Fact-check: Did ex-PM Imran Khan issue a notification to allot land to Farooq Maneka?

Social media users claim that the prime minister’s office, under Imran Khan, released a notification to grant hundreds of acres of land in the capital city to Farooq Ahmed Maneka, brother of the ex-husband of Khan’s wife.

There is no evidence that the notification exists.

Claim

On October 4, an alleged notification from the Prime Minister’s Office in Islamabad was floated on social media. It was dated November 24, 2021, when Imran Khan was the premier of the country.

The notification was titled, “Grant of 300-350 acres land in Islamabad to Mr Farooq Ahmad Maneka.” However, the main text of the official document had been blacked out.

Twitter users, who shared the notification, allege that Khan granted 300 acres of land to Maneka, his wife’s ex-husband’s brother, at a time when he was trying to prevent the current director general Inter-Services Intelligence from being appointed.

Fact

Officials, privy to the information, who asked not to be named, told Geo Fact Check that no such notification could be traced. Furthermore, Haroon Rafique, the then joint secretary at PM’s office, whose name is on the alleged notification, also told Geo Fact Check that there was no such notification and that the one being shared on social media “was fake”.

Neither did Geo Fact Check find the notification gazette in official records.

Farooq Ahmed Khan Maneka is a politician, who contested from Pakpattan in Punjab in the 2018’s general election as an independent but lost to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate. He is also the brother of Khawar Farid Maneka, who was previously married to the former prime minister Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi.