Former Pakistan PM Imran's Twitter Space session breaks global records

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

It took only a couple of minutes for the former prime minister and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan to break the internet, and quite likely a global record on Twitter.

Nearly half a million users (over 446,000) from around the world interacted with Imran via Spaces, an audio live feature on Twitter. The average number of users listening at a time was 165,000. The address was also live-streamed on other platforms with thousands watching such as Facebook and Instagram.

For PTI supporters attending from within Pakistan and without, however, the highlight was being able to convey their support and concern with their leader. “How are you doing?” asked a worried supporter, officially starting the session that lasted over an hour.

To a question about a threat to his life at the Lahore rally, Imran said he would attend no matter what.

“Minar-e-Pakistan [Lahore] is a special place because the Pakistan resolution was presented there. Indian Muslims decided that they wanted a separate homeland. We will also launch our freedom movement there. I believe a record number of people will come,” he said.

The PTI leader said that he did not expect such huge crowds would come out in his support after his government was ousted earlier this month. “I had expected just five per cent of what actually came out. When I saw people I was so happy because I saw a nation emerging ... for the first time I saw where we should have been 75 years ago,” he added.

Terming the protests by overseas Pakistanis “unprecedented,” the former PM said that conspiracies would not work anymore as people had become politically aware.

Amid a crackdown by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on social media activists running anti-state campaigns and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) allegations involving bots to trend these campaigns, the PTI leader urged his supporters to not say anything against the armed forces of Pakistan. “Never ever speak against the army. If we didn’t have the army, we wouldn’t have survived. The army is more necessary than Imran Khan,” he said.

He added that enemies of Pakistan were attacking the army and both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari undermined the army when in power. “What were Dawn Leaks and Memogate?” he asked.

In terms of future strategy and choosing electables over PTI core workers, the chairman said they gave out tickets to wrong people and this time he would prefer ideological workers over electables.