The chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province Maryam Nawaz Sharif was criticised for flying abroad while the province grappled with record levels of pollution in November 2024, but a video circulating on social media does not show her being heckled at the airport. The clip earlier circulated in September 2023 reports about Maryam’s return to Lahore from an overseas trip — and its audio was altered to make it sound like the crowd was hostile to her.
“Maryam Nawaz left for Geneva from Lahore Airport,” read the Urdu-language caption to a video posted on X on November 6, 2024.
The video, which was viewed more than 100,000 times, appears to show Punjab’s chief minister walking through a crowd that is chanting: “Maryam’s father is a thief!”
Maryam’s father is three-time Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who never managed to see out a full term and was dogged by allegations of corruption (archived link). Nawaz’s younger brother, Shehbaz, is the country’s current prime minister.
Screenshot of the false X post, captured on November 15, 2024
The posts were also shared on X here and here.
They circulated as Maryam faced criticism for flying to Geneva, reportedly to seek medical treatment, and then to London while Pakistan battled record levels of air pollution in November 2024 (archived links here and here).
Punjab — home to more than half of Pakistan’s 240 million people — ordered schools to shut in several major cities enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.
The video circulating online, however, does not show Punjab’s chief minister being heckled at the airport.
Old video
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage shared here and here on September 26, 2023 by X accounts affiliated to Maryam’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) (archived links here and here).
One of the posts reads: “Chief Organizer PML-N Maryam Nawaz Reached Lahore Airport.”
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video used in the false post (left) and the video posted on X in September 2023 (right):
Screenshot comparison between the video used in the false post (left) and the video posted on X in September 2023 (right)
The footage was also used by ARY News and HUM News on YouTube (archived links here and here).
According to news articles by The Nation and The News International, Maryam was returning from London where she attended party talks (archived links here and here).
The footage shared in September 2023 also has different audio to the clip shared in November 2024. The people surrounding Maryam could be heard chanting, “Daughter of the nation, voice of the nation, Maryam Nawaz, Maryam Nawaz” — rather than heckling her.
AFP has previously fact checked dubbed or old misleading videos of Pakistani politicians here and here.
