Claim: A video on social media shows a mass protest at Millennium Mall Karachi after Imran Khan’s arrest on 9 May 2023.
Fact: The video is from April 2022, after Imran Khan was ousted from office. It is being reshared and passed off as a recent protest against his arrest.
Pakistan Rangers arrested PTI chief Imran Khan from the Islamabad High Court’s premises on 9 May 2023 in the Al-Qadir Trust case while apparently acting on the arrest warrants issued by the NAB. However, on 11 May, the Supreme Court of Pakistan declared the arrest illegal and demanded his immediate release.
The former prime minister’s arrest sparked nationwide protests and also lead to a significant amount of viral misinformation.
It is important to note that this fact-check is not investigating whether a protest was organised at Millennium Mall Karachi or not, just the origin of this viral video.
Fact or Fiction?
On 9 May 2023, a Twitter user (@iAnumSheikh) posted a video after Imran Khan was arrested earlier in the day in Islamabad. The video shows a huge crowd waving PTI flags and chanting pro-Imran Khan slogans in the area of millennium mall Karachi.
PTI’s official account also retweeted the video with the caption, “This was last night, iA the crowds will be bigger today to protect Imran Khan! #BehindYouSkipper”
Soch Fact Check investigated the claim after many people commented the video was old.
A reverse image search on the video keyframes found a Facebook post from 10 April 2022. The same video was shared with the caption, “We out here making history!
Karachi Millennium Mall (Rashid Minhas).” The video was credited to Shaheer Ahmed.
Furthermore, a keyword search on Facebook showed that Ahmed also posted the same video claiming that he attended the protest and filmed the video himself after Khan was ousted from office on 9 April 2022.
Virality
The viral video shared by PTI on Twitter received 575k views, 6,500 retweets, and 18,000 likes. It was also shared here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, the false claim was shared here, here, and here between 9 – 10 May 2023.
Conclusion: The video of a protest showing people supporting Imran Khan after his arrest is not recent. The video is from last year after Khan was ousted from office.