FACT CHECK: Former NA speaker Elahi Bux Soomro has not passed away

Claim:

Former National Assembly Speaker Elahi Bux Soomro passed away.

Fact:

In fact, Elahi Bux Soomro is alive but in fact his wife Parveen Elahi Bux has passed away.

The story:

A large number of media outlets and news channels in Pakistan on Thursday reported that Former National Assembly Speaker Elahi Bux Soomro has passed away at the age of 97 at a hospital in Karachi.

The media reports claimed that Elahi Bakhsh Soomro died due to a heart failure during a treatment in a private hospital in Karachi. The news reports further claimed that the body of Elahi has been sent to his hometown Jacobabad for burial.

Interestingly, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaraul Haq Kakar also expressed his condolence over the “death” of Elahi Bux Soomro.

The condolence message of PM Kakar was carried out by Pakistan’s state news agency Associated Press of Pakistan (APP). The example of which can be found here.

The story of Elah’s death was also carried out by other news media outlets including Pakistan Today , Pakistan Observer, GNN and The Nation.

The spread:

The news about the death of Elahi Bux Soomro was also widely shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, the examples of  which can be found here, here, here.

Family sources told Hum News that Elahi Bux Soomro was alive and he was sound and healthy. The family sources confirmed that Elahi Bux Soomro’s wife has passed away and she was buried in her ancestral graveyard in Jacobabad.

One account holder also said on X that “Some of the media houses have removed their fake story about the death of #IllahiBuxSoomro after my tweets but some websites have not bothered to remove such a brazen type of story”

The verdict:

After confirming from the family sources and all the evidence pointing to the contrary, it can be safely said that the news about the death of Elahi Bux Soomro is false.