Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has declared the widely reported alleged rape of a female student at a private college in Lahore a fabricated plot, accusing a political party of orchestrating the false narrative to create unrest after failing to achieve their goals through protests.
In a press conference on Wednesday, CM Nawaz introduced a student previously portrayed as an eyewitness, who refuted the claims, saying she was not even present at the campus when the alleged incident occurred. The student stated she had only heard the story from others and mistakenly repeated it to the media.
The incident, which went viral on social media, had sparked protests after allegations surfaced that a first-year female student at Punjab College’s Gulberg campus was raped by a security guard. The protests resulted in injuries to around two dozen students, as demonstrators accused the college administration of attempting to cover up the incident and destroy evidence.
Following the unrest, CM Nawaz had ordered an investigation and the arrest of the security guard named by protesters. However, Nawaz revealed that the government’s search for the alleged victim uncovered new facts, including that the student identified in reports had been hospitalized since October 2 due to a fall and was in the ICU at the time of the alleged rape.
Nawaz refuted claims that CCTV footage had been deleted, stating those reports were also false. She denounced the incident as “cheap politics,” driven by a political party (implied to be the PTI) to destabilize the government ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
The Chief Minister also referenced a viral video that falsely claimed the alleged victim had died, a statement the YouTuber responsible has since retracted. Nawaz confirmed that the Punjab government is pursuing legal action against all individuals involved in spreading the false narrative, accusing them of exploiting students, social media influencers, and journalists for political purposes.