ISLAMABAD - The netizens gave warm welcome to former premier Nawaz Sharif on social media as his followers on twitter surged to 122,000 (122.2K) in just one day. Furthermore, a large number of people also followed, liked and shared his Facebook page upon which he had shared a video message as well. He said in his message that he was feeling pleasure that he was interacting with the people of Pakistan without any barriers. Mian Nawaz Sharif — who is currently in Landon - made a sudden debut on social media on Saturday evening when his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif announced that in order to stay connected to the people of Pakistan, her father had decided to join Twitter. Soon after Maryam’s announcement, people started following the Twitter handle of the former premier and he got more than 20,000 followers in just first two hours while the number of followers remained increasing even after that. The presence of Nawaz Sharif has charged PML-N twitterati who warmly welcomed the former premier on the platform. The tag line for trend #TwitterWelcomesNawazSharif became top trending story within couple of hours after PML-N Supremo announced to have joined Twitter through his social media account. Another thing that fascinated the followers of PML-N was that Nawaz Sharif in his very first tweet had once again reiterated his slogan; respect the vote or Vote Ko Izzat Do. The former premier since his departure from Pakistan on medical grounds with the permission of the Lahore High Court remained silent and politically inactive however few days before he had decided to join opposition’s all parties’ conference via video link on the request of Pakistan Peoples’ Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Sources inside the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz informed that the former premier joined social media just a day ahead of the opposition’s APC to reach out the masses in case if he would not be allowed to appear on national media.
Meanwhile, his critics believe that the former premier is coming out of hibernation because of the issuance of his arrest warrant by the Islamabad High Court. They are of the view that Mian Nawaz Sharif is living in London under an agreement which is being ignored by his opponents here in Pakistan and in response the former premier has also back tracked from his commitments.
Whatsoever, the reasons are behind his powerful entry on social media and political arena, one thing is quite clear from the response he received that he has still a massive following in Pakistan and he is the leader who can challenge the government at any time.