Singer Ali Zafar has hosted a Twitter Space to over 30,000 listeners on spreading positivity and how to overcome negativity on social media especially.

The singer's first Twitter Space, titled “What are we doing wrong?”, was also addressed by other celebrities including legendary cricketer Wasim Akram, ace stylist Nabila, designer and host Hassan Shehryar, mindfulness expert Mariam Shehbaz and Junoon’s Salman Ahmed. Ayesha Fazli, the wife of Ali Zafar and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner, co-hosted the debate.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Azam Jamil, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Tourism, said there is a lot of fuss on Twitter because it gives unconditional protection of not being caught. He cited an example that people don’t steal the money, they consider it a sin, but all of them steal software because they know they will not be caught stealing software. “The same is the twitter syndrome,” he said.   

Hassan Shehryar said that it seems there is a lot of anger and frustration among youth that tends to attack those who don’t agree with their personal opinions. He commented on a phenomenon where people want to tear down someone who goes on a road to success.

Mindfulness expert Mariam Shehbaz believed that particularly in the context of Pakistan we have been brought up in a mono-faith society, so at a basic level we're not inclusive of other religions and a lot of intolerance and hate is taught in that regard. “I feel it has a snowball effect and that kind of intolerance spirals into other areas of our lives. The disagreement here means that the other person is bad.,” she said.  

https://twitter.com/AliZafarsays/status/1487129760765562882?t=NMFluJYRfOUgTWf_q1KASQ&s=08

Ayesha Fazli laid stress on swapping the word “tolerance” with “acceptance” in the discussion, saying that the word tolerance has somewhat a negative connotation, it means you are tolerating something and if you’re tolerating something, you can’t understand it.

“If we think of accepting other people for who they are, as they are, then the next step after that would be of understanding. And then, eventually is where the change can come,” she concluded.  

Asif Iqbal from FIA talked about the laws related to social media explaining how slander on social media comes under criminal offence.

Junoon’s Salman Ahmed said we’re polarized; our ego is not satisfied until we prove the other person wrong. He also raised the issue of a girl who accused a renowned producer of stealing her melody.  

Zafar expressed his love for his wife Ayesha and how marrying her was the best decision of his life as she had taught him a lot.

He also shared his experience of being threatened to leave a big multinational deal in start of 2018 followed by a smear campaign against him on social media with the help of fake accounts.

He said he was told to leave the show or he will be destroyed but he chose to fight it.

The session ended with Zafar singing one of his favourite songs “Aa chal ke tujhe mein laike chaloon ik aisay gagan ke tullay” by Kishore Kumar for his fans. He said he wished for a world where there was only love.