On March 18, 2024, a video circulated on social media claiming Punjab police beat women under the administration of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. However, the video is from June 2019, showing an incident near a Multan court.
Women lining up for flour beaten up by Punjab police
The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.
To arrive to this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team has sourced the original video posted back in 2019.
On March 18, a video was circulating on social media platform X with the caption: “It is the era of the TikToker Form-47 chief minister, you will get beaten up instead of flour.”
The “TikToker Form-47 chief minister” is referring to incumbent Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz several videos were posted on social media of her interacting with the public after she assumed office.
The video showing the Punjab police’s manhandling and beating of women received over 55,000 views.
The same video was shared by the PTI Jhang chapter’s X account and gained over 44,000 views.
The caption for the post said: “When this happens to a Muslim daughter for the sake of bread. Then there will be earthquakes. May Allah destroy those who destroy my country and humiliate the nation.”
The video was also shared here.
The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim as the video showed Punjab police beating women in broad daylight and raised questions about the new provincial administration.
The team did a reverse image search on Google and found an old video posted by journalist Rauf Klasra on September 5, 2019, with the caption “Here go the gladiators and brave hearts of Punjab — Keep rocking guys in police uniforms.”
The team also did a keyword search for “Punjab police beating women 2019” and found that the video also resurfaced on March 20, 2023, on X.
Upon further searching the team found an AFP fact-check that was published on October 11, 2019.
The fact-check sourced the video of the Punjab police to YouTube to a video published on June 27, 2019, which the team found out has since been removed
As per the AFP fact-check, these women were not lined up for flour but the police roughhoused the women to remove them from shops near the district court in Multan.
The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim that Punjab police beat women lining up for flour under the current provincial administration is false.
The video circulating on social media is an old one from a different unrelated incident which has nothing to do with women lining up for flour or the current Punjab government.
October 11, 2019 AFP fact-check:
https://factcheck.afp.com/video-shows-pakistani-police-officer-hitting-several-women-outside-court-pakistan
