ISLAMABAD: Pakistani social media users claim that Ministry of Climate Change posted and subsequently deleted a controversial post on its X (Twitter) account, suggesting redirecting raging wildfires into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The claim is factual. The post was viral and then retracted.
Claim
On June 2, a politician shared a screenshot of a post purportedly from the federal ministry of climate change and environmental coordination that read: “It is verified that at present there is no fire in forests of Islamabad. Wild Fire is in KP region and in the north of Gokina village in Makhrial, we have made the fire lines and our foresters are confident that they will not allow it enter in Margalla hills and will push it back to KP side.”
The politician criticised the screenshot, alleging that a fire had been furious in Margalla Hill National Park in Islamabad for the past two weeks. “To cover the federal government’s inability, the ministry of climate change wants to ‘push it back to KP side’, seriously?” he further wrote.
The post had been watched over 39,000 views, reposted over 300 reposts and liked over 600 times, at the time of writing.
The screenshot was also shared by other X users, outrage that rather than help extinguish wild fires the federal government was planning to “push” them into another province.
Removed X posts can be viewed here, here and here.
When X users couldn’t find the post on the Ministry of Climate Change’s X handle, they questioned the authenticity of the screenshots.
Fact
Two ministry’s officials aware with the matter confirmed that the post was indeed shared on the official X account of the Ministry of Climate Change and environmental coordination but was later deleted.
A ministry official privy to the event, who spoke namelessly over the phone, said that after posting about “pushing back into KP,” ministry officials realised the wording was unsuitable.
“Instead of editing the post, they decided to delete it altogether,” he said. “This was made with the intention to prevent the post from being taken out of context and politicised.”
Furthermore, an official from the Ministry of Climate Change, who also requested anonymity, did not deny the deletion of the post but defended its content.
He explained that “pushing back fire” refers to a firefighting technique where controlled fires are deliberately set to eliminate fuel sources, thereby creating a barrier to halt the spread of wildfires. “This method is commonly used to protect homes, communities, or natural resources,” he added.
Start of this month, wild fires erupted in parts of the Margalla Hill in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad and in an area of the KP province.
