: info minister

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has denied the government’s involvement in reporting lawyer Reema Omer’s tweets — that debated the status of military courts in the Constitution — to the micro-blogging site.

On Monday, Omer said that Twitter had received “official correspondence” that her tweets were in violation of the Pakistani law.

“Interesting times where ‘officials’ see references to the law — i.e., the Constitution + judgements of high courts — as a violation of the law,” she had said.

Responding to her tweet, Chaudhry clarified that the government did not have any correspondence with Twitter over Omer’s tweets.

“This is absolutely an academic debate; why would govt question that debate?” he asked.

“Thank you, Sir. Appreciate your clarification,” Omer replied.

She, however, said “it leads to more questions: Is Twitter making up these emails? Is some impostor pretending to be a government official making these complaints? Or are these complaints being made ‘officially’, but without the government’s knowledge?”

In recent months, users, both local and international, have reported that they have received notices from Twitter labelling their tweets in violation with Pakistani law.

Earlier this month, DawnNewsTV anchor and senior journalist Mubashir Zaidi said that he had received an email from Twitter saying that his tweet regarding the murders of politician Ali Raza Abidi and SP Tahir Dawar was “in violation of Pakistani law according to a complaint it received” from Pakistan”.