On February 8, 2024, a screenshot of Khawaja Asif’s post on social media platform X circulated, in which he allegedly acknowledged the hardships faced by Usman Dar’s mother Rehana Dar and announced quitting politics. However, the image is doctored.
Image of Khawaja Asif X post seeking forgiveness from Usman Dar’s family, announcing withdrawal from politics
The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.
To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team has checked the screenshot through image manipulating tools, as well as the official X account of senior PML-N leader and former defence minister Khwaja Asif.
On February 8, 2024, a screenshot of Asif’s X account was shared by Muqadas Farooq Awan, a news editor and journalist of Daily Urdu Point.
In the screenshot dated Feb 7 at 10:50pm, Asif wrote: “Usman Dar’s mother, Rehana Dar, had to face many difficulties because of me. Due to this, I am very ashamed and seek forgiveness from the Dar family and the entire Pakistan. In these circumstances, I do not consider it appropriate to contest the election. I announce my resignation from politics”.
The post gained over 153,000 views and was reshared 2,400 times.
Similarly, the same screenshot was shared by another X user and gained over 43,000 views and was reshared 154 times.
The iVerify Pakistan platform sought to determine the veracity of the claim since the virality of the image is high and it is directly related to the pre-existing tension between PML-N and PTI.
The team initially checked the official account of the former defence minister to confirm if he had made such a post. However, no such post was found from Feb 7.
Secondly, the team observed that the spelling of Asif’s official X handle is “KhawajaMAsif” with a capitalised K and A while the X handle in the screenshot was spelt “khawajaMasif” with no capitalisation.
The iVerify Pakistan team also ran the screenshot through image manipulation tools such as FotoForensics and Fake Image Detector.
The results of both tools showed that the screenshot shared on social media platform X was doctored.
Rehana Dar, the mother of former PTI leader Usman Dar, is contesting the general election from Sialkot’s NA-71 against Asif.
According to Dawn.com, Rehana had accused Asif and the police of raiding her Sialkot home and manhandling her in December.
The PML-N leader had subsequently sent a legal notice for payment of damages to the mother and son over the ‘slanderous’ allegations.
The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the viral screenshot is doctored and therefore the claim associated with it is false.
