Haseem uz Zaman

Haseem is a senior digital verification journalist at Soch Fact Check and producer at Soch Videos. Previously associated with Geo News, they have extensive news-building and editorial experience and have led a breaking news department in the past. They divide their time between reading and photography and their areas of interest include gender, minority rights, intersectionality, and class and oppression, as well as protests and politics in South Asia.

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Claim: Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted his support for Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, praised his character, and that he was “surprised” to see the crowd at the Haqeeqi Azadi March. Fact: The tweet is doctored. Elon Musk did not voice his support for Imran Khan, nor did he mention the Haqeeqi Azadi March in […]

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Claim: A picture shows some people, including a police officer, shifting Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan after he was injured in a shooting incident at a rally in Wazirabad in Punjab in November 2022. Fact: The picture is actually from 2013 when Imran Khan fell from an overcrowded platform at a campaign rally. On […]

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Claim: A video of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, saying he has done “whatever [he] could do” and urging people to “take up [their] responsibility”, was taken as he gets treated in a hospital after he was attacked during an anti-government rally in Wazirabad. Fact: The video is, in fact, more than nine years […]

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Claim: A picture shows Pakistan’s former prime minister and chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, lying on a stretcher after being wounded in a shooting incident during a rally he was leading towards Islamabad, Punjab, on 3 October 2022. Fact: The picture is not recent but, in fact, from 2014 when Khan was […]

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Claim: A “witch” was filmed hovering in Kidney Hill Park in Karachi, Pakistan and strange noises heard by park officials in the dead of night. The person who shot the video was down with a 104°F fever. Fact: The video clip is, in fact, the work of Zambian visual effects artist and filmmaker Joseph Njovu, […]

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Claim: One of Karachi’s busiest thoroughfares, Shahrah-e-Faisal, will be closed to traffic from 1pm to 4am on Monday, 31 October 2022, for International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) 2022. Fact: Karachi Traffic Police Deputy Inspector General’s office confirmed to Soch Fact Check that Shahrah-e-Faisal will remain open today; the alert currently doing the rounds on […]

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Claim: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has removed Rule 13-1 from The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, allowing “gender change” for transgender folks. Fact: Section 13 of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, pertains to transgender folks’ right to assembly and has nothing to do with a gender change. […]

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Claim: Social media posts claim that the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 has been rejected. Fact: The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 — or any other transgender bill for that matter — has not been rejected either in the National Assembly of Pakistan or the Senate. One amendment was introduced in […]

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Claim: The thumbnail image of an Urdu-language video shared by 24 News on YouTube and Facebook mentions that “more than 150 people have been martyred” in a “horrible blast”, accompanied by an image of an explosion. Fact: The thumbnail image is false because there has been no blast that killed over 150 people in October […]

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Claim: A report by The Associated Press claims an amendment to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, proposed by the Government of Pakistan, will allow transgender individuals to choose their gender identity on previously-issued official documents and that hardline clerics are opposing the suggested changes. Fact: Five different amendments were put forward by senators […]

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Claim: A video shows a bird breathing fire from its mouth. Fact: The video is the work of Brazilian special effects artist Fabricio Rabachim, who posted it on his YouTube channel in 2020. On 24 August 2022, the Facebook page ‘Amazing World’ shared a video with the claim, “A bird that breathes fire from its […]

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Claim: An image of a car’s bloodied interior shows the aftermath of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif’s alleged assassination. Fact: The picture is, in fact, of the inside of the car in which Maulana Muhammad Adil Khan, a religious scholar and Jamia Farooqia Karachi’s rector, was assassinated in October 2020. It has no relation whatsoever to […]

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