Claim: A video shows Bushra Bibi, wife of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan, addressing a crowd unveiled.
Fact: The claim is false. The woman in the video is Suriya Bibi, Deputy Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
On 7 December 2024, a post on Facebook shared a video in which a woman addresses a large crowd while standing in the back of a vehicle. The video was posted with the following caption in Urdu:
لوگوں کو اشتعال دلانے کے لیے پردہ بھی اتارا دیا تھا”
“بھاگی ھوئی پرنی نے
According to Google Translate, this reads as follows in English:
“The veil was also taken down to provoke people
Parni ran away”
The Urdu text embedded within the frame similarly reads:
“لوگوں کو اشتعال دلانے کیلئے پردہ بھی اتار دیا پنکی پیرنی”
According to Google Translate, this reads as follows in English:
“Pinky Peerni also took off her veil to provoke people”
In both captions, the terms “Peerni” / “Pinky Peerni” are a reference to Bushra Bibi, the wife of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
This narrative of Bushra Bibi inciting or provoking violence is also visible in the statements issued by politicians, like Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Senior Minister of Punjab Marriyum Aurangzeb.
This video was shared in context of the recent PTI protests in Islamabad in November 2024 led by Bushra Bibi and Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur. The protests took place after former Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a “final call” to his supporters to gather in the capital. The reasons for the protest, as described in the final call, were to restore the 26th Amendment to its original state, reclaim the people’s mandate stolen in the General Election this year, and release all political prisoners who are being held without trial.
The caption of the Facebook post also uses the words “بھاگی ھوئی پرنی” (“escaped Peerni”) to describe Bushra Bibi, which echoes a reference to reports that claim she fled the scene of the protest on the night of 26 November. These claims can be seen here, here, here, and here. On 6 December, a video of Bushra Bibi surfaced, where she denied these claims, stating that she had remained at the site of the protest till 12:30 am and that her car had been fired upon as well.
Prior to protesters entering Islamabad, the city was put under lockdown and Section 144 was reimposed on the capital on 18 November. Tensions heightened on 26 November when protesters clashed with security forces, and a midnight raid forced the protesters to retreat. The protest was called off the following day on 27 November.
As of now, terrorism cases have been filed against prominent PTI members, including Khan himself. Arrest warrants have also been issued for Gandapur and Bibi, with the former having approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to challenge the terrorism charges against him.
Fact or Fiction?
Prior to the protests and during them, Bushra Bibi was seen in a white hijab, standing atop a container, leading a convoy, and addressing protesters on a number of occasions. A video of her in this attire atop a container with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur circulated as early as 24 November on X, and was shared here, here, here, and here.
A second key video of her from 25 November, shot inside her car, shows her encouraging people to gather in Islamabad for the protest. Another video of her from the same day which shows her addressing a crowd of protesters with a mic also went viral.
Moreover, a picture by Reuters on 26 November— when tensions had escalated at the protests—shows her in a white hijab atop a large vehicle, alongside Gandapur and Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub Khan. This photo was frequently used by local news websites, international news outlets, and it also circulated on social media.
These videos and pictures show the resemblance between the attire worn by Bushra Bibi at the protests and the attire worn by the woman in the video. Moreover, the woman in the video is atop a car addressing protesters, making it easier to confuse her with Bushra Bibi. However, it is also important to note that the videos and pictures of Bushra Bibi never show her without her veil.
Soch Fact Check compared the voice of the woman in the Facebook video (audible between 0:02–0:15) with three videos that show Bushra Bibi speaking, all of which are mentioned above. The first is from 25 November, where she encourages people to gather in Islamabad for the protest. The second is also from 25 November, where she addresses protesters from the top of a vehicle. The third is of her refuting the claims of her fleeing from the protest.
The voices are clearly different, with the woman in the Facebook video having a northern or Pashtun accent, which is not present in any of the three videos that show Bushra Bibi speaking.
Then, conducting a reverse image search of the keyframes of the video, Soch Fact Check found the earliest instance of this video on TikTok, dated 27 November. The video does not have the Urdu caption within its frame, unlike the video on Facebook, while the caption of the post itself reads as follows:
“#804قیدی_نمبر🇧🇫🇧🇫💥💥💥💥 Na#dar lidar ki Na dar karkoon#viral?tiktok🥰foryou🌸🤭”
While the words “#804قیدی_نمبر” (“prisoner #804”) are a clear reference to Imran Khan, Soch Fact Check could not find an exact translation of the rest of the caption owing to the way the words are spelled. However, a rough approximation via Google Translate reads:
“Do not be afraid of the leader”
Moreover, in the comments section of the post, we noted that several users had identified the woman in the video as Suriya Bibi, Deputy Speaker of the “kpk assembly”. Screenshots of these instances are shown below:
Conducting a Google search for “Deputy Speaker KPK Assembly”, Soch Fact Check came across the profile of Suriya Bibi on the official website of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Associated with the PTI, Suriya Bibi currently holds the role of Deputy Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and is the “first ever female member elected on a general seat in the history of Chitral”. Her photograph on the website is shown below:
The facial features of Suriya Bibi here evidently match those of the woman shown in the video in the claim: Two keyframes of the video showing her face are given below:
Source: Facebook
Source: Facebook
Virality
The post on Facebook has amassed 330 K views. On Facebook, it was shared here, here, and here.
On Instagram, the video was shared here.
On YouTube, the video was shared here and here.
On TikTok, the video was shared here.
Conclusion: The claim is false. The woman in the video is actually Suriya Bibi, the Deputy Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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Background image in cover photo: BBC
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