Claim: A video shows a massive crowd protesting in Gilgit-Baltistan against the government in January 2023. Fact: The claim is misleading because the video is not from the 2023 demonstrations but from 2017, when people protested against taxation rules in the region. On 8 January 2023, a Facebook user posted a video with an Urdu […]
Claim: A photo shows the mother and grandmother of former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Supremo, Nawaz Sharif, and claims they played the drum in the streets of Amritsar in colonial India. Fact: The picture, in fact, shows two people from the khawajasira community. The image, which was taken between 1890 and 1894, […]
Claim: Maulana Yousaf Jamil, the son of Pakistan’s famed television preacher Maulana Tariq Jamil, has been critically injured in a traffic accident, a photo circulating on social media shows. Fact: Maulana Yousaf Jamil has clarified in a video statement that he is fine and has not been in an accident. The viral image is, in […]
Claim: A video shows Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari dancing to a Bollywood song at an event. Fact: Bilawal has been misidentified in the video. It features a media student Mehroz Baig who posted the video on his social media account on 12 January 2023. Fact or Fiction? On 22 January 2023, Pakistani-Canadian columnist […]
Claim: A photo shows Russian President Vladimir Putin reading a book by Imran Khan titled ‘Pakistan: A Personal History’. Fact: The photo is doctored. In the actual photo from June 2016, Putin can be seen reading a different book. Fact or Fiction? On 6 January 2023, a social media user Mahnoor Malik, shared a photo […]
Claim: The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports has issued a notification announcing an increase in the fees for passport issuance. Fact: The DGIP announced fees for the issuance of e-passports. The fees for machine-readable passports that are currently issued will remain the same. Recently circulating news on social media claimed that Pakistan’s Directorate General […]
Claim: A video shows people in a scuffle over a bag of flour amid rising inflation. Fact: The video is, in fact, from September 2022, when a scuffle broke out among some flood victims over bags of ration provided by the government. On 9 January 2023, a member of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party […]
Claim: Shireen Mazari shared pictures of a UN meeting in Geneva with Pakistani officials, saying that the attendance was “pathetic”, with mostly Pakistani officials attending the meeting. Fact: The pictures Shireen Mazari shared were misleading. UN web TV and official tweets from the UNDP Twitter account show a fuller meeting room and several members of […]
Claim: A sniffer dog of Karachi police has been stolen. Fact: No sniffer dog has been stolen. The SSU says they do not have police dogs and the K-9 Unit at the Garden Police Headquarters, Karachi, also refuted the claim. On 6 January 2023, Twitter user @Karachi__Wali posted a picture showing a news ticker seemingly […]
Claim: A viral photo of jailed Afghan children is not from any prison in Sindh. Fact: Soch Fact Check confirms the picture is genuine and authentic following a visit to the lock-up where the photograph was taken. The cell is located inside the City Court in Karachi, Sindh. During a 30 December 2022 press conference, […]
Claim: Video shows a Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protest in Karachi against inflation in January 2023. Fact: The claim is false. The video is from a 2020 protest organized by TLP against alleged blasphemy in Karachi. The video has nothing to do with rising inflation in the country. On 12 January 2023, a Facebook user posted […]
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 […]