The man dancing to a Bollywood song in this video is a Pakistani choreographer -- not a politician
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 19, 2022 at 08:32
- 3 min read
- By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India
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"Pakistan member of parliament, ladies and gentlemen," reads a tweet posted on January 6.
The footage -- viewed more than 450,000 times -- shows a man dancing to a Bollywood song.
The footage was shared alongside a similar claim here on Facebook; and here, here and here on YouTube.
Some news outlets also claimed the video shows a "Pakistani MP" -- including here, here and here.
Another tweet claimed the man in the video was Pakistani MP Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a former lawmaker and prominent television preacher whose popular show was banned in 2017 over a hate speech probe.
However, the claim is false. The man in the video is a Pakistani choreographer, not a politician.
A comment on a tweet sharing the footage named him as "Shoaib".
A keyword search subsequently found the Instagram profile for Shoaib Shakoor.
He shared the same footage here on January 4.
View this post on Instagram
Shakoor's Instagram bio describes him as a "choreographer", "singer", "performer" and "music lover". His profile features various videos of him dancing -- including here and here.
Shakoor told AFP he was the man dancing in the video, which he said was filmed at a wedding on January 3.
"I am a choreographer and you can see me dancing in the video. I am not Aamir Liaquat Hussain nor any [other] politician," he said.
A Facebook page for a Pakistan-based wedding photography studio posted multiple videos of Shakoor dancing at the same wedding here, here and here.
A spokesperson for the studio told AFP: "We recorded the videos and he is Shoaib and not Aamir Liaquat Hussain".
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