Claim: A notification signed by the District Magistrate Islamabad announced a lockdown in Islamabad. According to this notification, except for essential services such as healthcare and medical supplies, all institutions are to remain closed and the province cordoned off. Fact: This notification is fake. On 3 November 2022, several social media users shared a notification […]
Claim: A video shows journalist Arshad Sharif’s mother. He was recently killed in Kenya. Fact: The video does not show the slain journalist’s mother. The woman in the viral video has been misidentified. Fact or Fiction? On 24 October 2022, Twitter user Sadiq Afridi (@iamSadiqAfridi) shared a video claiming that it shows slain journalist Arshad […]
Claim: A video of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, saying he has done “whatever [he] could do” and urging people to “take up [their] responsibility”, was taken as he gets treated in a hospital after he was attacked during an anti-government rally in Wazirabad. Fact: The video is, in fact, more than nine years […]
Claim: A picture shows Pakistan’s former prime minister and chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, lying on a stretcher after being wounded in a shooting incident during a rally he was leading towards Islamabad, Punjab, on 3 October 2022. Fact: The picture is not recent but, in fact, from 2014 when Khan was […]
Claim: A “witch” was filmed hovering in Kidney Hill Park in Karachi, Pakistan and strange noises heard by park officials in the dead of night. The person who shot the video was down with a 104°F fever. Fact: The video clip is, in fact, the work of Zambian visual effects artist and filmmaker Joseph Njovu, […]
Claim: One of Karachi’s busiest thoroughfares, Shahrah-e-Faisal, will be closed to traffic from 1pm to 4am on Monday, 31 October 2022, for International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2022. Fact: Karachi Traffic Police Deputy Inspector General’s office confirmed to Soch Fact Check that Shahrah-e-Faisal will remain open today; the alert currently doing the rounds on […]
Claim: Viral images and videos of a girl crying over a body in a coffin apparently show the daughter of journalist Arshad Sharif, who was recently killed in Kenya. Fact: The images and videos show Senator Usman Kakar’s daughter grieving her father who was murdered in 2019. On 23 October 2022, Pakistani journalist and news […]
Claim: A Twitter account claims to be a journalist from Nairobi, Kenya. The account posted consistent updates about Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder in Kenya. Pakistani social media users have been sharing the tweets as real news. Fact: The Twitter account is fake. The user has changed their Twitter username and handle multiple times. The […]
Claim: A photo shows police using force against Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan’s workers who took out a Eid Miladun Nabi procession in October 2022. Fact: The photo in question is from November 2o17, when TLP staged a protest to demand the then-law minister’s resignation over an omitted reference to Prophet Muhammad in a parliamentary bill. Fact or […]
Claim: A message that appears to be a NADRA alert claims that the authority has announced a new set of policies to streamline the process of obtaining an ID card. It lists down seven points detailing said policies. Fact: The message is not an official NADRA alert. However, some of the seven points are true. […]
Claim: Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto gives a fierce and hostile rebuttal to the United States, telling Joe Biden to keep shut in response to him calling Pakistan one of the most dangerous nations in the world for owning nuclear weapons without any cohesion. Fact: When asked about Joe Biden’s remarks during a press conference; Bilawal […]
Claim: Opposing party politicians claimed that the University of Sargodha refused to invite Imran Khan for a political address. While other posts claimed that he was invited by the university. Fact: The University of Sargodha administration never invited Imran Khan to deliver a speech, nor did they disinvite him. He was invited by the Punjab […]