News of a NAB raid at Shazia Marri’s house is fake

Claim: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) raided former minister Shazia Marri’s house and recovered 97 billion rupees in cash. 

Fact: This is false. In response, Shazia Marri sent a legal notice to the Public News reporter who allegedly spread the fake news

On 2 September 2023, at 8:21 pm, a Public News reporter published a tweet on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “People’s Party… ki sabik wazir, Shazia Marri kay ghar NAB ka chappa 97 arab ropaye cash baramad.” This tweet has since been removed from the platform.

Fact or Fiction?

On 4 September 2023, Shazia Marri sent a legal notice to Public News reporter Harmeet Singh, who had allegedly spread this information. The legal notice was drafted under Section 8 of the Defamation Ordinance 2002 and Section 20 of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016. The law firm Siddiqui & Raza sent the notice on behalf of Marri. 

The notice asked that Harmeet Singh, the reporter who published the tweet, delete the post and issue a public apology on the same forum, or one of equal stature, within 14 days from the date of the notice (4 September 2023). Marri shared this notice on X.

We also found Harmeet Singh’s account on X. His tweet from 2 September 2023 has now been deleted, and on 5 September 2022, a day after receiving the legal notice from Shazia Marri’s legal team, he published another tweet clarifying that he had not confirmed the news before posting it and hence, he has deleted it immediately. His exact tweet was:

گزشتہ روز پیپلزپارٹی کی رہنما محترمہ شازیہ مری کے حوالے سے ایک سورس کے ذریعے جو ٹویٹ میری جانب سے کی گئی تھی مگر نیوز کنفرم نہ ہونے پر میں نے اسے فوری ڈیلیٹ کر دیا تھا محترمہ شازیہ مری میرے لئے نہاہت قابل احترام ہیں 

[Translation: A few days ago I tweeted something about PPP leader Shazia Marri which was communicated to me by a source but this news was not confirmed so I deleted it immediately. Madam Shazia Marri is a highly respectable figure for me.] 

At the time of publishing, Public News had not responded to Soch Fact Check’s request for comment. Additionally, no mainstream news organisations reported the claim.

Virality

Soch Fact Check found that despite Harmeet Singh deleting the tweet, other tweets here and here continue to popularise the fake news.

We also found that the rumour was extensively shared on Facebook. Some examples can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. 

Conclusion: NAB did not raid PPP leader Shazia Marri’s house.

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