Fact-check: Geo News did not misquote Aleema Khan

Social media posts falsely claim that Geo News misled readers by taking out of context a statement made by former prime minister Imran Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, regarding former premier Nawaz Sharif’s 2017 disqualification, which was later overturned.

Claim

On March 29, a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted a screenshot of a news report published by Geo News which carried the headline: “Sentencing Nawaz Sharif for iqama (residence permit) in the Panama case was the wrong decision: Aleema Khan.”

Alongside the screenshot, the X user accused Geo News of “journalistic dishonesty” by not reproducing Khan’s “complete statement”.

“What Aleema Khan actually said was that convicting Nawaz Sharif for an iqama, which was a weak case, was a mistake by the judge,” the user wrote, “If Sharif had been convicted in the real case then he would not have been able to walk free today.”

The post had been viewed over 47,000 times and reposted over 3,600 times, at the time of writing.

Similar claims were also shared here, here and here.

Fact

The claims are inaccurate. In its news report, published on March 29, Geo News quoted Aleema Khan’s views about Nawaz Sharif’s alleged graft cases verbatim.

The article reports Khan’s statements to the media outside the Islamabad High Court on March 29, where she spoke about a recent letter issued by six judges urging the top court to look into allegations against officials of the intelligence agencies, amongst other things.

In the third paragraph of the report, Geo News writes: “Aleema Khan also commented on the Panama case and said that the judge [in 2017] made a mistake. The case that he convicted Nawaz Sharif in was the iqama (residency permit), he did not convict Sharif in the real case. If he [the judge] had done so, then today he [Nawaz Sharif] would not have been roaming around free.”

Aleema Khan's exact words can be further verified by videos recorded of her speaking to reporters outside the court.

With additional reporting by Muhammad Binyameen Iqbal.

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