Ride-hailing service Careem on Wednesday clarified that a social media post made through its social media account that caught flak from the PML-N was “not linked in any way to the political scenario of the country”.
Earlier today, a screenshot of a post by the company on social media platform X began doing the rounds online.
The now deleted post said: “Program war gaya?” which literally translates into “program gone bust?”.
The catchphrase entered the political lexicon when PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat used it to describe what became of a show of Express News programme ‘Kal Tak with Javed Chaudhry’ in September when Marwat had a brawl with PML-N Senator Afnan Ullah Khan.
On Sept 28, in an off-the-cuff remark made to an Urdu Point journalist on the programme’s status post-fight, Marwat had uttered the now infamous catchphrase.
More recently, the catchphrase had been used by PTI supporters during the elections to refer their party’s success over its rivals in the recently held general elections despite a severe state clampdown and other hurdles.
Careem’s use of the catchphrase in the now deleted tweet prompted a backlash from the PML-N, which accused Careem of “pushing political agendas”.
“This isn’t the first time they (Careem) have done this,” said the party on X. “Careem Pakistan showing its true colours again. More interested in pushing political agendas. Shameful.”
PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah termed the purported post as a “useless marketing tactics to be relevant” and called on people to use alternate ride-hailing services instead.
Some social media users even resorted to doxxing Careem employees and their details.
Clarifying the controversy, a Careem spokesperson told Dawn.com that the post being discussed on social media was not politically motivated, and was “purely to advertise the ‘later booking’ product available on our application”.
“We would like to reiterate that Careem does not carry a political stance towards any political party,” the spokesperson said.
