This 2017 video shows a Pakistani politician, not former President Asif Ali Zardari

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 18, 2020 at 07:30
3 min read
By AFP Pakistan

A video has been viewed more than one million times in multiple posts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in March and April 2020 alongside a claim it shows former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in a hospital bed. The claim is false; this video has circulated online since 2017; it was originally published by a Pakistani provincial chief minister about a visit to an ailing politician.

This video has been viewed more than 1.4 million times and shared more than 38,000 times after it was posted to Facebook on April 22, 2020.

The 20-second video shows Murad Ali Shah, the chief minister of the southeastern Pakistani province of Sindh, visiting and inquiring about the health of a man lying in a hospital bed.

Part of the Urdu-language caption translates to English as: “This is the latest video of Asif Zardari. Learn a lesson you thieves, robbers, looters. This is Asif Zardari who used to say we will live forever.”

Asif Ali Zardari was Pakistan’s president between 2008 and 2013. He remains a leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

A screenshot taken on May 14, 2020, of the misleading post by رو پٹواری رو

The video has also been shared in March and April 2020 on Facebook here and here; on YouTube here, here and here; and on Twitter here, alongside a similar claim.

However, the claim is false; the man lying in bed in the video is not Zardari, but fellow PPP member Qazi Hafeez ur Rehman.

A reverse image search found a longer version of the video published here on the Facebook page of Sindh’s chief minister on April 12, 2017. The title states: “Syed Murad Ali Shah meets Qazi Hafeez ur Rehman”.

The post's caption states: “Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah inquires about health of Mr. Qazi Hafeez ur Rehman senior PPP Leader at his residence.”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the Sindh chief minister’s video (L) and the footage in the misleading post (R):

A screenshot comparison of Sindh chief minister’s video (L) and the footage in the misleading post (R)

Sindh’s minister for Local Government, Forests and Religious Affairs, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, also warned about the false claim in this March 26 tweet: “This picture is of Qazi Hafeez-ur-Rehman Sb. He was a member of PPP Federal Council, who passed away a couple of years ago. Please avoid misinformation on social media.”

This picture is of Qazi Hafeez-ur-Rehman Sb. He was a member of PPP Federal Council, who passed away a couple of years ago. Please avoid misinformation on social media. pic.twitter.com/bWZ3ikkJFc
— Syed Nasir Hussain Shah (@SyedNasirHShah) March 25, 2020

Zardari’s son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari provided an update on the former president’s health in this video tweeted by a Pakistani journalist on May 13: “Thanks to Allah his health is much better than when he was a prisoner of government here in Islamabad. At the moment President Zardari is in Karachi and due to corona on my demand on the demand of Asifa Bibi (Bilawal’s sister) he is observing all protective measures recommended by the Word Health Organisation for those whom there are underlying conditions.”

Sherry Rehman, a PPP leader and member of the Senate, also told AFP by phone on May 13, 2020, that Zardari was “doing fine”.

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