Claim: The following claims surfaced on social media after lawyer and human rights activist Imaan Mazari was arrested: Imaan Mazari received post-arrest bail in the sedition case on 22 August. The anti-terrorism court granted her bail on 22 August. She was released after securing bail. Fact: These claims are misleading Imaan Mazari was granted post-arrest […]
Claim: A picture shows a Pakistan Army officer rescuing people stranded on a chairlift that broke down in Battagram on 22 August 2023. Fact: The image does not show a Pakistan Army officer, rather a member of a local adventure tourism company and the three passengers he rescued with the help of a zipline. On […]
Claim: President Dr Arif Alvi has signed the Official Secrets Amendment Bill 2023 and the Pakistan Army Act Amendment Bill 2023. Fact: The president denied signing or assenting to changes being made to both bills. Fact or Fiction? On 19 August 2023, Business Recorder posted on X (formerly Twitter), that President Alvi has signed the Official […]
Claim: The University of Hull invited Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar for judicial training on human rights and the rule of law in London. Fact: The participants for the training programme, which has been running since 2014, are selected by their respective High Courts. The University of Hull clarified that it has […]
Claim: A viral video shows a Pakistani pastor speaking about and condemning the 2023 Jaranwala rampage. The woman in the clip is the daughter of the Pakistani fighter pilot and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Wing Commander Mervyn Leslie Middlecoat. The claim adds that she has given other interviews, in which she said she is proud […]
Claim: The Burj Khalifa refused to display Pakistan’s flag on the country’s 76th Independence Day, and the United Arab Emirates banned them from doing so. The landmark in Dubai did not light up to commemorate the occasion. Fact: The world’s tallest building lit up with Pakistan’s national flag on the evening of 14 August 2023, […]
Claim: Salman Ahmad, a close aide of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, posted a photo of a secret document claiming another cypher was leaked. Fact: The cypher was posted by a parody account of the Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), or DG ISPR, in July 2023. Its informal language, spelling errors and lack […]
Claim: A collage of three pictures prove that Seema Haider is an Indian spy. Fact: The pictures show three different women. The black-and-white image shows Usharani Narendra, one of India’s first woman sub-inspectors of police. Another one depicts Major Samia Rehman, a Pakistan Army officer who has served in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in DR […]
Claim: Shehbaz Sharif cried over the pain people are experiencing due to increasing inflation after increasing the petrol prices by PKR 19.95. Fact: The photo is authentic but presented misleadingly; Sharif’s party, the PML-N, posted it in May 2023, with the caption that he cried while watching a video of Pakistan Army martyrs during an […]
Claim: A hotel that enacted a bronze statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his honour refused to provide him with a room for free despite an earlier promise of a lifetime membership for him; in response, the actor slept under the sculpture and warned people of the fickle nature of one’s position, money, intelligence, and youth. […]
Claim: A video shows a Pakistan International Airlines plane moving through a flooded runway at Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore amid record-high rainfall. Fact: The video is old, dating back to August 2020. It also made rounds on social media in 2022 with a similar claim. Fact or Fiction? On 22 July 2023, Twitter […]
Claim: All construction work has been halted at the Shaukat Khanum Karachi building, and its intended inauguration for 14 August 2023 has now been postponed. Fact: The video is out of context; Dr Faisal Sultan has publicly rejected this claim. A video of a building under construction went viral online on 27 June 2023. The […]