US Republican candidate Donald Trump recently won the US Presidential Elections 2024 and wishes came pouring in. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, also wished Trump on a decisive victory. The thing to be noted here was that Sharif wished Trump on X whereas X has been banned in Pakistan. This means that the Pakistani PM must have used VPN to access X to post this congratulatory message.
The community notes on Sharif's post also noted this. A community post on the topic read, "Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has banned X (formerly Twitter) in Pakistan. He is using a VPN to access X, which is unlawful according to the Pakistani law." Sharif's original tweet read, "Congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump on his historic victory for a second term! I look forward to working closely with the incoming Administration to further strengthen and broaden the Pakistan-U.S. partnership."
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Pakistan's Ban On X
Earlier this year, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar declared a ban on the social media platform X, citing concerns over national security. Tarar stated that members of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were allegedly using the platform to promote anti-national activities.
Despite the continued ban, a post by Prime Minister Sharif on X has sparked criticism from the online community.
A user while reacting to Sharif's post wrote, "If hypocrisy had a human face, it would be Shehbaz Sharif."
Another user wrote, "Mr. Trump, this joker using VPN to congratulate you... Btw, Elon Musk plate form has been banned in Pakistan !!!"
A third user wrote, "The government has imposed a ban on Twitter in Pakistan, with reports suggesting that even ministers are accessing the platform using VPNs, which is quite an irony for a government that's restricting public access while using the same tools to bypass their own rules."