Fact Check: Maryam Nawaz’s clothes torn in public in Punjab, Pakistan? No, here are the facts
A video showing Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz, being swarmed by a crowd and struck on the shoulder is going viral on social media.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:The clothes of Maryam Nawaz, the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, were torn in a recent public scuffle.
Fact:The claim is false. The video shows Maryam Nawaz being accidentally struck by her security personnel. There is no evidence of her clothes being torn.
Hyderabad: A video is circulating on social media claiming to show ‘breaking news’ that Maryam Nawaz, Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab state, was attacked and her clothes were torn.
In the video, Maryam Nawaz is seen surrounded by a crowd. A man is seen hitting her; she shrieks in pain and holds her shoulder.
Sharing the 24-second video on X, a user wrote, “#Breaking: Maryam Nawaz’s clothes reportedly torn by Islamist attackers…” (Archive)
Posts making similar claims can be seen here and here. (Archive 1 and Archive 2)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the viral claim is false. The video shows Pakistan’s Punjab province CM Maryam Nawaz being unintentionally hit by a security guard on September 23, 2020. There is no substantial evidence to state that her clothes were torn in the incident.
Using reverse image search of the viral video, we found the same footage uploaded to YouTube on September 23, 2020. The title read, ‘Maryam Nawaz Crying | Maryam Nawaz Sharif beaten by her personal security guard?’
The description of the video states that Maryam Nawaz was mistakenly struck by a member of her protection detail outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC), after a small number of party supporters tried to swarm her.
Express Tribune, a Pakistani news organisation, also shared the video and wrote that Maryam Nawaz was hit by her security guard. The post also shared a link to the news report published by the organisation on September 23, 2020. (Archive)
The incident took place on the same day when Maryam Nawaz and her husband Muhammad Safdar Awan were swarmed by the party leaders at the Islamabad High Court.
We analysed the video and found that during the incident, Maryam Nawaz’s clothes were not torn. It can be seen clearly in the key frames of the video below.
Saama TV also shared a video report containing footage of the incident from a different angle. At the 2:08-minute mark in the video, Maryam Nawaz can be seen getting ‘hit’ by a security personnel nearby. She shrieked in pain and said, ‘This person hit me.’ We used a VPN to access the video since Pakistan-based online content has been banned in India.
Neither Express Tribune nor Saama TV mentions Maryam Nawaz’s clothes being torn during the incident.
A video uploaded by Capital TV shows Maryam Nawaz briefly interacting with the media after the incident. Other news reports by Geo TV and Parhlo, regarding the incident, state that she was unintentionally hit by a security guard. There are no mentions of torn clothes. (Archive 1, Archive 2)
On December 4, 2023, NewsMeter debunked a viral claim which used the same video footage, alleging that Maryam Nawaz was slapped in public.
The video shows Pakistan’s Punjab province Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz being unintentionally hit by a security guard as a crowd swarmed them. The incident took place on September 23, 2020. There is no substantial evidence to state that her clothes were torn in the incident.
Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.
