The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has broken its silence over the controversial video clips released by TikTok celebrity Hareem Shah last week, saying that technology brings many facilities “but it can also lead one to god’s wrath”.

In a video doing rounds over the internet, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Information and Broadcasting (SAPM) Firdous Ashiq Awan can be seen parrying a question posed by a senior reporter regarding the videos that showed PTI ministers “flirting” with the TikTok celebrity and a friend of hers.

She said that the society was facing many challenges “like crumbling of the social fabric”, and added that technology brought many facilities, but it had “also become a way to earn the wrath of Allah”.

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“It paves the way to hell,” Awan said.

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The videos — featuring Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and Punjab Information Minister Fayazul Hasan Chohan — were released over the internet with the claim that Rasheed had “also sent Hareem inappropriate videos”.

“What about all those naked videos you used to send me have you forgotten about them?” Hareem can be heard as saying to the federal minister in one of the videos of their telephonic conversation, following which Rasheed abruptly disconnected the call.

While the videos were removed by Hareem, it wasn’t later that they went viral over the internet, drawing mixed reactions. Amid all the criticism facing the internet star, she on Tuesday was reported to have left the country and applied for Canadian citizenship.