Claim: A viral image shows a young girl who drowned in Balochistan during the recent monsoon flooding in Pakistan. Fact: The viral image is of a girl who drowned in River Kabul, Peshawar and was found by rescue services near Attock. On 27 July 2022, an image of an infant’s dead body went viral on […]
Claim: A picture shows people stranded due to heavy monsoon flooding in Punjab in July 2022. Fact: The picture is misleading as it is not recent. It was taken on 23 July 2015 in Rajanpur. On 27 July 2022, Twitter user @shahzadShafi007 posted a picture showing people displaced by floods taking refuge on a charpoy […]
Claim: A video shared on social media shows pilgrims criticising the current Pakistan government for providing “terrible” lodging facilities during Hajj 2022 in Saudi Arabia. Fact: The video is, in fact, from August 2019 and shows pilgrims criticising the government at the time for providing inadequate lodging facilities. On 1 July 2022, Facebook user Raja […]
Claim: A viral video shows people celebrating in Sialkot after the Pakistan Supreme Court announced on 26 July 2022 that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Pervez Elahi would be the new Chief Minister of Punjab. Fact: The video surfaced on social media in January 2022 and depicts new year celebrations in Sialkot. The video is not […]
Claim: A video circulating on social media shows a large fire that broke out at a Pakistani power plant near Guddu, Sindh in July 2022. Fact: The video has been making rounds on social media since 2021 and in fact depicts a fire that broke out by Afghanistan’s largest trade crossing with Iran. On 15 […]
Claim: A new scam blocks and hacks an individual’s phone after a call from the number ‘912250041117’ asks the user to press 1 if they are vaccinated. Fact: The claim appears to be false. In Pakistan, no such number — whether landline or mobile phone — is operational. Numerous international fact-checking organisations have also debunked […]
Claim: A video shared on social media shows passengers escaping a mini bus as the vehicle is washed away by a flash flood following a recent bout of rain in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). Fact: The incident did not occur as a result of the recent spell of heavy rains in KPK. The video in question […]
Claim: An image shared on social media on 14 July 2022 shows a huge crowd at a rally held by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Multan, Punjab, where party chief and former Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed his supporters. A poster with an image of Khan, former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Shah Mehmood […]
Claim: Hindus in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province are forced to wear topis — caps typically worn by Muslim men during prayers — when they enter the Guru Gorakhnath temple near Peshawar, the only remaining Shiva temple in the country. Fact: There is no truth to the claim. The Hindu community is free to worship […]
Claim: Former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan wrote a tweet asking former Prime Minister Imran Khan to call for public protests if it appears that local elections are being rigged to stop people voting for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Fact: The account responsible for the tweet appears to be impersonating Nisar. No such tweet […]
Claim: A Spanish newspaper recently published pictures of “thieves from around the world”, including former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. Fact: Nawaz Sharif’s picture appeared in a 2016 article by Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia about the Panama Papers. Sharif’s name and photo did not feature in a recent article by the publication about international […]
Claim: A viral photo shows Turkey’s Army Chief General taking orders from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Social media users in Pakistan are sharing the image with captions highlighting civilian supremacy over the military in Turkey and implicitly drawing a comparison with the political climate in Pakistan. Fact: The photo, in fact, shows Turkish Land […]