The meeting was held yesterday on the theme: “Social Media – risks and apprehensions”, chaired by Justice Haziqul Khairi (Rtd) at Hamdard corporate office, Karachi. Sadia Rashid, President, Hamdard Foundation Pakistan was also present at the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, Professor Dr. Akhlaque Ahmed, former pro-vice chancellor, University of Karachi said that Social Media had both positive and negative effects, depending on its use. If used constantly it would change the temperament of user and render him/her in seclusion, however it was useful for senior people as it provided them facility to talk with their offspring’s living in foreign countries, he added. ‘Scholars across the world are taking advantages out of social media’s positive use. It has ushered in a revolution in the field of treatment as people can choose and obtain medicines through social media,’ he maintained. Justice Haziqul Khairi (Rtd) said that social media has been becoming a pillar of state, if used properly it could play a revolutionary role in the reconstruction of our society, because it gave freedom of speech, the basic right of human beings, he observed. Col Mukhtar Ahmed Butt (Rtd) was of the views that social media had become a deadly weapon and 4.5 billion people had become habitual of this menace around the world and ten persons at every second were joining it. Destroying the morals of our society and poisoning the mind g of our new generation it had brought the country to the juncture from where it seemed difficult to come back, so its monitoring was very essential, he contended. Commending the initiative of making Quran App on social media, he said, no doubt it was a good service to Muslims and such work should be continued; good and right use of social media, adopting the rules and regulations, could bring about the change and solution of our problems, he asserted. Ibn al-Hasan Rizvi was of the option that basically social media was a good thing provided it is used carefully and wisely; but, we had depraved it by filing fake news and concocted stories on it. He suggested to tax on using the social media in order to minimise its use. Engineer Anwarul Haq Siddiqui while giving much importance to social media said that it was the latest invention of modern age and we couldn’t stop it to enter into our society, only there was a need of will to monitor it and to make its use beneficial for the country. We can do it as we are not lesser in Information Technology than the big neighboring country which is using it against us. Perhaps like never before, Hamdard’s Awaz-e-Akhlaque is needed today in order to strengthen the fabrics and moral values of our society,’ he asserted. Engineer Syed Pervez Sadiq suggested that critical thinking courses should beg started in schools and colleges forthwith and it must be inculcated in the young minds: “time is money don’t waste it”. ‘It is the duty of media to bring true stories, news items and picture of the country before the people and public should not put ear on fake news,’ he suggested and further said; ‘Every technology has two aspects – merits and demerits, we ought to concentrate on merits leaving aside demerits. President of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan saved his government using social media. Salim Mughal said we should teach our children to draw a line between right and wrong, good and bad while dealing with social media. Dr. Amjad Ali Jaffery and Ms. ShamimKazmi also spoke. Shura in a unanimous resolution condoled the deaths of Dr. Jamil Jalibi, Dr. Masoom Ali Tirmizi and Nusrat Nasrullah who died recently.