Junaid Safdar, the son of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and grandson of three time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, started trending on Pakistani Twitter on Monday with multiple accounts reporting that he had been arrested in the UK over a fake degree.

The news originated from a unverified handle, albeit with over 80,000 followers. Most importantly, it had the display name and image of Zafar Hilaly, a respected analyst and former diplomat who contributes regularly to mainstream media.

“After calibri font, now a fake degree. Maryam’s son Junaid Safdar arrested in London over fake degree,” wrote the user with the handle ZafarHillaly in Urdu with an image of Junaid Safdar:

The tweet has since been deleted. But not before it triggered a veritable maelstorm as PTI supporters and others started sharing videos of Safdar’s arrest.

Some gloated over this apparent fall of PML-N’s future leader while others highlighted how it had embarassed Pakistan internationally.

Junaid Safdar quickly became a top trend on Pakistani Twitter, and the PML-N had to issue clarification that the news was fake.

“Those who spread false news under the guise of journalism should die of shame,” tweeted Zeeshan Malik, whose Twitter bio states that he is Maryam Nawaz’s political secretary.

He said that the PTI Insaf and its supporters didn’t have agenda which was why they were involved in spreading fake news.

Eagle-eyed Twitterati started pointing out that the account that tweeted the news was that of an impersonator and not that of Zafar Hilaly. The handle used double L to tweak the spelling to Hilally.

The account that tweeted the fake news appeared to be of a PTI supporter considering that the majority of accounts it follows belong to PTI leaders and supporters.

A snapshow of the accounts that the handle follows is shared below.

Meanwhile, videos of Junaid Safdar’s arrest being shared on social media date back to 2018 when he and his cousin Zakariya were arrested following a brawl with protesters outside theri Avenfield residence.

The news of Safdar’s arrest over a fake degree is also not true. Junaid Safdar has a master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE). He has also done a degree from the University College London (UCL).