The air is thick with hate. But still, seeing a man confront journalist Shahzeb Khanzada in front of his family and berate him for failing to serve a political preference felt unreal. To make matters worse, a near-simultaneous circulation occurred of an AI-generated video targeting another journalist, Benazir Shah. Anyone treating these episodes as isolated incidents is looking away from a larger reality. Whether we like to admit it or not, these are flag-waving moments in a decaying national character, outward signs of a culture that has weaponised trolling, harassment and shame into the new grammar of political communication.
Condemnations have rightly followed from all corners. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar responded by calling the instances “highly condemnable” and pledged to trace the aggressors. Yet statements cannot undo the harm. The real test now is whether any structure follows the words. Accountability will require more than expressions of regret.
Because make no mistake, we are no longer dealing with spontaneous mobs. What happened to Khanzada mirrors the ethos of a 2022 incident at the Masjid e?Nabwi in Medina, where chanting pilgrims harassed a visiting delegation inside the mosque, showing that even sacred spaces have been repurposed as arenas of political theatre. Today, the same impulse has moved online. Any person can become a target. Any platform can turn into a battleground.
As always, the threat is much steeper for women. Marvi Sirmed, Asma Shirazi, Ghareeda Farooqi, the list goes on and on. According to Digital Rights Foundation, over 63 per cent of cyber-harassment helpline complaints in Pakistan in 2023 came from women. Social media platforms are awash with gendered hate speech, deep-fake videos and coordinated campaigns, especially targeted against female journalists.
The problem is not only the frequency of these attacks. It is the message they deliver. Critique us and we will humiliate you. When a journalist is confronted in a private moment or when a woman’s image is used in a fabricated video, the goal is clear: silencing the critical voices.
Political parties cannot (and should not) wait any longer to confront the difficult truth. The problem is not confined to a fringe. It often grows within their own support networks. Hence, all parties need credible internal disciplinary procedures. They need to distance themselves from troll groups and issue clear public rejections of harassment as a political tactic. Similarly, there is an urgent need for social media platforms to implement stricter regulations to combat online harassment and protect journalists, particularly women, from targeted abuse.
We cannot allow our public discourse to be shaped by intimidation. If these tactics continue to spread, the next target will not only be a well-known journalist. It will be any Pakistani who dares speak. *