Jailed ex-PM Imran’s party PTI claims its websites blocked in Pakistan ahead of Feb.8 elections

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) alleged on Friday that its websites were blocked in Pakistan and demanded an answer from the federal authorities.

The PTI’s X account tagged the official handles of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi and Interim IT minister Umar Saif.

"Can you explain why PTI’s websites are blocked in Pakistan? People are still getting symbol information from Imran Khan’s Facebook page so the question is what purpose is this block serving?”

The PTI has launched a messaging bot to inform its voters about the symbols allotted to its candidates, who were declared independents after it was denied its symbol of cricket bat by the Supreme Court for not holding its internal elections in a legal and constitutional manner.

At the same time, PTI officials have alleged that a fake web portal, imitating one launched to provide information on party backed candidates contesting the polls has been created and was providing “incorrect” information to voters.

The claim is true, since the website in question pticandidate.com, provides candidate information that is not corroborated by the official list issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), or the PTI records.

On Jan.24, the PTI’s official account on X (formerly Twitter) announced that voters can find out about the symbols allotted to the PTI-affiliated candidates by sending a direct message to Imran Khan’s official Facebook page.

The post says: "Another innovative way to find a PTI nominated candidate for your constituency, along with the allotted electoral symbol! Just send a message to Imran Khan’s official FB page with your constituency number and you will receive the information within a few minutes.”

The party has used Facebook’s “automated responses” feature to allow voters to find out the electoral symbols of candidates contesting from their constituencies.

While the post on X says that the information will be available within a few “minutes,” the messaging bot is faster than that. The reply comes within a few seconds. The reply comes in two messages: the first one gives the details of the contesting person and the electoral symbol, and the second provides a link to the public WhatsApp channel created for information related to that constituency.

It also includes short clips of Imran Khan’s message from jail to his supporters/voters.

Ever since the PTI lost its “bat” symbol, the party has been coming up with novel strategies to inform people about the symbols allotted to its candidates who are now contesting as independents.

The party has also launched insaf.pk/election2024 and a backup web page “pticandidates.com” to allow people to find the symbol allotted to PTI-affiliated candidates.

The page requires visitors to enter the constituency number and instantly displays the name of the candidate and their symbol.

At the end of the page is a link to join the “halqa’s” (constituency) WhatsApp channel.

The PTI is also being supported by worker-led initiatives online. For example, an anonymous X user and party worker has independently launched an offline Android-compatible application, “Insaf Ka Nishan,” that provides information about the PTI’s candidates. The app’s updated version was launched on Jan.23, 2024, and so far, it has been downloaded 1,589 times.

According to fact-checking platform iVerify Pakistan, PTI activist Azhar Mashwani took to his X (formerly Twitter) to announce that the party’s official web portal for obtaining information on candidates was pticandidates.com.

"A couple of people are trying to spread misinformation by creating a website with a similar name,” he wrote, pointing out that the authentic website has the word “candidates” in it.