Claim: Shahbaz Gill sympathised with Israel after Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman and Mufti Taqi Usmani issued a fatwa for armed struggle (jihad) against Israel over its actions in Gaza.
Fact: The caption of the post is misleading; the video does not show Gill sympathising with Israel. Rather, he questions the timing of the fatwa in a recent episode of his vlog.
On 13 April 2025, a post on Facebook shared a video of Shahbaz Gill, claiming it shows him sympathising with Israel in context of the war in Gaza. It claimed that, after Pakistani scholars Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman and Mufti Taqi Usmani issued a recent fatwa against Israel, Gill’s allegiances shifted. The caption reads as follows in Urdu:
یہ شہباز گل ہے، تعلق پاکستان تحریکِ انصاف سے رہا ہے، اور اس وقت امریکہ میں مقیم ہے۔ پاکستان میں اس نے کئی لوگوں کو خوشنما دعووں اور بیانیوں کے پیچھے لگا کر اصل حقائق سے دور رکھا۔ مفتی تقی عثمانی صاحب اور مفتی منیب الرحمان صاحب کے واضح جہادی فتووں کے بعد، اس کی ہمدردیاں اچانک اسرائیل کے حق میں جاگ اُٹھیں۔ نہ اس نے کبھی ٹرمپ کے ظلم و ستم پر زبان کھولی، نہ ہی کبھی فلسطینی عوام کے حق میں کوئی مؤثر آواز بلند کی۔
یہ وہ چہرے ہیں جو اصل میں “رونگ نمبرز” ہیں۔
It reads as follows in English:
This is Shahbaz Gill, a former member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), currently residing in the US. In Pakistan, he has kept many people away from the real facts by making flattering claims and statements. After the clear jihadi fatwas of Mufti Taqi Usmani and Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman, his sympathies suddenly awakened in favor of Israel. He has never spoken out against Trump’s oppression, nor has he ever raised any effective voice in favor of the Palestinian people. These are the faces that are actually “wrong numbers”, a term that refers to the ongoing rift within the PTI leadership.
In a vlog on 15 February 2025 Pakistani journalist Irshad Bhatti used the term “wrong numbers” to refer to people within PTI who allegedly fed misinformation to Imran Khan on purpose. At 8:44, talking about divisions within the party, he states:
“جب پارٹی مشکل میں ہوتی ہے تو اندرونی لڑائیاں بھی ہوتی ہیں، جان بوجھ کر پارٹی میں رانگ نمبر بھی گھسائے جاتے ہیں، جان بوجھ کر پارٹی میں بروٹس بھی گھسائے جاتے ہیں”
This reads as follows in English:
“When the party is in trouble, there are internal fights, wrong numbers are intentionally introduced into the party, people like Brutus are intentionally introduced into the party.”
Capital TV quoted Bhatti’s comments from the vlog in an Instagram post the day after it went online. Bhatti was also seen using this term on a segment by Suno News, and the caption of the post being fact-checked refers to Gill in the same context.
Fact or Fiction?
Since the clip in the claim appeared to be part of a larger video, a reverse-image search for keyframes of the clip was conducted. However, this did not yield any credible results.
Seeing that Gill appeared to be recording himself in the clip and delivering information in a matter-of-fact way, we suspected the clip may be from one of his vlogs. Accessing his page on YouTube, we searched through the recent vlog uploads, which led us to the full version of the clip in the claim. The clip in the claim is taken from 9:40–11:45 of this vlog.
In the video, between 9:20–9:40, Gill calls Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman and Mufti Taqi Usmani respected scholars who are close to the military establishment. This fact-check cannot and does not aim to independently verify Gill’s remarks on the Ulemas’ ties to the military establishment, whether the timing of the fatwas is suspicious, or aligned with other local political motives. He claims that they issued a fatwa against Israel, in light of its violent actions in Gaza. A Google search for “Fatwa against Israel Pakistan” revealed this to be true, and this was reported by the Middle East Eye, ARY News, and The Nation.
At 10:13, Gill expresses astonishment over the timing of this fatwa. He states that in the past, when Pakistani authorities disrupted local protests against Israel’s actions in Palestine, the ulema never spoke against it. At 11:11, he cites the efforts of former Senator Mushtaq Ahmed in protesting against Israel’s actions in Palestine in October 2024, which led to his arrest by the Islamabad police.
He goes on to say that Israel’s war in Gaza has been happening for a long time as well, but the ulema remained silent and did not speak up before. He also says this in the clip in the claim. At 11:36 in the vlog, he states:
“جب سب کچھ تباہ ہو گیا ہے، تو اچانک جہاد کے فتوے یاد آگئے۔”
This reads as follows in English:
“When everything has been destroyed, they suddenly remembered to issue fatwas of Jihad.”
At 11:40, Gill concludes by saying that it appears as if “Chaudhry Nizam Din” is in dire need of these fatwas and that there is a larger scheme behind their sudden issuance. “Chaudhry Nizam Din” is likely a reference to the military establishment, often used in political rhetoric by PTI supporters.
After reviewing the entire video, we did not find any instance of Gill voicing support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Hence, Soch Fact Check concludes that Shahbaz Gill merely questioned the timing of the fatwa issued against Israel by Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman and Mufti Taqi Usmani. The caption in the claim misrepresents his remarks by saying that he sympathised with Israel.
Virality
On Facebook, the video has been played 58 K times. It was also shared here.
Conclusion: The caption is misleading; Shahbaz Gill did not sympathise with Israel’s actions in Gaza. In the video, he questioned the timing of the Muftis’ fatwa against Israel, as much time had already passed since Israel started bombing Gaza. Hence, Soch Fact Check rates this claim as misleading.
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Background image in cover photo: ARY News