Claim: Ahsan Iqbal condemned the PDM government for failing to avoid the nationwide electricity shutdown on 23 January 2023.
Fact: This video was released on social media by the PMLN in January 2021 to condemn a similar nationwide electricity shutdown which took place at the time.
On 23 January 2023, Taimur Khan Jhagra and Zartaj Gul Wazir of Pakistan Tehreek- e- Insaf (PTI) shared a 12-second clip of PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal in which he is seen saying:
“Haaliya bijli k badtareen shutdown ne pher sabit krdia hai ke ye huoomat nalaiq hai, na-ehel hai aur inkay pass mulk chalanay ki koi salahiyat nahi hai.” [Translation: The recent electricity shutdown proved that the current government is complacent, incompetent and does not have the capabilities required to run a country.]
PTI politicians claimed that this video was Ahsan Iqbal’s statement about the recent power outage, which took place on 23 January 2023.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a Reverse Image Search of the keyframes from this 12-second clip and found that screenshots of this video were shared by Geo News and The News on 10 January 2023.
These articles link the original tweet with the video, which was first published on 10 January 2023 by PMLN on their official Twitter handle.
https://twitter.com/pmln_org/status/1348227768824320004
From this 1 minute 19 second video, it is clear that the misleading clip was taken from the first 12 seconds of the original video tweeted by PMLN on 10 January 2023 to protest the electricity shutdown during Imran Khan’s government.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 2-day period since 23 January 2023 to 24 January 2023 using the following search terms:
- “Ahsan Iqbal” “shutdown”
- “احسن اقبال“ ”شٹڈاؤن”
On Facebook we found posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
PTI politicians tweets sharing this video out of context were viewed by 5,345,066 followers 457,800 times and received 15,801 interactions on Twitter
Conclusion: Ahsan Iqbal’s statement on electricity breakdown is 2 years old.