Man filmed stumbling is Lebanon ex-leader, not Pakistan PM

Published on April 22, 2025 at 10:21
2 min read
By Masroor GILANI, AFP Pakistan

Old footage of Lebanon's former president Michel Aoun tripping during a foreign summit has resurfaced in social media posts that mistakenly identify him as Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The clip has appeared in multiple reports about the incident in March 2017.

"Shehbaz Sharif felt dizzy during the meeting," reads an Urdu-language Facebook post on March 27.

It includes a clip of a man falling face down behind a group of dignitaries, some of whom rush to check on him.

Screenshot taken on April 18 of the false Facebook post

Sharif's detractors have also shared the clip on TikTok and Instagram alongside claims he was the man who fell although there were no official reports such an incident happened recently.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found it was taken from a longer video that the Middle East Eye media outlet published on Facebook on March 29, 2017 (archived link).

"Lebanese President Michel Aoun takes a tumble at the Arab League Summit today," reads the post's title.

Screenshot comparison between the false post (L) and the video from Middle East Eye

News outlets such as Turkey's Anadolu Agency and Britain's Daily Mail newspaper also published reports about Aoun tumbling at the 22-member Arab League conference in Jordan in March 2017 (archived here and here).

Pakistan is not a member of the Arab League, and Sharif was not yet prime minister at the time. He first became Pakistan's leader in April 2022 and was re-elected after the February 2024 general elections (archived here and here).

AFP has debunked misinformation about Sharif here and here.

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