Fact-check: No, Shahzeb Khanzada was not in PML-N's Youth Programme

Marriyum Aurangzeb did not say Shahzeb Khanzada was part of the PML-N’s Youth Programme. She was in fact referring to the journalist’s reporting

Geo Fact-Check

Updated Wednesday Feb 14 2024

Online posts falsely claim that the former minister for information has revealed that Geo Television’s journalist, Shahzeb Khanzada, was once involved in the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, rolled out during the Pakistan Muslim League-N’s government from 2013 to 2018.

Claim

A post shared by X user, Siddique Jan, on February 14 and reposted by politician Hammad Azhar, reads: “Big revelation by Marriyum Aurangzeb, during Nawaz Sharif’s tenure Shahzeb Khanzada was part of the process of Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s Youth Program.”

Jan further shared a short clip from a recent interview that the journalist had conducted with Marriyum Aurangzeb, the former information minister and a senior Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader.

The post has been viewed nearly 400,000 times, reposted over 6,000 times, and liked over 12,000 times, to date. The post was reposted by PTI's Hammad Azhar and political commentator Imran Riaz Khan.

Similar claims were shared by other online users.

Fact

The claim is false.

Marriyum Aurangzeb did not say that Shahzeb Khanzada was part of the PML-N’s Youth Programme. She was in fact referring to the journalist’s reporting of the Programme during the PML-N’s tenure.

The clips circulating online have been spliced from an interview Shahzeb Khanzada conducted with Aurangzeb on February 13, where he asked the latter about the nomination of Maryam Nawaz Sharif as the chief minister of Punjab.

In response, Aurangzeb praised Sharif and added: “You [Shahzeb] must remember, you were a part of the process when Maryam Nawaz Sharif assisted Nawaz Sharif for the Youth Programme and health card…”

Khanzada then asked: “Which process are you talking about, which I was a part of? I don’t remember.”

To which, Aurangzeb then quickly clarified: “I did not mean part of the process. What I mean is that when Maryam Nawaz was in the youth programme and health you did television shows on the programme in 2015. I am not saying you were part of the task force. Of course, as a journalist you reported on it.”

With additional reporting by Muhammad Binyameen Iqbal.