Towards making Pakistan a quiescent society.

Bracketing critics with terrorists would harm the countryAfter trying to muzzle the print and electronic media through PMRA, the information ministry is after social media which had played a big role in bringing PTI to power.It was interesting to hear Fawad Chaudhry talking about the need to encourage discourse and debate in the country and then saying this was not possible in the presence of people threatening each others' lives over differences of opinion.

He referred to terrorist groups that want to forcibly foist a system of their own choice on the rest of the population. One thought he had in mind the TLP or perhaps the TTP or Daesh.

Few would have disagreed with the interior minister if he was to clamp down on networks of the sort despite his mysterious silence earlier when the TLP went on rampage.It appears however that there is more to Fawad Chaudhry's outburst than meets the eye.

As the information minister put it the government is about to initiate a comprehensive crackdown on social media. The move appears have a grand design i.

e., to silence all voices of dissent in the social media.

While many will readily agree that propagation of violence is illegal and must be stopped, criticism of government leaders, departments, institutions and...