Claim: A picture shows people stranded due to heavy monsoon flooding in Punjab in July 2022. Fact: The picture is misleading as it is not recent. It was taken on 23 July 2015 in Rajanpur. On 27 July 2022, Twitter user @shahzadShafi007 posted a picture showing people displaced by floods taking refuge on a charpoy […]
Claim: A new scam blocks and hacks an individual’s phone after a call from the number ‘912250041117’ asks the user to press 1 if they are vaccinated. Fact: The claim appears to be false. In Pakistan, no such number — whether landline or mobile phone — is operational. Numerous international fact-checking organisations have also debunked […]
Claim: An image shared on social media on 14 July 2022 shows a huge crowd at a rally held by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Multan, Punjab, where party chief and former Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed his supporters. A poster with an image of Khan, former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Shah Mehmood […]
Claim: Hindus in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province are forced to wear topis — caps typically worn by Muslim men during prayers — when they enter the Guru Gorakhnath temple near Peshawar, the only remaining Shiva temple in the country. Fact: There is no truth to the claim. The Hindu community is free to worship […]
Claim: A Spanish newspaper recently published pictures of “thieves from around the world”, including former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. Fact: Nawaz Sharif’s picture appeared in a 2016 article by Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia about the Panama Papers. Sharif’s name and photo did not feature in a recent article by the publication about international […]
Claim: A video shows people raising the national flag of Afghanistan on a pedestrian bridge in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth neighbourhood during recent ethnic riots that flared up following the murder of Sindhi youth Bilal Kaka during a quarrel at a hotel. Fact: The video is in fact from August 2021 and shows people in Afghanistan’s […]
Claim: A cartoon circulating on WhatsApp and social media that appears to depict the Pakistani military’s extensive involvement in the country’s political affairs was allegedly published in The New York Times. Fact: The cartoon was created by Indian artist Mujaid Alam and first surfaced online in 2020. It was never published in The New York […]
Claim: A Muslim mother married her son in anger after a father married his daughter. Fact: The photos actually show the two (unrelated) parents standing with their respective children who either completed their first recitation of the Quran or finished memorising the Quran. On 3 July 2022, Facebook page ‘We Support Nupur Sharma’ posted the […]
Claim: A video shows dark grey clouds looming over the shores of Karachi, Pakistan as the city expects severe thunderstorms. Fact: The video is, in fact, from 2021 when Hurricane Olaf struck the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. On 14 July 2022, Soch Fact Check received a WhatsApp forwarded chain message containing a video of […]
Claim: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the recent by-election in Swat by defeating a “13-party coalition of PDM [Pakistan Democratic Movement] single handedly”. Fact: There were four candidates in the Swat by-election, including one each from the PTI, the Awami National Party (ANP), and the Tehreek-e-Inqelab Political Movement (TiPM), as well as an independent. The […]
Claim: Russian Consul General Andrey Fedorov has said his country “will provide oil on cheap rates if [the] Pakistan government contacted us” and confirmed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claim that his government was in talks with Russia to buy oil at a “30% discounted rate”. Fact: Fedorov made no such comment. At a press conference, the […]
Claim: A video shared on Facebook shows former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha making “shocking revelations” about the country’s nuclear assets being “at risk”. Fact: The video does not show Lt Gen Shuja Pasha. It appears to have been taken from the now-deleted YouTube channel of Pakistan Army veteran Captain (R) […]