Claim: A video making lewd allegations claims to show PTI member Sanam Javed being embraced by her lawyer.
Fact: The claim is false because the man in the video is Sanam’s father, and not her lawyer Mian Ashfaq Ali.
On 17 July 2024, a pro-PML-N account shared a video (archive) on X with the caption,
ومیاں صاحب آپ سے یہ امید نہیں تھی۔ صنم جاوید۔ وکیل میاں اشفاق کو مقدمے کی فیس یکمشت ادا کرتے ہوئے۔اسی لئے تو میاں اشفاق اسکو سیدھا اپنے آفس لے کر گیا تھا ۔ یہ ہے تاریک انتشار کی غیرت کا عالم
Translation [ Mian sir, I did not expect this from you. Sanam Javed By paying the trial fee to lawyer Mian Ashfaq in one lump sum. That is why Mian Ashfaq took her directly to his office. This is the glory of dark chaos].
The video shows Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) activist Sanam Javed, sitting with a man’s arm wrapped around her. The video is zoomed in on the activist and therefore appears pixelated. The man sitting next to her is not entirely visible; we can only see his arm.
The overlaid Urdu text in the video, which translates to “shared wives”, is meant to malign the activist.
Sanam Javed was arrested after several cases were filed against her regarding the violence on 9 May 2023. On 11 July, the Lahore High Court discharged her in a lawsuit filed in Gujranwala. Later, on 18 July, she walked free after the Islamabad High Court declared her arrest illegal.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse-image search on the video’s keyframes. The results on Google led to an X post by Naya Pakistan from 14 July 2024. When translated into English, the Urdu caption of the video reads, “Sanam Javed’s father and mother loving their daughter”.
The post included the original version of the video with a greater frame, which shows Sanam Javed sitting in the middle of a visibly older man and woman. The man has one arm wrapped around Javed as he speaks to her, while the woman looks on at the two of them. Soch Fact Check noted that the man is in a blue shalwar kameez, which matches the colour of the man’s clothing in the viral video.
Furthermore, another video, posted on the same day, shows Sanam Javed with her parents before she was arrested again by the Islamabad police. The man identified as her father here is the same person who is seen sitting next to her in the viral video. Javed Iqbal Khan, Sanam Javed’s father, was also featured in the Al-Jazeera documentary titled, “Run Out? Imran Khan and Pakistan’s Political Storm | People & Power Documentary” released in February 2024.
Sanam’s lawyer, Mian Ashfaq Ali, also refuted the claim in a post on X on 17 July, stating, “This Sanam Javed is like my younger sisters and this hand and video belongs to Sanam Javed’s father Javed Iqbal Sahib.” He also added that a legal action and case can be filed against such lewd allegations.
بہین میری- یہ صنم جاوید میری چھوٹی بہنوں جیسی ھے اور یہ ھاتھ اور ویڈیو صنم جاوید کے والد جاوید اقبال صاحب کے ھیں-
میں نے اختلاف رائے پر اور پسند نا پسند پر جوابات دینا بند کر دئیے ھیں لیکن یہ آخری حد کی گٹھیا حرکت ھے جس پر میں آپکو احتیاط برتنے کا مشورہ دوں گا-
— Mian Ali Ashfaq (@MianAliAshfaq) July 17, 2024
Thus, Soch Fact Check confirms that the man sitting next to Sanam Javed in the viral video is her father. Moreover, the video of the false claim was zoomed in to hide her father’s identity and make lewd allegations against the activist.
Virality
The video on X received 1.3 million views, 1000 likes and 780 reposts. It was mainly shared by anti-PTI accounts here, here and here.
The video was originally posted on TikTok by a user @rizwan_pansota.
On Facebook, the video received 24,000 likes, 27,000 comments and 4,000 reshares. The archived versions can be seen here and here.
Conclusion: A video shows Sanam Javed being embraced by her father, and not her lawyer. A post that shared a zoomed version of the original video, making lewd allegations against the activist and her lawyer Mian Ashfaq Ali, is false.
Background image in cover photo: Reuters
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