Old Video Peddled As Protest Outside Nawaz Sharif's London House After Imran Khan's Arrest
BOOM found that the viral video is from April 2022 when protests were held outside the residence of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after Imran Khan's government fell following a parliamentary no-confidence vote.
An old video from April 2022 showing protesters gathered in London near former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's residence to show support for former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan after his government lost the trust vote then is being shared with the false claim that it shows protests after Khan's recent arrest.
In the 13 seconds video, a large group of protesters can be seen gathered waving Pakistani flags and chanting slogans against Nawaz Sharif.
Khan was arrested on May 9, 2023, from the Islamabad Judicial Complex while appearing in court on corruption charges. He was arrested by Pakistan Rangers, a federal paramilitary law enforcement agency. Khan has been accused of illegally purchasing land from a business tycoon and for allegedly accepting bribes from a real estate company which he has denied. Khan's arrest has stirred protests and unrest in Pakistan with supporters and members of his party - Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) taking to the streets with several instances of violence being reported.
The video was tweeted by Ashok Swain with the caption, "Imran Khan protest goes global - A large number of Pakistanis are protesting Imran Khan’s arrest in front of Nawaz Sharif’s house in London."
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The same video is viral on Twitter and being shared with the false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from April 2022 when PTI supporters had gathered outside former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif's residence in London to show support for Imran Khan after his government had lost the trust vote.
Sharif has been living in exile in London since 2019 and owns a house in Avenfield, London, United Kingdom. The current Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif is Nawaz's brother and his party - Pakistan Muslim League (N) is currently in power in a coalition - Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) with 11 parties including Pakistan People's Party (PPP)
The PDM came to power last year after Imran Khan's government lost the trust vote on April 2022 and was removed from office after a no-confidence motion. This then led to protests by PTI supporters outside Sharif's residence in London.
After running a reverse image search using Yandex, the search results showed that the video dates back to November 2022.
We then ran a selected keyword search and found news reports from April 2022 on the protest outside Sharif's residence which had tweeted with similar photos matching the viral video.
The Express Tribune had reported on April 17, 2022, that protests were held outside the London residence of Nawaz Sharif after Imran Khan lost the no-confidence motion and was ousted from power.
On comparing the visuals from the viral video with the photos from the tweet, we can see that the elements in both matches which show that the video dates back to April 2022.
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