Claim: Defence Minister Khwaja Asif and member of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) questioned the Pakistan military’s historic defeats during a National Assembly session on 23 June 2024.
Fact: Khwaja Asif did not question the military for its losses in the National Assembly session. The 14-second clip has been dubbed with a different audio.
On June 23, X user Naseem Khaira, a Pakistan-Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) supporter and writer with a following of 125k users shared a 14-second video clip from the National Assembly session held on the same day.
Embed: https://x.com/Naseem_khera/status/1804815793621709150
The video clip shows Khwaja Asif making a speech in the National Assembly, in which he can be heard saying:
“They lost the 1970 war [against Bangladesh], did you ask them? In 1965, [the military] declared a false victory, did you ask them? They lost Siachin and Kargil, did you ask them?”
These instances were major historic losses for the Pakistan military.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated the claim as the statement in the video does not align with Asif’s or his political party’s conventional pro-military stance, making it seem suspicious.
In the 23 June National Assembly (NA) session, the Defence Minister spoke in favour of the newly announced military counterterrorism operation called ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’ which aims to defeat terrorism and extremism, according to Dawn. Contrary to what the video clip shows, Asif criticised the opposition for not supporting the new operation, after they had called for taking the Parliament into confidence before any offences were launched, the same report added.
As the floor was given to Asif to speak, the opposition chanted slogans to protest against the new operation. But the Defence Minister held that the opposition “are standing with the terrorists by protesting here today. They are protesting against the martyrs of the Pakistan Army and the army that is still making sacrifices to [counter] terrorism.”
None of his statements mentioned the Pakistan military’s historic wars and losses from the past. At the 2:11:30 mark of the original livestream Asif maintained a pro-military stance, calling out the attacks against the military on 9 May 2023. Instead of calling for more accountability for the military, he advocated for more power to the military to counter terrorism.
A comparison with the original livestream of the National Assembly (NA) session from 23 June 2024 reveals several inconsistencies in the clip shared in the viral claim. Firstly, observing Khwaja Asif’s voice in the original livestream makes it evident that the audio in the viral claim has been dubbed.
Secondly, we can hear major interruptions and disturbances from other members of parliament who were chanting slogans and protesting in the background during the 23 June session as Asif took to the floor. The 14-second clip in the claim does not include any sounds of protests in the background. Moreover, given that the words do not match the movement of his lips, and the poor quality of sound, it is clear that the audio of the 14-second clip is doctored.
Virality
The viral X post received 6.1k likes and 4.1k retweets. A search using the same caption also showed other similar posts on X here, here and here.
On Facebook, the false claim was shared here, here and here.
Conclusion: Khwaja Asif did not criticise the Pakistan military for its losses in the past, in a National Assembly session on 23 June 2024. The viral clip circulating online is fake as it has been dubbed over.
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Background image in cover photo: MinuteMirror
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