Claim: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif deleted a video showing him signing a false version of the Islamabad Memorandum from his X account.
Fact: There is no evidence that Sharif deleted a video of him signing a hoax document. The video showing him signing the Islamabad MoU remains live on the X account of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the document appears authentic.
On 18 June 2026, X user ‘Baba Yaga’ posted:
[Translated from Urdu: “Why did PM Shehbaz Sharif have to delete his tweet? What happened was that the Ministry of Information’s Atta Tarar brought a colored copy of an MOU he had received from some social media page over WhatsApp to the Prime Minister, telling him it had been sent to him to sign. Shehbaz Sharif had a video recorded of himself signing the document without reading it and posted the video. When this reached the decision-makers, an urgent call was made and Shehbaz Sharif was practically cursed at — how dare he use his own name [without authorisation] — and told to delete the video or vacate his seat. Shehbaz immediately summoned Atta Tarar, scolded him, and deleted the post. Per Muneeb Farooq.”]
The X post included an image of Sharif holding up the document after signing it, as well as an image of journalist Muneeb Farooq.
Pakistan’s Role in the US-Iran War
Pakistan has been credited as the primary mediator between the US and Iran during the recent war, which began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran on 28 February 2026.
On 8 April, Pakistan brokered a temporary ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran.
On 11 and 12 April, Pakistan hosted the first round of US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad.
On 15 June, Sharif announced that, under Pakistan’s mediation, the US and Iran had reached a 14-point agreement which would pave the way for a conclusive deal to end the war after further talks.
On 18 June, as Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian electronically signed the “Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding,” Sharif also endorsed and signed the MoU in Islamabad as mediator. The account ‘Prime Minister’s Office’ (@PakPMO) shared a video on X showing Sharif signing the document and holding it up to the camera.
Meanwhile, Sharif posted on his personal X account (@CMShehbaz) that a signing ceremony hosted by Pakistan would take place in Geneva on Friday. However, he deleted the post soon after, prompting speculation. Subsequently, he shared another X post welcoming the signing of the memorandum, but omitting a mention of a signing ceremony.
Earlier, on 8 April 2026, Sharif had also drawn speculation when he edited an X post related to the war. The post, which appealed to Trump for a ceasefire extension, briefly carried the heading “Draft,” which was removed from the tweet within minutes. In response, many commentators, including journalist Ryan Grim, suggested that the tweet may have been written by US officials rather than Sharif’s own staff.
On 21 June, Sharif and Field Marshal General Asim Munir travelled to Switzerland to mediate talks between Iran and the US to set the terms for a final deal.
Fact or Fiction?
The original X post attributes the claim to the journalist Muneeb Farooq. However, Soch Fact Check investigated and found no evidence that Farooq had ever made such a statement. Moreover, the journalist responded to the claim and called it “fake news.”
It is important to note that while Sharif did delete an X post related to the MoU signing around this time (discussed above), the deleted post is distinct from the post which includes the video of him signing the document. The former was tweeted from Sharif’s personal account, rather than from the Prime Minister’s Office account.
Soch Fact Check was able to access the original X post of the video, which is still live at the time of writing. This contradicts a fundamental aspect of the claim, which was that Sharif had deleted the video following a phone call berating him for signing a hoax memorandum.
Furthermore, the document which Sharif holds up after signing appears to match the document shared on X by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. This contradicts the claim’s central premise: that the MoU was an unverified document obtained through informal channels.
Close-up of the image of Sharif holding up the document (left) versus the image shared by Pezeshkian (right).
Another aspect of the claim is that Sharif received an expletive-laden phone call from people cryptically referred to as the “decision-makers” (faisla saaz) who asked him how he had dared to “use his own name” on the document, and threatened to remove him from his seat as Prime Minister if he did not delete the post.
Soch Fact Check cannot independently verify this aspect of the claim. However — considering that the source to which the story was attributed denied the claim, that the video of the memorandum signing remains live, and that the document appears authentic — Soch Fact Check concludes that the claim is false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim shared across at least 12 Facebook posts. It was also shared on Instagram.
A post sharing the claim on Facebook.
Conclusion: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif did not sign a spurious MoU obtained over WhatsApp and delete the video of the signing subsequently. The video shows him signing the correct document, and remains live on X.
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