The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) said on Wednesday that it had booked PTI MNA Shandana Gulzar under the country’s cybercrime laws for spreading misinformation about Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s trip to Egypt to attend the signing of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
PM Shehbaz visited Egypt last week to participate in the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit and attend the signing ceremony of a peace agreement aimed at ending the Gaza conflict. Among his many engagements with world leaders, the premier had also met with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia, where all three leaders expressed satisfaction over the recent ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Fact-checking platform iVerify Pakistan noted that posts from multiple users on social media platform X, particularly PTI supporters, since October 13, had shared a low quality and blurry image of the meeting with the Armenian premier , claiming it showed PM Shehbaz and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the Middle East Summit in Egypt. This was despite Netanyahu not even attending the event.
Gulzar had also shared the image with the same claim in a now-deleted post with the following caption: “Article 6! Treason! Pakistan does not recognise Israel let alone a genocidal murderer like Netanyahu.”
“I have deleted my tweet on Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with Netanyahu as the picture is not 100 per cent clear,” said Gulzar in a followup post.
The PTI MNA had further alleged: “What is 200pc clear and proof is available with ‘concerned’ people, a meeting was arranged between Shehbaz Sharif and Netanyahu. I will be demanding logs from Foreign Office of these secret meetings between Shehbaz Sharif and Netanyahu in summer 2025 to discuss Abraham Accords. Good luck on obtaining those. Meeting was arranged beforehand by friends of Israel. Full delegation from both sides present.”
Gulzar had subsequently reposted a copy of a first information report (FIR) lodged against her on Sunday at the NCCIA Cyber Crime Reporting Centre on the complaint of Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman under Sections 11 (hate speech), 20 (offences against dignity of a natural person) and 26A (punishment for false and fake information) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.
The FIR referred to the matter of the X posts alleging the PM Shehbaz-Netanyahu meeting, as well as others.
In a statement issued today, the NCCIA said that as per the investigation, the PTI MNA had shared several fake and misleading tweets and videos.
“The content included hateful and inflammatory statements against state institutions. The accused’s tweets attempted to incite racial and linguistic hatred.
“Shandana Gulzar spread fake images and false information regarding the prime minister of Pakistan. The false report alleged a meeting with the Israeli prime minister. The fake news spread fear, anxiety, and distrust among the public towards state institutions,” the NCCIA said.
“Investigations confirmed that the accused deliberately advanced an anti-state narrative through fake news.”
It added that the investigation is ongoing to identify other “individuals and accomplices behind the anti-state campaign”.
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