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: Punjab has banned TikTokers and YouTubers from entering parks. Fact: An official of the Parks & Horticulture Authority (PHA) Lahore has submitted a list of recommendations to the body’s director-general suggesting that TikTokers and YouTubers be banned from entering parks. However, no such ban has been imposed yet as several approvals are required — […]

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Claim: A Pakistani tabloid claims that author Fatima Bhutto demanded that Zahir Jaffer be given privileges in jail. Fact: Bhutto, in fact, criticised the Pakistani penal system for giving Zahir Jaffer privileges in jail. On 6 August, a tabloid news outlet called The Snazzy Report shared a post on Instagram that claimed author and columnist […]

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Claim: A young Muslim Indian man played South Korean boy band BTS’ song ‘Dynamite’ through the Atala Mosque’s loudspeakers instead of the Azaan, the call to prayers in Islam. He was subsequently arrested and had to pay a fine. Fact: The post was created by an Indian satire and parody page on Instagram and made […]

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Claim: Pakistani authorities hunted and killed a werewolf in Balochistan. However, some social media posts claim the mythical creature was found in Punjab’s Sialkot and Kashmir. Fact: Pakistani authorities did not kill a werewolf. The images being shared on social media feature an animatronic sculpture created by SFX artist Joseph-Rob Cobasky. [Content warning: Pictures in […]

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Claim: Two mass Covid-19 vaccination centres in Karachi and Lahore are experiencing a shortage of the vaccine. Fact: The claim is half true, half false. Karachi’s Expo Centre has run out of stock of the CanSino Bio and Sinopharm vaccines. Only AstraZeneca and Sinovac are available, while Sinopharm is only available for those returning for […]

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Claim: Unidentified men gang-raped a minor girl from the Christian community in Faisalabad after she refused to convert to Islam. They also tortured her and cut her hair. Fact: The minor Chrisitan girl in question was neither sexually abused nor forced to convert to Islam. However, she has an undiagnosed ailment that led a pastor […]

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Claim: Parents in Sindh will now be obligated to marry off their children once they turn 18 under the new legislation. Fact: The Sindh Compulsory Marriage Act, 2021 is yet to be cleared by the CII and the provincial government’s law department before being officially tabled, debated upon, and voted on in the Sindh Assembly. […]

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