Claim: A screengrab of a news bulletin tweeted by Shireen Mazari claims that “Imran Khan’s victory in Pakistan’s elections will be India’s loss”. In the caption of her tweet, Mazari also claims that the US and India fear Khan and that the US is behind the regime change in Pakistan.
Fact: The claim is misleading as the screengrab of the news is from 2018, when Khan participated in the general elections, not from 2022. Moreover, the article quoted in the screengrab does not make the claims Mazari makes in the caption of her tweet.
On 26 July 2022, former Minister for Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari posted a screengrab of a Samaa TV bulletin. The text in the image translated into English reads, “Imran Khan’s victory in Pakistan’s elections will be India’s loss – Times Now.”
Mazari shared the image with the caption, “One more agenda item of US regime change conspiracy will be undone when IK with nation behind him wins elections. Will end move towards US subservience & signal failure of conspiracy & the local conspirators & will save Pakistan. No wonder US & India fear IK & his Absolutely Not.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found that the Samaa News bulletin was actually broadcast in 2018, not 2022.
A keyword search on Twitter leads to a Samaa TV tweet that includes the image in question and was posted on 24 July 2018. The image is referring to an article published by India Today with the title “Why it will be difficult for India if Imran Khan wins Pakistan elections.” The article was also published on 23 July 2018.
The India Today article makes several claims regarding Imran Khan’s relationship with the Pakistan Army and various terrorist outfits, stating, “Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) is the one party that has openly supported the idea of opening channels of dialogue with jehadi outfits in Pakistan.” The article also claims that if Imran Khan failed to secure majority in the 2018 elections, PTI could form a coalition with Hafiz Saeed to keep PML-N out of power. Hafiz Saeed is the co-founder of terrorist group Lakshar-e-Taiba. The article asserts that if PTI joined hands with Saeed, it would negatively impact Pakistan-India peace talks and threaten any efforts to normalise the relationship between the two countries.
Soch Fact Check has not investigated the authenticity of the claims made in the India Today article. However, it was written before Khan served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and it does not state that India or the US are fearful of Khan in the way that Mazari implied in her tweet. Mazari posted her tweet in the context of Khan’s ouster via a vote of no-confidence in 2022; PTI and Khan allege that he was removed due to a US-backed plot. However, the India Today article does not prove that the US or India was involved Khan’s ouster, or in the 2018 general election. It is misleading to assume that this article from 2018 proves that India is in some way responsible or connected to Khan’s ouster in 2022.
Virality
Shireen Mazari’s tweet received 4,033 Retweets, 79 Quote Tweets, 7,842 Likes and 179 comments.
The same screengrab from Samaa TV which referenced India’s role in Khan’s regime change was also shared here on Facebook.
Conclusion: Shireen Mazari shared a screengrab from Samaa TV that makes reference to an India Today article that was published before the 2018 general election in Pakistan. It is misleading to say that the article provides any proof regarding India’s involvement in Imran Khan’s ouster in 2022. Moreover, the article that the tweet is referring to does not imply that India and the US are afraid of Khan for the reasons that Mazari states in her tweet.