Nawaz Sharif is not travelling to London on Feb 8

On February 8, 2024, posts circulating on social media platform X claimed that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif is departing for London on the night of February 8. However, no flight is scheduled for London from Lahore.

Claim

Nawaz Sharif travelling to London at 11pm on Feb 8

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.

To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team checked any flights for London from Lahore tonight and also investigated the video attached with the claim.

HOW IT STARTED

On February 8, 2024, an X account named “PMLN PUNJAB” shared a clip with the caption: “Mian Nawaz Sharif will leave for London tonight at 11:05pm. Company and the PML-N workers greatly disappointed. He will hold an important press conference after reaching London.”

The post gained over 138,000 views and 760 reshares.

In the attached clip, the anchors were saying:

“Tonight at 11pm, [Nawaz Sharif] will travel to London from Lahore airport. Nawaz Sharif will travel from PK-757 along with his secretary Hanif Khan [who] will also go to London”.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to investigate the claim due to its high virality as well as the nature of its claim relating to the turnout and results of the general elections 2024.

The team observed that the attached clip showed a cropped logo of 24 News HD. Verifying the news bulletins from the outlet for Feb 8 showed no such report aired by the channel.

However, a keyword search for “PK-757”, “Nawaz” and “London” did show news reports from October 2017 about the PML-N supremo departing for London to see his ailing wife.

The news about Nawaz’s departure to London on Oct 5, 2017, was covered by The News, 92 News and Dawn.com.

The team found a 10am news bulletin of 24 News from Oct 5, 2017. The bulletin featured the same visuals of Nawaz and the flight ticket as the circulating clip.

The iVerify Pakistan team also checked the Flight Radar 24 online tracker to see the flights operating on the night of Feb 8 from Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport to London but did not find any.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim about Nawaz departing for London on Feb 8 at 11pm is false.

Nawaz is not travelling to London since there is no flight scheduled from Lahore to London for Feb 8 and the attached video with the claim is an old one.