Inter-Services Public Relations

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) (Urdu: بین الخدماتی تعلقات عامہ), is the media and public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It broadcasts and coordinates military news and information to the country's civilian media and the civic society.[1]

This article is about the Pakistani military media directorate. For the Bangladeshi directorate, see Inter-Services Public Relations (Bangladesh).
Inter-Services Public Relations
AbbreviationISPR
FormationMay 1949 (1949-05)
TypeMilitary Organization
PurposeCivil-Military Relations
HeadquartersRawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan
Region
Pakistan
Official language
Urdu, English
Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry
Parent organization
Pakistan Armed Forces
AffiliationsGovernment of Pakistan
Websitewww.ispr.gov.pk

The ISPR directorate serves the purpose of aiming to strengthen public relations with the civic society, and civil society through interacting with the media.[1] The directorate also works as the principle voice of the Pakistan's military, with its director-general serving as the official spokesperson of the armed forces.[1] In addition, the ISPR provides funds to assist produce pro-military public relations media.[2]

Overview

The Directorate of the Inter–Services Public Relations (ISPR) was established in 1949 with army colonel Shahbaz Khan becoming its first director-general.[1] The ISPR operates as a unified public relations system for the Pakistan's military, which combined army, air force, navy, and marines.[1] The ISPR manage the public relations requirement of the armed forces, and is staffed with the combined personnel of the military along with civilian officers.[1] It functions at the Joint Staff Headquarters (JS HQ) and plays an important role for gathering a national support for the armed forces at the public level.[1] The ISPR also aims to strengthen support for the military's assigned contingency operations while undermining the perceived stature of the adversary.[1]

In views of US army colonel John Adache, the ISPR interfaces between the armed forces, civil media, and the civic society.[1] Furthermore, the ISPR also formulates the media policy of the unified armed forces, and aims to safeguard the military interests of the armed forces from negative sentiment. The ISPR also monitors international and domestic media, surveying the nature of international reporting regarding Pakistan's military issues.[1]

On a regular basis, the ISPR broadcasts televised news regarding the strategic operations in foreign and domestic areas. In Pakistan's military staff appointments and assignments, the ISPR is often perceived as one of the most prestigious directorates of Pakistan Armed Forces.[1]

Its executive authority, a director-general, is a chief military spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces who reports to Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Secretariat; Chief of Army Staff as well the head also directly report to Chief of Air Staff, Commandant of Marines, and the Chief of Naval Staff.[1]

Operations

The ISPR directorate is staffed with combined personnel of Pakistan's unified military along with civilian bureaucrats and officials.[3] The ISPR functioned at the JS HQ and responsible for garnering national support for the armed forces as well as strengthen their resolve to accomplish the assigned mission while undermining the will of the adversary.

It also acts as an interface between the armed forces, the media and the public.[3] It formulates much of the media policy of Pakistan's military, safeguards the armed forces from negative influences and monitors both international and domestic media.

It is likely that the army is planning the further expansion of ISPR to counter negative propaganda against the state and armed forces by international powers and their funded domestic media campaigns, in ongoing operation against terror outfits and economic terrorism. That's why, for the first time in its history ISPR was being led by a three-star general, Lt-General Asim Saleem Bajwa.[4]

Principal media network

On regular basis, the ISPR release televised press releases on regarding the ongoing military exercises, and notified the civilian media about the ingenious strategic arsenal testings.[5][6]

Apart from functioning as the public relations body of the armed forces, the ISPR handles exclusive dissemination of information regarding Pakistan's ongoing military contingency operations.[3]

Controversies

In recent years, there have been accusations of ISPR going beyond its domain and meddling in media affairs to undermine democracy. Concerns have been raised on ISPR handling media channels such as Bol TV and Pak TV and radio stations such as FM 89.04, FM 96.00 to indoctrinate pro-military narrative.[7] ISPR has regularly been criticized for posting inflammatory tweets on their official Twitter account. In April 2017, Lieutenant Gen Asif Ghafoor posted a tweet 'rejecting' Prime Minister's directives to probe Dawn Leaks controversy.[8] After huge public outcry over the choice of words, ISPR had to redact its earlier tweet.[9]

A controversy of "Umme Hareem" went viral on the social media when the ISPR shared an anti-PTI post on its official account. This went viral as netizens pointed out that the original post was shared from a fake account. [10] The former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi in his speech [11] taking a dig and pointed this out. [12]

Since the Operation Regime Change, the people of Pakistan turned against army [13] and to counter this, public saw a number of banners & posters with photos of army officials along with "cringe" slogans [14] in favor of army. [15]

