ISLAMABAD; The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) announced on Wednesday that it had registered a case against PTI MNA Shandana Gulzar under Pakistan’s cybercrime laws for allegedly spreading false information regarding Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent trip to Egypt.
Prime Minister Shehbaz had attended the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit last week to participate in the signing of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
During his visit, he met with several world leaders, including Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, where the leaders expressed satisfaction over the recent truce in Gaza.
However, misinformation began circulating on social media platform X, where several users — mostly PTI supporters — shared a blurred image from the meeting with Armenia’s premier, falsely claiming that it showed Prime Minister Shehbaz with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Fact-checking group iVerify Pakistan later confirmed that Netanyahu did not attend the event.
Shandana Gulzar also shared the same image in a post calling it “treason,” accusing PM Shehbaz of meeting Netanyahu. Although she later deleted the tweet, she continued to allege that a secret meeting had taken place, claiming “proof” existed and that the Foreign Office logs would confirm it.
An FIR was subsequently filed against Gulzar at the NCCIA Cyber Crime Reporting Centre under Sections 11, 20, and 26A of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 for hate speech, defamation, and spreading fake information.
In a statement, the NCCIA said the PTI MNA had repeatedly shared fake images and misleading posts containing “hateful and inflammatory” material aimed at creating distrust towards state institutions. It added that the accused “deliberately promoted an anti-state narrative through false content.”
The NCCIA confirmed that investigations are continuing to identify others involved in the wider misinformation campaign.
