Claim: Pakistan’s former PM Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar was injured during a firing incident in Quetta on 2 December 2025.
Fact: Kakar is alive and well and there are no reports of any such firing incident. The claim is false.
On 2 December 2025, multiple Pakistani, Afghan, and Indian accounts claimed that Pakistan’s former caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar was “seriously injured” in a “firing incident” in Quetta and “rushed to the hospital” (archived here here and here).
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check did not find any such reports of a firing incident in which Kakar was injured and subsequently taken to a hospital.
In fact, according to the former PM’s X (formerly Twitter) account, he was not even in Pakistan at the time of the alleged incident.
In a 3 December post, he wrote, “I had a great interaction with scholars from Fudan university and discussed on (sic) important strategic and economic aspects of Pak-Sino relationship.”
An accompanying video shows him saying, “Thank you so much Fudan University for inviting me here for an interaction with eminent scholars to speak on strategic issues related to Pakistan-China relations, global relations, and the neighbourhood on 3rd of December 2025. Thanks.”
The same day, Quetta-based news outlet Gulistan Times reported that the former PM had signed “key investment MoU” — or Memorandum of Understanding — and “held several high-level meetings and engagements”.
Other reports from the media outlet Quetta Voice, online newspaper Bastille Post, and the CPEC Portal also corroborated the visit, stating that Kakar met “officials of the China Council for the Promotion of International Investment” and “delivered a speech at Peking University”.
Peking University said in a press release that the former PM led a delegation to the varsity as Chairperson of Pakistan’s Economic Policy & Business Development (EPBD) think tank and was “warmly received by Jiang Guohua, Vice Chair of the PKU Council”.
According to the CPEC Portal, he spoke to the China Media Group (CMG), a state-run media outlet, and praised the “people-centered approach” of the East Asian country’s 15th Five-Year Plan.
Separately, Balochistan Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai rebutted the claim in an X post as “completely unfounded” and “rumours”.
Achakzai added, “He is currently on an official visit to #China, where he met with officials from the Chinese Global Council for the Promotion of Investment and signed a memorandum of understanding with the organisation. #Kakar also delivered an address to participants at Peking University today.
“‘I am in China right now and have signed several MoUs,’ the former interim prime minister stated.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim is false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that posts by Afghan and Indian users with the false claim — such as here, here, here, here, and here — were viewed over 50,000 times collectively.
The claim was shared here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here on Instagram, and here, here, and here on Threads.
Conclusion: Kakar is alive and there are no reports of any such firing incident. In fact, he was in China at the time of the alleged incident.
Background image in cover photo: @anwaar_kakar
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com