The Bahria Town administration has denied paying journalists after a ‘fake list’ surfaced on social media.

“A fake list is circulating on social media, falsely alleging that journalists were paid by Bahria Town,” the housing society said in a social media post on X on Saturday. “The letterhead used in this list is also fraudulent.”

Several social media users re-shared the post. It contained screenshots of the alleged lists, with names of at least 19 journalists.

The Bahria Town has announced its intention to pursue legal action against those responsible for spreading such misinformation.

In reaction to the purported fake list, journalist Asma Shirazi said that a false list of journalists who have taken money from Malik Riaz is run every year for “nefarious purposes to defame” journalists.

“I, Hamid Mir, Mazhar Abbas and late Arshad Sharif challenged the list in the Supreme Court on which Bahria Town declared it a fake list on a fake letterhead,” she said in a post on X.

“Even when no one spoke against Malik Riaz, we used to do it and we still do it today,” she said and shared a clip of Hamid Mir’s speech from a festival in Karachi.

In the two-minute clip, Mir claimed that Riaz was trying to grab lands in Karachi, Peshawar and other cities by building towns. He added that no one spoke, except the Dawn newspaper, who spoke against the property tycoon for his allegedly grabbing land in Karachi.

Separately, Mir also made social media posts. The journalist said that he used to criticise the property tycoon even when the PML-N, the PPP, and intelligence agencies were “with him [Riaz].” He added that fake documents were again disseminated by those who allegedly took money from the property tycoon in the 2024 elections.

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He was responding to a tweet by a user who shared screenshots of Riaz’s May 29, 2020 tweets. The property tycoon had stated that he “never offered any favours to Hamid Mir nor he has been my beneficiary in any way ever.”

Mir also shared an old clip in which he addressed the Peshawar High Court Bar. The journalist claimed that major parties in the government and opposition and the intelligence agencies had supported Riaz in the past.

“Malik Riaz’s lawyer, Zahid Bukhari, declared the list of plot takers from Bahria Town fake in the Supreme Court,” he said in response to Shirazi’s post.