Fact-check: False posts claim politician illegally hoarded aid for flood victims

The aid did not belong to the government of Pakistan. It was a private donation made by UAE’s Sheikh Nahyan bin Zayed al-Nahyan for the flood affectees.

Geo Fact-Check

Updated Saturday Sep 17 2022

A politician in Pakistan’s Sindh province was illegally storing tents and ration bags meant for flood survivors, claimed a widely shared post on social media. The claim is false.

The allegation was first shared on September 15 on Twitter.

Claim

Social media posts accused Burhan Chandio, a member of the Sindh assembly, belonging to the ruling-Pakistan People’s Party, of illegally hoarding at his rice mill in Sindh, over 1,500 tents and a truck-load of ration bags obtained by the government of Pakistan. The aid was to be distributed amongst those affected by the deadly floods in Sindh and Balochistan.

The tents and ration bags, the tweets claimed, were discovered after a local judge raided the mill with the police.

Videos of the raid have to date nearly 30,000 views, while tweets regarding the incident have been retweeted more than 10,000 times. In some of the tweets, the United Nations had been tagged to bring to attention the alleged stealing of humanitarian assistance.

Fact

The aid did not belong to the government of Pakistan. It was a private donation made by UAE’s Sheikh Nahyan bin Zayed al-Nahyan for the flood affectees.

With the money, donated by the member of UAE’s ruling family, over 5,000 tents and ration bags were purchased by al-Nahyan’s own office in Karachi, Sindh.

The lawmaker, Burhan Chandio, told Geo Fact Check that Sheikh al Nahyan was a “personal friend” who had been visiting Sindh and Balochistan for the last 22 years to hunt.

“We asked him personally to help the people in our area,” Chandio said, “They sent their team to survey the area and then purchased the tents from Karachi themselves.”

Chandio also provided Geo Fact Check receipts of the procurement.

Sher Khan, the manager of Sheikh al Nahyan’s office in Karachi, also confirmed Chandio’s statement.

Khan told Geo Fact Check that he personally visited the areas affected by floods in Sindh, but found that some villages were still inaccessible due to stagnant water. This is why, Khan added, that his team decided to store the tents and ration bags at the rice mill till access to the areas open up.

The tents were purchased from four companies in Karachi, documents of which were shared with Geo Fact Check. As per the documents seen by the team, the UAE member of the ruling family approved two donations of Rs.18 million and Rs. 27 million on August 31.