The United States described the formation of a new government as Pakistan’s internal matter on Tuesday, though it reiterated that any administration in Islamabad should transparently investigate the allegations of election irregularities and emphasized the need for unrestricted Internet access amid social media blockages in the country.
“I don’t want to get into an internal Pakistani matter, which I very much believe that the formation of a new government is,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said while responding to a question about the possibility of the US to ask Pakistani authorities to respect PTI’s mandate.
“So, that’s a matter that I will leave to Pakistan. But as I said, when it comes to the – any claims of interference or allegations of irregularities, we want to see those fully investigated.”
Miller also expressed concern over the intermittent blockages of platform X, formerly Twitter, in Pakistan during recent days.
The social media platform has mostly remained inaccessible since Saturday when a senior bureaucrat accused Pakistan’s chief justice and the top election commission official of being involved in rigging the elections.
“I don’t have any updates on whether it’s something that’s been raised, but we always want to see full Internet freedom around the world, and that includes the availability of platforms that people use to communicate with each other,” he said.
“I’ll just say as a general matter that we want that to – we want Internet platforms to … be available to people in Pakistan and around the world,” he continued. “And I don’t have anything further than that.”
