Claim: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s central secretariat has issued a notification announcing that Imran Khan is retiring from politics. Fact: The notification is doctored. PTI’s media coordinator, Azhar Mashwani has confirmed that Khan is not retiring from politics. On 19 February 2022, a notification from the PTI’s Central Secretariat went viral on social media. According to […]
Claim: Salman Akram Raja tweeted hate speech about the Ahmedi community, calling them infidels. Fact: The tweet was posted by a fake account impersonating Salman Akram Raja. Raja has clarified that he did not share a hateful message against the Ahmedi community. On 21 February 2024, an account claiming to be lawyer and PTI leader […]
Claim: PTI-backed independent winning candidates have joined the PML-N. Barrister Aqeel Malik is the 11th such candidate. Fact: Out of the nine independent candidates who joined the PML-N, only one of them was a PTI-backed independent candidate, Waseem Qadir from NA-121. Apart from him, the other independent candidates were already affiliated with PML-N or IPP […]
Claim: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is set to form an alliance with PTI-P — the party’s breakaway faction led by Pervez Khattak — to form a coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Fact: The claim is false. Negotiations between PTI and PTI-P have been confirmed by the parties’ leaders, but the final announcement to form a government […]
Claim: The courts have declared Salman Akram Raja’s victory. Nawaz Sharif has now lost another seat and he will continue to lose more. Fact: The Lahore High Court issued a stay order on the election results from NA-128, Salman Akram Raja’s constituency, according to the court documents obtained by Soch Fact Check. The Election Commission […]
Claim: Google Trends predicted who would win the 2024 general election in Pakistan and that data proved that “PTI is on top”. Fact: Google Trends shows a summary of searches by people around the world; it can be narrowed down according to categories, time period, and location, among other filters. The FAQs page of Google […]
Claim: WikiLeaks has released a documentary on PTI founder Imran Khan after he was sentenced to 10 years and 14 years in jail in two separate cases pertaining to leaking state secrets and corruption, respectively. Fact: The documentary has nothing to do with Khan’s sentencing. It was originally aired in 2012. On 1 February 2024, […]
Claim: The Washington Post recently published an article titled, “Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even started.” Pakistani users have linked the alleged rigging hinted at in the article’s headline to the 2024 general elections. Fact: While the article is authentic, it is not recent, as The Washington Post published it in 2013. […]
Claim: On 6 February 2024, front pages of multiple Pakistani newspapers announced Nawaz Sharif as the next prime minister, claiming he was voted in by the people’s choice. Fact: The front page is an advertisement and not a news piece. Since the 2024 general elections in Pakistan are underway, it cannot be said that Nawaz […]
Claim: Nawaz Sharif boycotted the 2024 general elections in Pakistan in an emergency press conference on 7 February 2024. Fact: An old video clip from Nawaz Sharif’s press conference in July 2015 is being recycled to claim that it was taken right before the 2024 elections. On 7 February 2024, an X account posing to […]
Claim: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) has ended its alliance with Jehangir Tareen’s Istehkam Party within Punjab. Fact: PML-N did not announce a political separation from Jehangir Tareen’s Istehkam Party. A fake account pretending to be PML-N’s official account posted a false statement on X. On 8 February 2024, an X user, @PMLNOFFICIAL published a post […]
Claim: A fatwa issued by Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi states that voting for JUI-F is ‘haram’ as they ask for votes in the name of religion. Fact: Darul Uloom Karachi did not issue such a fatwa. The image making rounds on social media is a doctored version of a fatwa about coronavirus prevention from 2020. […]