Claim: Pakistan’s interim prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, has appointed his son as Balochistan’s sports minister.
Fact: The image actually shows Nawabzada Mir Jamal Khan Raisani, the son of the late Mir Siraj Khan Raisani, taking oath as Balochistan’s Sports and Youth Affairs Minister.
On 2 September 2023, Soch Fact Check received a WhatsApp message that contained a photo of a young man taking an oath and the following text:
“نگران وزیراعظم انوار الحق کاکڑ نے اپنے بیٹے کو وزیر کھیل لگا دیا موصوف 22 سال کے ہیں کبھی کچھ نہیں کھیلا بس باپ عہدے پر تو بیٹا بھی عہدے پر ایسا ہے میرا پاکستان………. کوئی رہ تو نہیں گیا جس کو بغیر محنت کے وہ عہدہ نہ ملا ہو۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ احتجاج کا اثر کیوں نہیں ہو رہا سمجھ آیا ۔۔۔۔۔۔ نہیں سمجھ آیا تو آ جائے گا
[Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has appointed his son as the sports minister. He is 22 years old and has never played any game, but since the father is in the [Prime Minister] Office so is the son. This is my Pakistan. Is there anyone left who has not been given a position without hard work? Do you understand why the protests are not having any impact? If you don’t, you will, soon.]”
Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar took oath as Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister on 14 August 2023 — the country’s Independence Day — to lead the interim administration and ensure the national elections take place in the constitutionally-mandated three-month period after the previous government was dissolved earlier last month.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched the image and found it to be unrelated to Kakar.
The picture actually shows Nawabzada Mir Jamal Khan Raisani, the son of Mir Siraj Khan Raisani, a Baloch politician who was part of the Balochistan Awami Party and was killed in a suicide bombing on 13 July 2018 while he was campaigning for the 2018 general elections.
A Google Lens search led us to this Instagram post, which includes a picture of former Pakistan Army chief General (r) Qamar Javed Bajwa consoling Jamal Raisani on the death of his father.
The image is also available in a press release on the website of the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), as well as its X (formerly Twitter) account.
Major outlets — including The Express Tribune, ARY News, and Dawn — also reported on six caretaker ministers of Balochistan taking oath; these included the junior Raisani as well.
Raisani also posted the same image on his Facebook and X accounts, with the post on the latter addressing the viral message. He confirmed that he has been appointed as Balochistan’s Sports and Youth Affairs Minister.
Moreover, while Kakar is an ethnic Pashtun, Raisani is Baloch.
Soch Fact Check concludes that the young man seen taking the oath as a provincial minister is not the son of Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar.
It is important to note that this article is not investigating whether Raisani was appointed on merit or not, nor what his credentials are.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 10-day period from 26 August 2023 to 4 September using the search term, “نگران وزیراعظم انوار الحق کاکڑ نے اپنے بیٹے کو وزیر کھیل لگا دیا.” We found more than 120 Facebook posts that gained over 2,200 interactions.
Some of these posts are available here, here, here, here, and here.
On X, the claim appeared in multiple posts, some of which can be viewed here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The image actually shows Nawabzada Mir Jamal Khan Raisani, the son of the late Mir Siraj Khan Raisani, taking oath as Balochistan’s Sports and Youth Affairs Minister.
Background image in cover photo: Balochistan Provincial Assembly
To submit an appeal on our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com