LAHORE - Taking over the official social media accounts of the Government of Punjab has become another bone of contention between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) among other challenges of governance the new administration is facing in Pakistan’s biggest province.

Marking the end of 10-year rule of PML-N in Punjab, PTI’s Sardar Usman Ahmed Khan Buzdar was elected as 20th Chief Minister last week.

The new leader may not have any experience of running a provincial administration but that does not stop him or his team from taking control of the official account of Government of Punjab.

However, the former ruling party PML-N is giving a tough time to the new administration by refusing to hand over credentials of the verified account of Government of Punjab (@GovtOfPunjab).

The Government of Punjab currently has three official accounts on Twitter:

1. Punjab Government (2013-18) - @GovtOfPunjab (verified)

226K followers

2. Government of the Punjab - @PunjabGovtpk (interim)

1,150 Followers

3. PunjabGovtOfficial - @punjabgovt_ (new)

540 Followers

The Directorate General of Public Relations (Punjab) looks after all social media accounts of Govt of Punjab.

Currently, the Buzdar-led administration is using a new account which has only 540 followers, a number very low as compared to 226,000 following the verified account.

It is yet unclear how the new administration would manage to get control of the old account and when all followers and data would be transferred to the new account if it decides to forgo the verified account previously run by PML-N team.

The former chief minister, Shehbaz Sharif had vacated the office on May 31 after ruling the largest province of Pakistan for three times. During his chief ministership, he assumed the title of “Khadim-e-Aala” and earned the reputation of a great administrator who had a firm control over the provincial bureaucracy. He launched many projects of infrastructural development and public transport, including the rapid mass transit projects in many cities. He was also considered an active and dynamic CM known for his long working hours.

Sharif’s popularity received massive boost by the social media, on which his team used to share his ‘surprise’ visits to all over the province among other activities.

As of now, Shehbaz who was elevated to PML-N president after Nawaz Sharif’s ouster has been replaced by a new CM, Mr Buzdar – who has every right to use the same official Twitter handle to publicise his achievements in next five years.