A notification disseminated on social networks claims that the federal government has prohibited the publication and distribution of the literary work of the Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto. The notification would also have ordered educational establishments to withdraw its writings from their programs.
The complaint is false.
Claim
A notification, widely shared in WhatsApp groups and awarded to the Ministry of Information and Radio, says that, under Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, the government has prohibited the publication, distribution and promotion of the writings of Saadat Hasan Manto.
“It has been observed that certain news and literary works written by Mr. Manto are incompatible with the moral, cultural and religious values supported by the Pakistani company,” said the document.
The notification more labeling Manto’s writings as “obscene and contrary to public decency” and educates educational establishments across the country to withdraw their work from their programs.
The document seems to be signed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Radiation.
The complaint was also shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Do
The notification was not issued by the Ministry of Information and there is also no prohibition on Manto’s work.
Ambreen Jan, the federal secretary for information and dissemination, said De facto check that the notification is “false”.
Tariq Iqbal, spokesperson for the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, said that the Commission had received no directive of this type. Likewise, Khurram Shahzad, head of public relations at the University of Punjab, Lahore, confirmed that no instruction of this type had been issued to the University by the Ministry of Information.
Ali Kamran, managing director of Sang-E-Meel Publications, an eminent publishing house in Lahore, also said: “Officially, we have not received any direction from the government.”
To further check the authenticity of the document, De facto check Analyzed at the help of attestiv, a digital digital platform based on the United States. The platform has allocated a yield score of 91 to the document, indicating a high probability that the content is not authentic.
Verdict: The assertion that the federal government has prohibited the publication, distribution and promotion of the writings of Saadat Hasan Manto is false.
