27 June 2023

Woman doctored into selfie of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and son

By Haseem uz Zaman

Claim: A picture shows Maulana Fazlur Rehman posing for a selfie with a young woman.

Fact: The picture actually shows a bearded man in a turban and shawl — whom Soch Fact Check identified as Asjad Mahmood, the son of Fazlur Rehman — taking a selfie with his father.

On 3 June 2023, Facebook user ‘Maqsad Ali’ uploaded a picture (archive) featuring Maulana Fazlur Rehman — the chief of the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), as well as the ruling coalition called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — posing for a selfie with a young woman.

The post includes the caption, “Diesel ⛽🐖,” denoting a fuel pump and a pig.

Rehman is colloquially known as Maulana Diesel, a term that was used some time ago by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and the incumbent minister of defence, Khawaja Asif.

Fact or Fiction?

Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image in question and found a tweet (archive) containing the original, unedited photo by Twitter user @sadaqatkhan_95, who wrote:

“فرق صرف اتنا ہےکہ ہمارے ساتھی جھوٹ، منافقت اور دو نمبری کا سہارا نہیں لیتے، جےیوآئی سوشل میڈیا کے ساتھی ایکٹیو بھی ہے اور مخالفین کے پروپیگنڈوں کا بھرپور جواب بھی دے رہی ہیں.
[The only difference is that our friends do not resort to lies, hypocrisy, and double standards, JUI’s social media friends are not only active on but are giving befitting responses to the opponents’ propaganda.]”

We reached out to @sadaqatkhan_95 on Twitter and asked him to provide a link to the original image, which is available here (archive) on the Facebook profile of Asjad Mahmood, Fazlur Rehman’s son.

The post, which was published on 5 June 2019, is captioned:

“وہ انسان اپنی قسمت پر ناز ورشک کیوں نہ کرے جسے رب نے والد وقائد ایک ہی ہستی میں جمع کرکے عطا فرمایا ہے۔ تمام عالم اسلام کو عید مبارک۔
[Why shouldn’t a person be proud of and delighted over their fate whom the Lord has given in one person a father and a leader? Eid Mubarak to the Islamic world.]”

The image that we are investigating appears to have visible signs of being doctored when compared with the original. Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the picture is false.

Virality

The post (archive) by Facebook user ‘Maqsad Ali’ has over 42,000 reactions, 10,000 comments, and 12,000 shares, as of writing time.

Soch Fact Check also found Facebook posts here, here, here, here, and here, among others. On Twitter, we found the doctored image here, here, here, here, and here.