Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday congratulated US President-elect Donald Trump for winning the presidential election through a post on X.
In his tweet, the Prime Minister wrote, “Congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump on his historic second term victory! I look forward to working closely with the incoming administration to further strengthen and broaden the Pakistan-US partnership. @realDonaldTrump.”
However, the congratulatory message was accompanied by X’s community note, which read “Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has banned X in Pakistan. He is using a VPN to access X, which is illegal under Pakistani law.”
In addition to Trump’s tweet, another message from Sharif was accompanied by a similar social note in which he congratulated Pakistan’s national cricket team on their victory over Australia.
The incident comes amid ongoing concerns about the use of social media platforms in Pakistan. Earlier this year, the country’s interior ministry imposed a temporary ban on X, citing national security concerns.
In February, the Interior Ministry confirmed that X had been temporarily blocked due to security concerns, and reiterated that the platform had not established a legal presence in Pakistan, making it difficult to hold it accountable under local law. Reports revealed that the government has been cited by the social media giant as not following the country’s rules.