Claim: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has resigned.
Fact: Asif has refuted rumours about his resignation.
Multiple posts circulating online claim that the Defence Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Asif, resigned.
Some posts sharing this claim further allege that Asif resigned after a controversy “over the arrest of the ADCR #Sialkot”.
This article only fact-checks the claim that Khawaja Asif has resigned.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check scoured reports about Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s resignation but found no evidence to corroborate the development. This suggested that the claim was based on rumours, given that the Defence Minister’s resignation would have been reported on widely.
Instead, Dawn, Express Tribune, and Geo News reported that Asif denied these rumours.
According to these articles, an X user, “Zubair Ali Khan”, posted on X that Asif resigned after “the controversy over the arrest of Sialkot ADCR has escalated”. Soch Fact Check also reviewed the user’s post, who calls himself a “persecuted journalist” in his bio.
Khawaja Asif posted (archive) a screenshot of the above claim by the user and refuted it, stating:
“معذرت کیساتھ ان صاحب نے اپنی خواھشات اس ٹویٹ میں لکھیں ھیں ۔ حقیقت نہیں”
Translated into Urdu, the post reads:
“With apologies, this person has written his wishes in this tweet. It is not true”.
This confirms that the defence minister has not resigned.
Virality
The X post garnered 18,000 views and was liked 1,900 times.
It also appeared on X here.
On Facebook, the claim appeared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has not resigned. The minister refuted claims about his resignation on X.
Background image in cover photo: Express Tribune
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