Claim: Shehbaz Sharif endorsed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) long march.
Fact: A video clip from Shehbaz Sharif’s announcement of the Mehngai Mukao March from March 2022 was shared out of context to imply that he has endorsed PTI’s long march.
On 28 October 2022, a content creator shared a video on Facebook claiming to show prime minister Shehbaz Sharif endorsing the long march announced by PTI, which was set to begin from Liberty Chowk, Lahore on the same day.
Fact or Fiction?
A Reverse Image Search found that this video clip was taken from Shehbaz Sharif’s public announcement made in March 2022 regarding the Mehngai Mukao March organized by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
This clip was shared as early as 27 March on Facebook and only referred to the Mehngai Mukao March, which was organized to protest inflation during Imran Khan’s tenure as prime minister.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 2-day period since 28 October 2022 to 29 October 2022 using the following search terms:
- “Prime Minister” “long march” “message”
- “وزیراعظم” “لانگ مارچ” “پیغام”
The video was shared with 53,923600 followers, gathered over 49,000 interactions and was shared more than 12,000 times on Facebook. The video was viewed 715,000 times on Facebook.
We also found other posts on Facebook here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: Shehbaz Sharif did not endorse PTI’s long march.