Notification claiming ban on Saadat Hasan Manto’s writings is fake
A notification being circulated on social media claims that the federal government has banned the publication and distribution of Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto’s literary work. The notification also allegedly directs educational institutions to remove his writings from their syllabi.
The claim is false.
Claim
A notification, widely shared in WhatsApp groups and attributed to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, claims that under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, the government has banned the publication, distribution, and promotion of Saadat Hasan Manto’s writings.
“It has been observed that certain short stories and literary works authored by Mr. Manto are inconsistent with the moral, cultural and religious values upheld by Pakistani society,” the document reads.
The notification further labels Manto’s writings as “obscene and contrary to public decency” and instructs educational institutions across the country to remove his work from their curricula.
The document appears to be signed by the secretary of the ministry of information and broadcasting.
The claim was also shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Fact
The notification has not been issued by the ministry of information and neither is there any ban on the work of Manto.
Ambreen Jan, the federal secretary for information and broadcasting, told Geo Fact Check that the notification is “fake”.
Tariq Iqbal, the spokesperson for the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, said the Commission has not received any such directive. Similarly, Khurram Shahzad, the public relations officer at Punjab University, Lahore, confirmed that no such instructions have been issued to the university by the ministry of information.
Ali Kamran, managing director at Sang-e-Meel Publications, a prominent publishing house in Lahore, also said: “Officially, we have not received any such directions from the government.”
To further verify the document’s authenticity, Geo Fact Check analysed it using Attestiv, a US-based AI-powered digital forensics platform. The platform assigned the document a Tamper Score of 91, indicating a high likelihood that the content is not authentic.
Verdict: The claim that the federal government has banned the publication, distribution, and promotion of Saadat Hasan Manto’s writings is false.
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