Claim: A Twitter account claiming to be retired Justice Nasira Iqbal states that she, as well as her son Senator Walid Iqbal, are supporting Imran Khan and his long march.
Fact: The Twitter account from which the tweet was sent does not belong to Justice Nasira Iqbal. Justice Iqbal does not have any social media accounts. While Walid Iqbal is a member of PTI, as a former member of the judiciary, Justice Nasira Iqbal has generally maintained a position of political neutrality.
Justice Nasira Iqbal is a retired jurist who is a female pioneer in the legal profession. She is the daughter-in-law of Dr Muhammad Iqbal, a poet-philosopher widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of Pakistan. Her son Walid Iqbal is a lawyer and is serving as PTI Senator from Punjab.
Fact or Fiction?
On 24 May 2022, Twitter user (@NasiraIqbalR) who claims to be former Justice Nasira Iqbal Tweeted that both her son, Senator Walid Iqbal, and and her are supporting Imran Khan’s Haqeeqi Azaadi March ( #حقیقی_آزادی_مارچ ). The Twitter account @NasiraIqbalR has now been deleted, however, screenshots of the false tweet have been shared widely.
The claims were made after Justice Nasira Iqbal’s house was raided by police to arrest her son Senator Walid Iqbal ahead of PTI’s long march in May 2022.
Soch Fact Check found that Justice Nasira Iqbal is not on Twitter or any other social media platform. She denied her presence on social media in a video message here. This video was posted on 18 April, 2022 on Twitter. Whereas the Twitter profile claiming to be Justice Nasira Iqbal showing support for Imran Khan in the now-deleted tweet (posted on 24 May, 2022), was created in 2011.
After the tweets went viral, journalist Syed Talat Hussain also posted a video in which Justice Nasira Iqbal once again clarified that she does not have any social media accounts. All accounts impersonating her are fake.
This is not the first time Justice Iqbal’s name has been used to spread misinformation. The now-deleted account (@RTNasiraIqbal) also posted similar claims on Twitter. Other accounts with usernames @NasiraIqbal3 and @NasiraIqbalJ are also fake.
Virality
To check the virality of the tweets in question, Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis. A keyword search for the term
مجھے فخر ہے کہ میرے سسر نے تحریک پاکستان میں قائداعظم کا ساتھ دیا
Over the period of 7 days from 24 May – 31 May showed that the tweet garnered 18,300 interactions across 103 posts on Facebook.
It has been shared here, here, here, here, here, here and here on Facebook and on Twitter thousands of people liked and retweeted it.
Soch Fact Check previously debunked a claim regarding a Facebook post attributed to Justice Nasira Iqbal.
Conclusion: The social media accounts impersonating retired Justice Nasira Iqbal are fake. The tweets attributed to her are fake.