ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has hit back at noted British weekly magazine ‘The Economist’ for using what it called the ‘vile language’ in its article regarding Imran Khan’s government.



In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s justice party has accused the London-based magazine of running sponsored articles that are aimed at attacking the state of Pakistan.

“The Economist running sponsored articles attacking the entire state of Pakistan (and not just one political party) puts serious questions on whether It’s the economist hiring authors or authors hiring the economist to do propaganda against Pakistan,” the PTI said.

“At a time when Pakistan is stabilising; and deliberately undermining the country’s role in countering extremism (which even many countries in the West have been unable to do despite trillions spent on wars), what is the economist trying to do?”

The party said that the language used by the article was an outright abuse of the idea of freedom of press.

“While the perspective on the economy can be one aspect of analysis; to undermine the will of Pakistani people to fight corruption through the ballot & the vile language used by the article is an outright abuse of the idea of “freedom of press”.

“While The Economist can have a perspective on the situation in Pakistan; the language used in the article and the allegations made without any proof is the language of the lobbies that are looking to undermine progress in Pakistan.”

The official Twitter handle also urged the government to officially take this up and sue the magazine for defamation.

“We would want the Government of Pakistan to officially take this up and sue The Economist for defamation on behalf of the people of Pakistan. And if you are out of bylines, we can suggest much better writers than these badly scripted articles,” it concluded.