Claim: According to video clips circulating online, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has passed away from a heart attack.
Fact: Nawaz Sharif has not passed away.
Fact or Fiction?
On 12 July 2022, a video clip of Nawaz Sharif and Mayam Nawaz was shared with the following caption:
“بہت ہی افسوسناک خبر میاں محمد نواز شریف دل کے دورے سے انتقال کرگئے
[Very sad news, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has passed away from a heart attack.]”
The 27-minute video is taken from a Dunya News clip from July 2018, when Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were arrested on their arrival in Pakistan on account of corruption charges. The claim that Nawaz Sharif has died was not corroborated by any official reports or news outlets.
The claim was also shared on groups and individual profiles with plain text.
The claim started doing the rounds on social media after it was shared by pages with a significant number of followers — many of these posts have since been deleted. A screenshot of one such post can be seen below.
The false claim also appeared in a caption accompanying a live video stream, which has now been deleted. Soch Fact Check found multiple thumbnails of this livestream by inputting the caption on CrowdTangle.
A Google Reverse Image Search of the photo on the left revealed that the clip was taken from the funeral procession of Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain, which was live streamed on multiple social media platforms. Dr Aamir Liaquat passed away on 9 June 2022. The thumbnail on the right is an image of Maryam Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif from the funeral of Maryam Nawaz’s mother, Kulsoom Nawaz. Kulsoom Nawaz passed away in September 2018.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 30-day period from 15 June to 15 July 2022 using the following search terms:
- “میاں محمد نواز شریف انتقال”
The search term turned up 5,489 interactions across 890 posts. The analysis showed that interactions on the claim peak between 26 June and 2 July 2022, and once again between 10 July and 15 July 2022.
The claim has also been shared here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: Videos from prior events have been shared with the false claim that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has passed away from a heart attack. Sharif has not passed away.