MQM-P's Dr. Nikhat Shakeel Loses Rs 1.5M in Online Scam

While information technology brings tremendous ease to daily life, it simultaneously offers new, sophisticated avenues for fraudsters. This harsh reality hit close to home for MQM-P MNA Dr. Nikhat Shakeel, the parliamentary secretary for the Ministry of Science and Technology, whose family was swindled out of Rs. 1.5 million in a recent online scam.

The shocking incident, which highlights how easily high-profile officials can be targeted by advanced digital criminals, was narrated by Dr. Shakeel during the ARY News morning show, “Bakhabar Savera.”

She detailed how the incident began early Sunday morning when an unknown caller persistently tried to contact her. The caller claimed to have urgent official documents from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) related to a health committee meeting scheduled for the same day.

Dr. Nikhat Shakeel noted that the fraudsters were “highly observant and intelligent,” explaining that they exploited official routines—the frequent need for quick documents—to make the call appear entirely legitimate.

The MNA stated she disconnected the call several times, but the person insisted on delivering the official documents. Moments later, she realized her phone had been compromised and felt it had been hacked.

Her subsequent attempts to report the crime exposed significant hurdles in the country’s cyber security infrastructure. In response to a question about filing a complaint, she revealed that she had reported the fraud online via the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) website and WhatsApp but had received no response so far.

Shakeel also visited the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) office in Islamabad, where she claimed the guard at the gate refused her entry and would not allow her to meet the Director General. “The guard didn’t even open the gate, even though I introduced myself,” she recounted.

Her disappointment continued when she visited the NCCIA office on the next working day. An official there, after checking her identity card, told her she needed to file the complaint in Karachi, as the fraud had technically occurred in that jurisdiction.

When she finally approached the FIA office in Karachi, she was informed that the online complaint portal had been non-functional since the beginning of October.