Claim: Abrar-ul-Haq sang a melody called “Meri Jind Meri Jaan, General Asim Munir” at a concert in London on 28 January 2023.
Fact: Abrar-ul-Haq did indeed sing at a concert in London. However, he sang one of his own songs from 2000, called “Kuriyan Lahore Diyan,” not “Meri Jind Meri Jaan, General Asim Munir.”
On 28 May 2023, Pakistani content creator Shehzad Ghias Shaikh posted a video (archive) of singer and former member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Abrar-ul-Haq, reciting a melody called “Meri Jind Meri Jaan, General Asim Munir.”
Shaikh is also a stand-up comedian who hosts The Pakistan Experience podcast. The melody heard in the video he posted is a reference to and shows reverence to Pakistan Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir.
“Theek hay Abrar ul Haq ko concert karna tha par ye gana kyon gaya unho nay?” wrote Shaikh in his tweet, asking that while it was okay that the singer wished to perform in the said concert, why would he sing this particular song.
Haq performed in London at a concert “arranged by the housing society of Pakistani business tycoon Aleem Khan”, according to a report (archive), and “PTI workers surrounded Haq, leading to a tense atmosphere and a clash between the party workers, the singer’s guards, and members of the media”.
The singer announced quitting (archive) the PTI and politics in general on 26 May following the 9 May riots that erupted following PTI chairperson and former prime minister Imran Khan’s arrest (archive). Khan — who has clashed with the military after levelling serious allegations against Munir, the current chief, and his predecessor, Gen (r) Qamar Javed Bajwa — was later released when the Supreme Court of Pakistan intervened, a 14 May report (archive) said.
Aleem Khan, the business tycoon, had a fallout (archive) with Imran Khan in April 2022, after which the former left the party shortly before the latter was forced out of the PM Office through a parliamentary no-confidence vote.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found through a keyword search that the original video has a different audio than the one posted by Shehzad Ghias Shaikh.
The original video was posted (archive) by journalist Murtaza Ali Shah, who wrote, “Abrarul Haq performs in london after quitting PTI, concert powered by Aleem Khan’s housing society”.
Abrarul Haq performs in london after quitting PTI, concert powered by Aleem Khan’s housing society pic.twitter.com/55gVsYBDRH
— Murtaza Ali Shah (@MurtazaViews) May 28, 2023
Taking a cue from this, we tallied the song with Abrar-ul-Haq’s work over the years and found that it is “Kuriyan Lahore Diyan,” a tune from his 2000 album titled ‘Mein Gaddi Aap Chalawan Ga’.
Soch Fact Check also searched for the source of the audio dubbed into the video posted by Shaikh and, by using the search term “meri jind meri jaan asim munir,” we came across a 26 December 2022 post (archive) in a Reddit community, which contained a thumbnail with further information about where it originated from.
We then found a video posted on 9 December 2022 on the YouTube channel Mudasir Anjum official.
The melody is titled, “بہت ہی خوبصورت کلام جرنل عاصم منیر صاحب کو خراج عقیدت شاندار کلام [Very beautiful melody, tribute to General Asim Munir sahab, wonderful melody].”
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that Shehzad Ghias Shaikh, in addition to posting on Twitter where his tweet got more than 247,500 views as of writing time, also posted the video (archive) on the Facebook page of The Pakistan Experience, where it received over 102,000 views.
While The Pakistan Experience posted a link to the “actual video” (archive) — which received only 11,000 views — in the comments and wrote that it was “a joke”, the damage was done as the dubbed clip was reshared hundreds of times in standalone posts and was even reported as news stories here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).
Writer and journalist Shama Junejo also posted the video (archive) on her Twitter account, where it received upwards of 162,900 views.
More Facebook links can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
Over 10 hours later, Shaikh quote-tweeted (archive) the video on Twitter and made a sarcastic remark, writing: “Thank you to everyone who pointed out the audio is dubbed. Mujhay toh pata hee nahee tha [I didn’t even know]. Thank you for your brilliant investigative work.”
Conclusion: Abrar-ul-Haq did indeed sing at a concert in London. However, he sang one of his own songs from 2000, called “Kuriyan Lahore Diyan,” not “Meri Jind Meri Jaan, General Asim Munir.”
Background image in cover photo: @AbrarUlhaqOfficialOne
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