Claim: Pakistan People’s Party has decided to suspend the membership of politician Aitzaz Ahsan over controversial remarks.
Fact: Although there are demands within the party to suspend Aitzaz Ahsan, the Central Executive Committee of the party has made no such decision.
On 14 October 2022, mainstream news websites and social media posts reported that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) decided to suspend politician Aitzaz Ahsan after controversial remarks he made about the military’s role in politics came to light.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check surveyed PPP leaders’ official social media for any communication regarding the suspension of Ahsan’s party membership. Although we did not find any official statement confirming his suspension, we did find multiple rebuttals to the claim emphasizing that no such measures were taken.
Next time, maybe tweet what unreliable whatsapp group the information was shared in. Since there’s zero truth to this. https://t.co/zdgDS4dg23
— Anny Marri (@Anny_Marri) October 14, 2022
Former PPP senator Farhatullah Babar confirmed to Soch Fact Check that Aitzaz Ahsan’s PPP membership has not yet been suspended. Babar stated that, “Reports of AA [Aitzaz Ahsan] suspension from CEC or basic membership of the party are not correct. The Punjab chapter of the party has passed a resolution urging the party to take action against him but nothing more. It doesn’t mean any action has been taken.”
This viral claim was based on a recent resolution passed by the PPP’s Central Punjab franchise, requesting the removal of Aitzaz Ahsan from the party based on his recent remarks.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 4-day period since 14 October 2022 to 17 October 2022 using the following search terms:
- “Aitzaz Ahsan” “suspend”
- “Aitzaz Ahsan” “suspended”
- “اعتزاز احسن” “معطل”
We found over 215 posts with 51,857 interactions on Facebook. Major news channels such as GEO News also shared this claim along with other news organizations with smaller social media following such as Daily Pakistan and Qudrat TV. Some of these posts can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. We also found multiple tweets, some of them can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here
Conclusion: Contrary to the viral claim, Aitzaz Ahsan has not yet been suspended by the Central Executive Committee of the Pakistan People’s Party.