Fact-check: Was a cop suspended for taking a selfie with PTI’s Zartaj Gul, Ali Zaidi?
Three police officers have confirmed to Geo Fact Check that an ASI was indeed suspended for negligence after he took a picture with PTI politicians
Updated Friday Mar 17 2023
Social media posts allege a police official was suspended for taking a selfie with politicians Zartaj Gul and Ali Zaidi during a political rally of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on March 13 in Lahore, Punjab.
This claim is true.
Claim
On March 15, a verified Twitter account posted a photo of a policeman with the claim that Asghar, an assistant sub-inspector from Lahore’s Ghaziabad police station, was removed from active duty after he took a selfie with PTI’s Zartaj Gul.
The tweet has been viewed nearly 400 times, to date.
A similar claim was shared with the photo by other Twitter users as well. “Asghar, ASI at Ghaziabad police station suspended for taking a selfie with Zartaj Gul,” read the caption of one such tweet.
Fact
This claim is true. Three police officers have confirmed this information to Geo Fact Check.
Mubashar Hussain, the spokesperson of the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore, told Geo Fact Check, over the phone: “Yes. This man is suspended.”
Hussain further explained that the reason for the cop’s suspension is “negligence from duty”.
While a police officer at the Ghaziabad police station, Sajjad Ur Rehman, also told Geo Fact Check over the phone that Asghar Nawaz Sial, the assistant sub-inspector, had been removed from active duty for now.
Geo Fact Check then contacted Sial as well for his version.
“They [police officials] have written a report about me on the orders of the Superintendent of Police (SP) Cantt,” he said, “For now they have suspended and close lined me. I don’t know what they will do after this.”
He added that he took the picture on March 13, the day the PTI took out a political rally.
“A selfie has become such a big crime,” Sial said. “It was not a sin [to take a picture]. I don’t know how this [photo] became viral.”
Geo Fact Check also contacted Awais Shafiq, the SP Lahore Cantt, but he refused to comment on the issue. Geo Fact Check has also seen the orders of Sial’s suspension.
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