Claim: A video shared on social media shows pilgrims criticising the current Pakistan government for providing “terrible” lodging facilities during Hajj 2022 in Saudi Arabia.
Fact: The video is, in fact, from August 2019 and shows pilgrims criticising the government at the time for providing inadequate lodging facilities.
On 1 July 2022, Facebook user Raja Shahid Rafique Gakhar shared a video with an Urdu language caption that reads, “During the period of the imported government, the atrocities that are happening there with the Pakistanis going for Hajj. Listen to them yourself. The most expensive Hajj in the history of Pakistan. Not even water for drinking and ablution.
After all, who has the Ministry of Religious Affairs?”
The caption further claims that the government of current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has done an “injustice” to Pakistanis performing Hajj.
The same video with the same or similar captions has been shared here, here, and here on Facebook between 1 – 15 July 2022.
Fact or Fiction?
The Ministry of Religious Affairs Pakistan is responsible for providing facilities to pilgrims. It prepares hajj packages that cover food and board at subsidized rates to Pakistani pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia.
On 30 June 2022, the Ministry of Religious Affairs shared a post on Twitter debunking the claim that the video was from 2022.
“False rumors of an accident in Saudi Arabia/videos of protests are circulating on social media. Today is the 1st of Dhul-Hijjah and Mani’s tent has not been settled yet”, the Urdu-language tweet reads.
The comments on the tweet pointed to a 2019 video. Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search on Google which turned up a video news report by G News Network (GNN) from 10 August 2019.
Shots from the viral video in question can be seen at the 1:48 second mark of the GNN report.
Conclusion: The video circulating on social media regarding the lodging conditions of Pakistanis during 2022 Hajj is from 2019. The captions associating the provision of the facilities with current PM Shehbaz Sharif’s government are misleading.