On May 9th 2023, former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi was "arrested" from the premises of Islamabad High Court, by paramilitary forces, [16] when he was in the process to get bail from few of 150+ Cases registered against him by the government.[17] The DG ISPR released a political statement stating that the arrest was legal. [18] However, Supreme Court of Pakistan declared the arrest illegal and termed it as abduction, stating it was not the ISPR's job to decided Khan's arrest legality. [19]

Media productions
Main article: Inter-Services Public Relations media productions

Since the 1990s, the ISPR has been producing miniseries, drama, and films on military fiction. The first ISPR drama was Sunehray Din which was released in 1991.[20] Some of the most famous dramas of ISPR include Ehd-e-Wafa, Waar, Shahpar, Ek Thi Marium and Sinf-e-Aahan. Apart from dramas, the ISPR has also released many songs with the first one being titled "Rang Layega Shaheedon Ka Lahoo" which was released in 2009. ISPR has also released documentary films with the first one being The Glorious Resolve, released in 2011.[21] ISPR is well known for its media productions.

List of ISPR Director Generals
Rank and Name Start of Term End of Term
Colonel Shahbaz Khan May 1949 July 1952[22]
Commodore Maqbool Hussain August 1952 October 1965[22]
Colonel Z. A. Suleri November 1965 August 1966[22]
Lieutenant Colonel Masud Ahmed September 1966 February 1967[22]
Brigadier A.R. Siddiqui March 1967 November 1973[22]
Brigadier Fazal ur Rehman December 1973 March 1977[22]
Brigadier T H Siddiqui April 1977 July 1985 [22]
Brigadier Siddique Salik August 1985 17 August 1988 [22]
Major General Riaz Ullah December 1988 September 1991 [22]
Major General Jahangir Nasrullah October 1991 April 1993[22]
Major General Khalid Bashir May 1993 July 1994[22]
Brigadier S M A Iqbal August 1994 February 1995 [22]
Major General Saleem Ullah March 1995 August 1998 [22]
Brigadier Ghazanfar Ali September 1998 October 1998 [22]
Major General Rashid Qureshi November 1998 May 2003 [22]
Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan June 2003 February 2007[22]
Major General Waheed Arshad February 2007 January 2008[22]
Major General Athar Abbas January 2008 June 2012[22]
Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa 3 June 2012 11 December 2016[22]
Major General Asif Ghafoor 15 December 2016 31 January 2020
Lieutenant General Babar Iftikhar 1 February 2020 5 December 2022
Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry 6 December 2022 Incumbent

See also

References
  1. Adache, PhD, Col. John (2014). The Military and Public Relations. Bloomington, Indiana [US]: AuthorHouse Publications. ISBN 978-1496982360. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  2. WebDesk (15 November 2014). "Short film 'Defender' wins award at international defence film festival". The Express Tribune (newspaper). Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  3. staff. "The ISPR". Govt. of Pakistan (PowerPoint). Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  4. staff. "Bajwa, three others promoted to Lt Gen rank". Samaa News. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  5. "ISPR Press Release on testings". ISPR Press Release. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  6. DG ISPR. "ISPR Press release". ISPR Press Release, timeline. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  7. "How many radio stations, journalists work for you? Asma Jahangir asks ISPR". Daily Pakistan Global. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  8. "Army rejects PM Office statement on Dawn Leaks report - The Express Tribune". The Express Tribune. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  9. Dawn.com (10 May 2017). "Army withdraws tweet 'rejecting' PM Office's directives on Dawn story probe". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  10. "Imran Khan mentioned "Umm e Hareem" in his Speech". Pakistan Defence. 4 August 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  11. "Who is Umme Hareem Imran Khan mentioned in his speech?". The Namal. 4 August 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  12. "The Umme Hareem Phenomenon". 27 August 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  13. "Pakistanis turn against the army". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  14. Yasin, Aamir (14 May 2023). "Pro-army banners spring up in Rawalpindi". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  15. "IMSR786 on X". Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  16. "Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan arrested by paramilitary police". CNN. 9 May 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  17. "Over 100 FIRs registered against Imran Khan and PTI, LHC told". 22 March 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  18. "Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan". www.ispr.gov.pk. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  19. "Pakistan Supreme Court Orders Imran Khan's Release, Terms Arrest 'Illegal'". The Wire. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  20. "Sunehray Din (TV Mini Series 1991)". IMDb. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  21. "Glorious Resolve (2011)". IMDb. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  22. "Ex Directors & Director General of ISPR". Inter-Services Public Relations website. 2 January 2007. Archived from the original on 12 February 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
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