Fact check: When Imran Khan fell for fake news

ISLAMABAD: Fake news issue has become so endemic that even world leaders fall sometimes for false stories and the same happened with Imran Khan when he accused ex-PM Nawaz Sharif of doling out millions of rupees to his favourite journalists in 2014.

According to a report in Daily Jang, Imran Khan had accused that the Intelligence Bureau had gifted Rs 2.7 billion to senior journalists and TV anchors including Naseem Zahra, Hamid Mir, Ansar Abbasi, Ejaz Haider, Talat Hussain, Javed Chaudhry, Mazhar Abbas, Shahzeb Khanzada, Saleem Safi and Babar Sattar on the instructions of the former prime minister who met him at the PM House when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was staging a sit-in outside Parliament House in 2014.

The PTI chief blamed the then PM for bribing journalists to fail the PTI Dharna after a TV anchor had levelled these allegations in his programme.

When journalist Ansar Abbasi raised the issue with PM Imran Khan during his meeting soon after the PTI’s victory in July 25 polls, Khan said he acted on a report of IB. The report shared on social media was fake, Abbasi told PM Khan.

The fact was also endorsed by the former IB Chief Shujaat Ullah Qureshi when he briefed Imran Khan on his agency’s successes in counter-terrorism at Bani Gala meeting.

At the end of briefing, Khan asked Qureshi about the journalists bribed by the PML-N government during 2014 Dharna. He was told that it is not true and that he can verify this from the official records of the agency.