Claim: A form circulating on social media asks individuals affected by the torrential rains and flooding in Sindh to submit information to obtain relief funds from the Government of Sindh.
Fact: The Sindh government has not issued this form. A spokesperson for Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has termed it “not genuine”.
A form for victims of flooding in Pakistan’s Sindh province to receive compensation has been circulating online. The Sindhi-language form, titled “proforma for relief compensation in case of damage to property-houses”, was sent to Soch Fact Check for verification on 24 August 2022.
The individual who submitted the form to Soch Fact Check for verification alleges that government officials are distributing it in Larkana. Moreover, the form also looks legitimate due to the way it is formatted and due to the fact that it mentions the designations of several government officials.
Facebook page ‘Media Cell Sindhi Language Authority’ also shared the form along a Sindhi-language caption which, when translated to English, reads:
“The proforma issued by the Government of Sindh for financial assistance for the victims of rains and floods in Sindh has been circulating on social media since yesterday and there is a discussion for such a proforma to be in Sindhi language as well. In a similar discussion on social media, Dr Ishaq Samejo, the Chairman of the Sindhi Language Authority, opined that the said proforma must be in Sindhi language and if the relevant institution does not issue it, then its translation will be provided by an authorised institution of Sindhi language. This Sindhi proforma is being released in the same context.”
Facebook page ‘Media Cell Sindhi Language Authority’ has now deleted the post and issued a clarification in Sindhi here, part of which reads:
“As has been explained in some circles, the Sindh government has not issued any such proforma, so it has been removed from the official website of the Sindhi Language Authority. It is also clarified that the Sindh government has not issued any such proforma. Yet, it is hoped that a new proforma or material prepared for the support of the people will be in Sindhi as well.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reached out to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s media consultant and spokesperson, Abdul Rasheed Channa, to inquire whether the provincial government has indeed issued such a form. Channa told us via WhatsApp, “This is not genuine.”
In this regard, Soch Fact Check also reached out to Sindhi Language Authority Chairperson Ishaq Samejo for a comment. He explained that as the form in question had been circulating on social media for the week in Urdu, some Sindhi writers asked why it was not available in Sindhi and why the government of Sindh had issued it in Urdu only.
“We thought that since we are a government institution ourselves, we have no issue in translating and providing the form in Sindhi language and we shared it [translated version] on social media in the same space where this discussion was going on. There’s no mention in the proforma that it is issued by the Government of Sindh or the federal government nor is there any logo [of a federal or provincial government office / department] because there was none on the original in Urdu and so there is none on ours [in Sindhi language] either. This was only an issue of translation.
“As to whether it was released by the Government of Sindh or not or who issued it, we have nothing to do with that,” Samejo said. In response to our question as to why the the Sindhi Language Authority did not coordinate with the Government of Sindh on this issue, “The federal government and institutions working on flood-affected areas issue forms of the same kind.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the form is not authentic and was not issued by the Government of Sindh.
Virality
Soch Fact Check searched for the form on Facebook through the social media platform’s organic search option and found it here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Twitter, we found it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. However, this tweet casts doubt upon the veracity of the form, writing that if it “is true than [sic] change it & simplify”.
Conclusion: The flood relief form was not been issued by the Sindh government, a spokesperson of which termed it “not genuine”.