Claim: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif posted on X congratulating the Pakistan cricket team for winning all three matches against India in the Asia Cup 2025, and crediting the army chief for the team’s victory.
Fact: The image is doctored. The prime minister did not publish any such post on X.
On 28 September, a user shared an apparent screenshot (archive) of an X post by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which congratulated the Pakistan cricket team for winning the Asia Cup and credited the army chief for their victory. The X post can be seen below:
Pakistan played the Asia Cup 2025 final against India on 28 September, with the arch-rival teams facing each other three times during the tournament. The Pakistan cricket team lost all three games against India.
Posts that include the claim surfaced after Pakistan lost the final match to India.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check scoured the official X handle of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif but found no evidence of him posting such a statement.
An advanced keyword search on the platform also did not yield results of the post in the claim, raising suspicions that it may be fake.
Even if such a post was made by the PM’s official X account and then deleted, the replies to his post would still be visible, in the likely event that his post garnered some replies or reposts. However, an advanced search of replies and reposts to “@CMShehbaz” from 25 – 30 September did not yield any relevant results around the time of the Asia Cup final on 28 September. This further suggested that the prime minister did not post any congratulatory statement about Pakistan winning the 2025 Asia Cup.
Advanced keyword search for replies to and quoted reposts of the prime minister’s X posts.
However, advanced searches on X did yield replies to another deleted post by the prime minister on 25 September, three days before the Asia Cup final, when the claim with the alleged screenshot surfaced. This clearly shows that, had he posted a congratulatory message around the time of the Asia Cup final and then deleted it, it would have been displayed with a note stating that it was deleted, similar to the X post on 25 September, which Shehbaz Sharif deleted.
Screenshots below show replies to a post deleted by Sharif on 25 September.
A reply by an X user to a deleted post by Shehbaz Sharif on 25 September.
A reply by an X user to a deleted post by Shehbaz Sharif on 25 September.
This indicated that the picture depicting Shehbaz Sharif’s X post is fake and does not exist.
Moreover, Fact Checker MoIB, the official X handle of the Ministry of Information that debunks “#FakeNews”, posted a clarification on 30 September that the screenshot of such a post by the prime minister was fake. @FactCheckerMoIB shared the image of Sharif’s X post, and wrote, “Disseminating #FakeNews is not only unethical and illegal but it is also disservice to the nation. It is the responsibility of everyone to reject irresponsible behavior. Reject #FakeNews”.
Therefore, the claim is false.
Soch Fact Check has debunked another claim about a fake post by Shehbaz Sharif on X in March 2024.
Virality
The X post garnered 1.3 million views and was liked 19,000 times.
The fake image was also shared on X here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, it appeared here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The image in the claim is doctored. The Prime Minister of Pakistan did not make any X post congratulating the national cricket team for winning all three matches against India in the Asia Cup 2025.
Background image in cover photo: The News International
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