Claim: A video shows Maulana Fazlur Rehman stepping off a state jet he used to travel to Thailand for a “private” trip.
Fact: The video is actually from 2022 and shows Fazlur Rehman arriving in Karachi for another religious cleric’s funeral.
On 2 April 2023, Umar Jutt, a special correspondent at Dunya News, tweeted a video (archive) showing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman stepping out of a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jet, with religious clerics waiting to welcome him.
Jutt, whose bio includes the phrase “Contributing to the history by bringing you closer to the most popular leader of Pakistan – @ImranKhanPTI”, wrote the following caption in his tweet:
“ائیرفورس ون کو رکشہ بنایا ہوا ہے۔معاشی عدم استحکام مگر نجی دوروں پر بھی ریاستی وسائل کا بے دریغ استعمال ہو رہا ہے۔موجاں لگیاں نیں
[Air Force One is made into a rickshaw. Economic instability, but even on private trips, state resources are being used recklessly.]”
Fazlur Rehman, who is also the chief of the ruling coalition called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), reportedly flew to Thailand earlier this week, according to multiple news outlets — such as Express Tribune (archive), The Nation (archive), and Geo News (archive) — that cited party sources.
JUI-F spokesperson Aslam Ghauri confirmed that “Fazl had gone abroad but his destination was not London”, one of the reports said.
Fact or Fiction?
Using keyframes from the brief clip as input for Google Lens, Soch Fact Check found that the video is from 2022 and, therefore, not recent.
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On 19 November 2022, Dunya News, as well as Roznama Dunya (archive), which is also known as Daily Dunya, reported in Urdu (archive) and English (archive) that Fazlur Rehman visited Karachi to attend the funeral prayers of a religious scholar, Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani.
In fact, the next day, Rabia Azfar Nizami — a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker from Sindh, posted the same video (archive), asking why the JUI-F chief was allowed to use state transport.
Arab News Pakistan journalist Naimat Khan also posted pictures (archive) from Rehman’s arrival.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that the video was shared by Geo News talk show host, Saleem Khan Safi (archive), as well as Farrukh Habib (archive), a former minister and the president of the PTI’s West Punjab chapter. It also appeared here and here on Twitter.
Some of the Facebook posts that contained the video can be found here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The video is actually from 2022 and shows Fazlur Rehman arriving in Karachi for another religious cleric’s funeral.
Background image in cover photo: @MoulanaOfficial
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