Claim: In a viral video, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif can be heard calling for protest against his own government.
Fact: Sharif’s 27 March address to his followers in the context of the Mehngai Mukao March was doctored to make it seem like the PM criticised his own government.
On 18 and 19 June 2022, a doctored video of Shehbaz Sharif went viral on Facebook and Twitter in which the PM seems to be criticising the current government over noted instances of corruption and sky-rocketing inflation. This video has been watched one million times with 82,000 reactions and 6,300 comments from 19 June 2022 to 22 June 2022.
The video had a “Pak Watan News” watermark and a news bulletin style outro. The video was shared with an Urdu title “Imran Khan k aaj k ehtijaj call ki himayat Shahbaz Sharif ne kuch yun ki hai” [Translation: This is how Shahbaz Sharif supported Imran Khan’s call to protest], by a Facebook page called سیاست دان on 19 June 2022.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check extracted several ‘key frames’ from the video using the InVID toolbox. We then searched these key frames on Google, via the Reverse Image Search tool. The search results led to several online posts sharing Shahbaz Sharif’s public address in support of the PDM Mehngai Mukao March which took place on 28 March 2022, while Sharif’s public address took place the day before, according to reports.
Various key frames of the video separated through the online fact-checking tool, InVID.
The search turned up posts carrying the original, unaltered video of Sharif’s 27 March address. . The video was posted on several YouTube channels, Facebook pages and Twitter handles on 27 March 2022. This was during the PML-N’s campaign intended to garner support for the Mehngai Mukao March which was meant to leave for Islamabad on 28 March 2022, as reported by The News.
One result led to this YouTube video clip posted on 27 March 2022 by Capital TV’s official YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQwAXnQrrGk&ab_channel=CapitalTV
[Transcript of the video] “Bismillah i Rehman ur Raheem. Mere intihai qabil e ehtiram buzurgon, maon, behnon, bhaiyon, nojawan sathiyo AoA
Mein apne aur apke qaid Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif ka ek aham paigham apko dena chahta hun. Imran Niazi k is saray teen sala daur mein Pakistan mein sab se oonchi satah pe mehengai ek sach hai, badtareen ghurbat ek sach hai, is hukoomat k dor mein, Imran Niazi k daur mein, corruption, badtareen corruption ek sach hai, aur is Imran Niazi k badtareen daur mein aam admi aur gharib admi k sath zalimana rawaiya ek sach hai. Mere buzurgon, behnon aur bhaiyon, utho, is Mehengai Mukao March mein jauk dar jauk is mein shamil ho takay is corrupt aur loot maar mein mulawis is hukoomat ka siyasi aur aiyini tareeqay se khatma kr ke Pakistan ki 22 crore awam ka mustaqbil bacha lia jae. Allah tala apki is himmat aur in kavishon ko kamyab krega Insha Allah. Pakistan zindabad, Quaid e Azam zindabad!”
[Translation] “Beginning in the name of God who is the most benevolent and the most merciful. To my highly respected elders, mothers, sisters, brothers and the young generation, Assalam u alaikum. I have brought a message for you from your and my leader, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. In this 3.5 year tenure of Imran Niazi’s government, Pakistan witnessed the highest rate of inflation, it is true. Extreme poverty is true. In the time of this government, during Imran Niazi’s government, the worst corruption during this government is true. And during this awful time of Imran Niazi’s rule, cruel behavior with people and especially poor people is true. My elders, sisters and brothers, get up, join this Mehngai Mukao March in hordes and swarms and so we can get constitutionally and politically get rid of this corrupt government and save the futures of the futures of the 20 million Pakistani people. May God bless your courage and efforts. Long live Pakistan, long live Quaid e Azam!”
It is apparent from the transcript of the original video that all references to Imran Khan’s government were edited out in the video now doing the rounds on social media. This can be confirmed by comparing the transcripts of the original video and the doctored video.
Soch Fact Check can therefore conclude that the video which appears to show Sharif criticising his own government has been doctored; in the original video, Sharif was criticising the previous PTI government under Imran Khan.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 3-day period from 18 June 2022 to 20 June 2022 using the following search terms:
- “Sharif” and“March”
- “مارچ” and “شریف”
We found Facebook videos shared here, here and here. Of these three videos, one was the same video as that being fact checked in this article. However, the other two, posted three and five hours after the first one, were both copies of the original video earlier shared by Capital TV.
On Twitter, the doctored video was shared here, here, here, here, here, here and here. In each video the “pak watan tv” watermark appears on the left and the right side of the frame.
Conclusion: The video of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seemingly criticising his own government in a public address is doctored. The original video is of Sharif’s speech on 27 March 2022, before he came to power, encouraging people to participate in the then-opposition coalition Pakistan Democratic Movement’s Mehngai March against nationwide inflation. In the original video, Sharif in fact criticises the PTI government in power at the time under former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The video now doing the rounds on social media has been doctored to edit out references to the Imran Khan government and makes it look like Sharif was criticsing his own government for the nationwide inflation.