Islamabad: Pakistan plans to introduce new framework to monitor social media and prevent it from being used as a tool used to either malign national institutions or spread anarchy or extremism in the country, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said.

“The Federal Investigation Agency [FIA] has been directed to formulate a framework for social media monitoring in consultation with all stakeholders,” Iqbal said at a press conference on Tuesday in Islamabad.

The new social media monitoring framework is being devised by the FIA, and it will criminalise online campaigns to discredit or disgrace the national institutions.

The Interior minister termed social media an important weapon in fifth-generation warfare, which he said was being used to destabilise societies and create anarchy.

Iqbal said the US and Germany were still debating the misuse of social media during the recent elections in both countries and added that social media was being used as a deadly weapon “to discredit and destroy leaderships and state institutions and promote conflicts through fake news”.

The new measure aims to regulate Pakistan’s 35.1 million internet users, representing 18 per cent of the population. The country witnessed an increase of 20 per cent in internet users at the beginning of 2017 as compared to global growth of 10 per cent, according to a recent report by digital marketing agencies Hootsuite and We Are Social.

Highlighting the main objectives of the proposed framework, Iqbal said: “At a time when we are entering an election year, it is important to have a mechanism to check that social media is not used for creating political chaos, [or to] spread extremism or carry out terrorism in Pakistan, or belittle national institutions.”

Expressing discontent over the current campaign which he said was being used to defame democracy and the legislature, Iqbal said: “Parliament is as sacred as the armed forces and the judiciary. Under the new framework, we will take notice if there is any campaign on social media to disgrace parliament, the judiciary and the armed forces.”

He, however, added that the people’s right to express their political views would be respected as expected in a democracy but cautioned that “unbridled freedom on social media can cause anarchy”.

The minister said that the framework would be finalised after consultations with “the people in the information technology [industry], bloggers and social media activists” to ensure “we have a responsible and democratic social media having space for the people to express their viewpoints, but not to spread anarchy.”

His ministry termed the move “a precautionary measure” amid growing concerns over the alleged disappearance of a number of social media activists linked to the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Earlier this week, the FIA arrested 27 people from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi for spreading what it described as malignant propaganda against state institutions on social media.

The social media activists were reportedly associated with the country’s ruling-party PML-N.

Most of those arrested belong to the social media cell of Maryam Nawaz, daughter of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.