On February 14, 2024, a claim circulated on social media platform X that international news outlet Al Jazeera termed a political coalition bidding to form Pakistan’s new government as “mandate thieves”. However, the outlet was only quoting a remark from the PTI.
Al Jazeera terms incoming govt coalition ‘mandate thieves’
The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is misleading.
To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team checked the article published by international news outlet Al Jazeera on February 14, 2024.
On February 14, 2024, a post by self-described journalist Ihtisham Ul Haq on social media platform X said: “Al Jazeera called Pakistan’s new government, ‘Mandate Thieves’.”
The post gained over 240,000 views and was shared 11,000 times.
A similar claim was shared by PTI’s official X account, “The world knows who are the Mandate Thieves.”
The post gained over 184,000 views.
US-based PTI social media chief Jibran Ilyas too shared a similar claim on X, “International media has got this right, PDM 2 folks are really Mandate Thieves. The people of Pakistan will never accept them.”
The post gained over 43,000 views.
Meanwhile, the PTI’s United States chapter said in an X post: “The coalition will forever be called Mandate Thieves by international observers and media.”
The post gained over 21,000 views.
The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to the public’s keen interest in foreign media coverage of the country’s politicians and also because it involved how foreign media viewed the political coalition that could form the next government.
To investigate the claim, the iVerify Pakistan team investigated what the Feb 14 Al Jazeera article actually said.
The article was titled: “‘Mandate thieves’: New Pakistan government takes shape amid slew of jabs”.
The phrase “mandate thieves” is used in the third paragraph of the article which is reproduced below:
“However, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the party of former prime minister Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated on multiple convictions, described the alliance as ‘mandate thieves’ and insisted that a government formed by the grouping of parties would lack ‘credibility’.”
As can be seen, the article expressly mentioned that the PTI described the political alliance as “mandate thieves” and was quoting the party.
The use of the single quotes in the headline for “mandate thieves” also means that the publication is quoting the phrase from someone instead of itself using the term to forward its editorial point of view.
During further research, the team found a post on PTI’s X account dated Feb 13 in which it shared a picture of the political alliance from when it was announced the same day.
“Mandate chor (thieves),” said the succinct caption.
On the night of Feb 13 in Islamabad, six political parties announced their plans to form a coalition in a bid to make the next government.
The parties included the PML-N, PPP, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party and Balochistan Awami Party.
The announcement was criticised by the PTI which has announced its own plans to form the next government.
The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim circulating on social media is misleading.
Al Jazeera itself did not term the six-party political coalition as “mandate thieves” but was instead only quoting what the PTI had said for the alliance.
February 13, 2024, X post of PTI:
https://web.archive.org/save/https://x.com/PTIofficial/status/1757461988085543366?s=20
Al Jazeera article published on February 14:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/14/mandate-thieves-new-pakistan-government-takes-shape-amid-slew-of-jabs
