Claim: Pakistan’s National University of Modern Languages (NUML) issued a notification stating that tea will be replaced by local drinks, including lassi and sattu, at the university’s cafes following a recommendation by the Higher Education Commission.
Fact: The claim is false. NUML has not issued a notification in this regard. The image of the alleged notification spreading on social media is fabricated.
Fact or Fiction?
On 26 June 2022, an image of a notification allegedly issued by the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) began circulating on social media. According to the notification, NUML has notified members of the university that it is replacing tea with local drinks such as lassi and sattu at campus cafes following the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC’s) suggestion to the Vice-Chancellor(s) of universities to promote the consumption of local drinks in order to minimize tea imports.
Image of the notification circulating on social media
The HEC’s suggestion came after Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal urged Pakistani citizens to cut down on tea consumption to help tackle the country’s growing international trade deficit.
Soch Fact Check decided to investigate the image of the notification after it was flagged as potentially fake by university students. To investigate the claim, Soch Fact Check reached out to NUML’s public relations officer Mr Muhammaed Bilal. Bilal verified that no such notification has been issued by the university administration. He clarified that HEC did issue a statement but that NUML’s university administration has not followed up with the implementation of any policies.
Virality
To assess the virality of the claim, Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 7-day period from 21 June to 28 June using the following search terms:
- “Numl notification tea”
- “Numl tea”
The first search term received 1,680 interactions across 6 posts on Facebook.
The second search term garnered 8,200 interactions across 20 posts on Facebook.
Posts sharing the image of the fake notification received the highest interactions on Facebook pages Islamabad the beautiful and Startup Pakistan.
Posts sharing the image can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Facebook pages published news about the fake university notification here, here, here, and here.
On Twitter, the fake notification has been criticized by social media users. Posts sharing the image can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
Soch Fact Check previously debunked viral claims about an alleged government-imposed ban on tea imports into Pakistan.
Conclusion: Pakistan’s National University of Modern Languages (NUML) has not issued a notification stating that tea will be replaced by local drinks, such as lassi and sattu, at the university’s cafes. The image of the notification spreading on social media is fabricated.