The Twitter account of Secretary General of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Asad Umar, has been hacked, PTI confirmed in an official statement issued late last night.
According to the statement, PTI is currently working with Twitter to recover Asad’s account at the earliest, asking Asad’s followers to report any uncharacteristic tweets in the meanwhile.
IMPORTANT NOTE
PTI Secretary General @Asad_Umar's Account has been hacked. Please report any uncharacteristic tweets to Twitter. We are working with Twitter to get access back.
— PTI (@PTIofficial) July 26, 2022
Asad Umar has been on Twitter since January 2012. He has more than 8.5 million followers. So far, no uncharacteristic activity has been witnessed from his account.
Asad Umar is very active on different social media platforms. During his time as the Head of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), Asad ensured NCOC provided regular updates to the public regarding the Coronavirus pandemic.
Asad Umar has been a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) since 2013. During the tenure of PTI’s federal government, Asad initially served as Finance Minister and later as Planning Minister.
Before entering politics, Asad Umar was serving as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Engro Corporation from 2004 to 2012. He left this role and announced to join PTI.
This isn’t the first time the Twitter account of a PTI leader has been hacked. Earlier this year in May, the Twitter account as well as the email and Apple ID of Hammad Azhar, former Energy Minister, were hacked.
Hammad accused the incumbent government of hacking his Twitter account and phone. He said that a phone locator (fake tower) was used to connect to his phone and access his text messages and data. From there, the hacker started sending reset requests to his email, Apple ID, and Twitter account.
Hammad immediately contacted Twitter management and his account was recovered after a short while. Hammad joined Twitter in October 2012 and has 1.5 million followers.
