According to a report by the US “Capitol Hill” on the 11th, on Wednesday, the US Embassy in Pakistan apologized because its official Twitter account retweeted a tweet against Trump by an opposition leader in Pakistan. The US Embassy stated that its Twitter account was accessed without authorization (ie, it was hacked).
The U.S. Embassy stated, “Dear fans: Last night, the Twitter account of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was accessed without authorization. The U.S. Embassy does not support the posting or forwarding of relevant political information. We apologize for the possible confusion caused by authorized reposts.”
Earlier, the embassy’s Twitter account retweeted a tweet from Ahsan Iqbal, leader of the opposition Muslim League-Nawaz party in Pakistan. Iqbal hinted that Trump’s defeat in the US election shows that he should support the removal of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. However, Iqbal did not explicitly mention the Prime Minister’s name.
Iqbal’s tweet is a screenshot of the headline of a report in the Washington Post. The headline reads “Trump’s failure is a blow to the world’s instigators and dictators.” He commented that “we Pakistan also has one. . He will be revealed soon.”
Several media reports stated that the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad retweeted Iqbal’s tweet on Tuesday and then issued an apology on Wednesday. The repost of the tweet by the US Embassy triggered criticism from Pakistani officials who accused the US of interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs.
Pakistan’s Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari called it “unacceptable” for people in the US embassy to “push the agenda of a certain party”. The governor of Pakistan’s Sindh province, Imran Ismail, accused the United States of violating diplomatic agreements and called it “ridiculous” to criticize Pakistan’s prime minister on Twitter.
The US media stated that Pakistan was one of the first countries to congratulate Biden and his running partner Harris, shortly after the US media predicted Biden’s victory in the general election last week.
