Claim: A video shows a 70-year-old Pakistani man travelling by foot to attend the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Fact: The elderly backpacker is actually a supporter of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and was jogging to join the Haqeeqi Azadi March from Lahore to Islamabad. The clip has no connection to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
On 1 November 2022, ‘قناة دجلة الفضائية’ — the Jordan-based Iraqi satellite television Dijlah TV — posted a video showing a bearded old man, wearing and holding green-and-red flags, jogging, with the following caption:
“رحّالة باكستاني بعمر “70 عاما” يمشي على الأقدام لحضور كأس العالم 2022 في #قطر
[A 70-year-old Pakistani traveler is on foot to attend the 2022 World Cup in Qatar]”
The clip was viewed more than 477,000 times on Facebook and over 37,000 times on Instagram, which is archived here.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check input key frames from the video into reverse image search tools to find the source of the video.
The clip, in fact, shows 70-year-old Hassan Masood, a supporter of former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI who hails from Khushab. Masood “joins every convoy of the PTI on foot”, according to the verified Twitter account of the PTI’s Islamabad chapter.
Soch Fact Check also identified the PTI’s flag, as well as that of Pakistan, which is seen hanging around Masood’s neck.
Image?
The ardent PTI supporter in the aforementioned video joined Khan’s Haqeeqi Azadi March from Lahore to Islamabad. The party chief’s focal person on social media, Azhar Mashwani, wrote that Masood “has a rod in his right leg”.
In an interview with a private news channel, Masood says Imran Khan invited him to his container — the PTI chief’s signature mode of transport in rallies and marches — to meet him and laud his efforts.
Anchorperson and TV host Rabia Anum Obaid posted a picture on Facebook showing Masood standing with Khan.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video here on Twitter with over 497,200 views, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here and here on other verified Facebook pages, and here and here on YouTube.
We also conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the period between 25 October 2022 and 27 December using the search term, “رحّالة باكستاني بعمر “70 عاما” يمشي على الأقدام لحضور كأس العالم 2022 في #قطر,” and found four Facebook posts with 13,839 interactions and one Instagram post with 2,645 interactions.
Conclusion: The video shows Hassan Masood, an elderly PTI supporter who jogs to join the party’s rallies. The clip has no connection to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Background image in cover photo: Mukuko Studio