Sindh submits complaint to FIA over online smear campaign

KARACHI: Sindh government on Sunday submitted a complaint to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) over an online smear campaign aimed at harming the provincial leadership’s efforts against the COVID-19 epidemic.

In a letter to the FIA, Sindh government spokesperson Senator Murtaza Wahab alerted the authority of a social media campaign against the provincial leadership, saying that audio clips and video tapes with fake claims were deliberately spread on social media.

The said audio clips and video tapes had accused the provincial government of asking traders and industrialists for bribes, Wahab said.

He said that the business community itself had rejected the baseless claims made in the anti-Sindh government propaganda. The purpose of the propaganda was to destabilise the government of Sindh, Wahab stated in his letter to the FIA.

The provincial leadership has demanded action against the online smear campaign, he added. He said that those involved must be held accountable. PTI leader Haleem Adil Sheikh posted similar accusations, using the same media, on his social media account, he added.

On Saturday, Murtaza Wahab had said all the allegations levelled against the Sindh government for soliciting bribes from traders were false and baseless.

The spokesperson had rejected allegations claiming that the province was soliciting bribes to allow resumption of trade activities in the city.

Wahab, in a video message, said that such allegations are an attempt to stigmatize provincial officials, adding that severe action will be taken against the elements involved in the propaganda.