Claim: A photo shows Jamaat-e-Islami’s Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman taking an oath of loyalty from property tycoon Malik Riaz.
Fact: The photo is from a 2020 meeting when the two parties reached an agreement following JI-led protests against Bahria Town for allegedly refusing to provide land allotments to some of its registrants.
Fact or Fiction?
On 16 January 2023, Dr Fatima K – PTI shared a photo of Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman and property tycoon Malik Riaz on Twitter with the caption, “لگتا ہے حافظ نعیم حلفِ وفاداری لے رہے ہیں!! [It seems that Hafiz Naeem is taking oath of loyalty!!].”
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be misleading. A Google Reverse Image Search led to a blog published on 1 July 2022 on JI’s official website. The article titled “Bahria Town Issue” carried the same photo.
The blog states that Rehman organised multiple sit-ins against the Bahria Town management in 2020, which had allegedly refused to provide land allotments to some of its registrants.
Dawn News also reported about the JI-led sit-in held against Bahria Town on 1 February 2020.
Taking a cue from this, Soch Fact Check searched Google with the keywords “Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman Malik Riaz meeting” and came across a YouTube video posted by JI on their account. The video titled “Malik Riaz Meeting with Hafiz Naeem | JI and Bahria Town Agreement” was posted on 18 April 2020.
The caption states, “Malik Riaz Meeting with Hafiz Naeem | JI and Bahria Town Agreement 09-03-2020.”
Another video posted by Info JI Karachi on YouTube confirms that the agreement was reached between the two parties on 3 March 2020.
The agreement between JI and Bahria Town hoped to resolve the issues of allottees who were not given possession of their properties and those who were promised refunds but were denied payments.
The proliferation of the claim could be linked to Karachi’s local government (LG) elections in which JI trailed behind Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), according to results issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
We sifted through Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi’s Twitter account, where they post regular updates about Rehman’s official activities, and ascertained that he did not meet Riaz since the LG polls took place on 15 January 2023. Local media outlets did not report on any such meeting in 2023.
Hence, Soch Fact Check concluded that the viral photo being passed off as recent is from 2020.
Virality:
The photo can be found here, here, here and here on Twitter.
The claim was shared here, here, here, here and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: The photo does not show Rehman taking an oath of loyalty from property tycoon Riaz. In fact, it’s from 2020 when the two reached an agreement to help resolve issues of Bahria Town affectees.