Claim: Pakistani television host Imran Riaz Khan claims Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah is posing for photographs to make it seem like the provincial government is engaged in relief work during the 2022 Karachi rains. Khan posted a picture on Twitter showing Shah standing in waist-deep flood water.
Fact: The picture of Shah is, in fact, from 2020 and is unrelated to the recent bout of heavy rainfall in Karachi.
On 12 July 2022, Pakistani anchor and YouTuber Imran Riaz Khan tweeted a picture of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah wearing a rain jacket and accompanied by police officers during a visit to a flooded area in Karachi. Shah is encircled by a red border in the image.
Imran Riaz Khan, who has over 3.5 million followers on Twitter, captioned the photo as follows:
“شہباز شریف سے ٹیلی فونک گفتگو کے بعد رونما ہونے ولی تبدیلی۔ پانی نکالنا ہے حضور نہا نہا کر عوام کو بے وقوف نہ بنائیں۔ [The change that came about following a telephonic conversation with Shehbaz Sharif. The task is to drain the rainwater, don’t fool the people by taking a bath in it.]”
Fact or Fiction?
The post by Imran Riaz Khan is misleading. Soch Fact Check used Google Lens, as well as reverse image tools, to ascertain the source of the image.
We found that the photograph is, in fact, from 2020 when Karachi received intense rainfall, which was record-breaking at the time and caused heavy flooding and deaths across the metropolis.
Media won’t show you these images! Tell me one other chief minister who himself has gone out to deal with a situation like this. #SalutetoCMSindh #RainEmergency #KarachiRain #SindhGovt #PPP @MuradAliShahPPP pic.twitter.com/I5q5Cj8XL7
— Qassim N. Qamar (@qnqamar) August 28, 2020
Lastnight #Cmsindh along with advisor to Cm minister law @murtazawahab1 minister LG @SyedNasirHShah minister education @SaeedGhani1 minister excise #mukeshchawla and others visited diffrent areas and roads During heavy and historical Rainin in Karachi #KhidmatMeSbSeAageSindh pic.twitter.com/XO5XzqD5Px
— Masroor Rajper 🇱🇾 (@MasroorARajper) August 28, 2020
In our investigation, we found two tweets — one by Qassim N. Qamar, Special Assistant to Sindh Chief Minister on Investment & Public Private Partnership, and one by Masroor Rajper, Deputy General-Secretary of the Sindh chapter of the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Peoples Youth Organisation (PYO) — featuring pictures of Shah, the provincial chief minister, and other government officials in flooded areas during the 2020 Karachi rains.
The pictures were also shared in 2020 on Facebook page ‘Sindh 360’, where they received 3,100 reactions and 485 comments and were shared 3,300 times.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 30-day period from 27 June 2022 to 27 July using the following search term, “شہباز شریف سے ٹیلی فونک گفتگو کے بعد رونما ہونے ولی تبدیلی پانی نکالنا ہے حضور نہا نہا کر عوام کو بے وقوف نہ بنائیں.”
On Facebook, we found four posts that garnered close to 1,300 interactions; there was one Instagram post that gained over 200 interactions.
A post by Facebook page ‘Super Power Pakistan’ received almost 1,000 reactions and 64 comments; it was shared nearly 250 times. Other posts can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Imran Riaz Khan’s Twitter post was retweeted over 7,300 times; it received over 20,400 likes and 750 comments.
Conclusion: A picture of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah shared by Pakistani TV host Imran Riaz Khan in the context of the 2022 heavy monsoon rain in Karachi is in fact from 2020.