Fact-check: Contrary to claims, Imran Khan did make this statement about Gen Bajwa
Dawn’s headline is an exact summarisation of what Imran Khan said about General (retd) Bajwa in an interview
Updated Tuesday Jan 24 2023
Multiple social media accounts associated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have claimed that Dawn, an English newspaper, misquoted former prime minister Imran Khan’s statement about the ex-army chief, General (retd) Bajwa.
The allegation is incorrect.
Claim
On January 23, the PTI’s official Instagram account shared a headline of Dawn’s story, which read: “Gen Bajwa had Nawaz ousted in Panama case: Imran”.
The PTI wrote that the newspaper’s headline was “misleading”.
“Yet again Dawn shamelessly used misleading headlines today and created fake news,” the Instagram post read, “Here is the actual statement of PTI chairman Imran Khan regarding Panama JIT and Gen. Bajwa.”
The post also shared a short clip from the interview when Khan discussed the Panama paper’s case which led to the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
The post had received over 14,000 likes, at the time of writing.
The same allegation was shared on Twitter by Azhar Mashwani, who was the former media coordinator for the chief minister of Punjab Parvez Elahi.
Fact
The allegation is false. Dawn’s headline is an exact summarisation of Khan’s statement.
On January 21, Imran Khan appeared on a local television channel where he made the following statement about former army chief, General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, and the joint investigation team, formed in April 2017 to probe the corruption accusations against Nawaz Sharif stemming from the Panama papers.
Sharif was later dismissed from the highest public office by the Supreme Court.
In the interview, Khan said: “There was one General Bajwa before the extension and one after the extension. Before the extension, he [Bajwa] would sit with the media and tell them how corrupt [Sharif] was. The two brigadiers sent by General Bajwa for the JIT were the ones who proved the Panama case against Nawaz Sharif. Which is why today Nawaz Sharif is not forgiving Bajwa.”
The Dawn headline is an exact reflection of Khan’s words.
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