Fact-check: Pakistan did not mute Indian Minister Jaishankar's SCO speech

Online users have claimed that Pakistan's state television deliberately muted the speech of Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar during the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Islamabad.

This claim is inaccurate.

Claim

Pakistan hosted the 23rd meeting of the SCO summit in Islamabad this week, where heads of state and delegations from several countries, including China, Russia, India, and Kazakhstan, were in attendance. 

On October 16, a day after India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan for the two-day meeting, claims began circulating online that state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) did not broadcast his speech at the opening ceremony of the summit.

“State TV in Pakistan muted the address of the Indian foreign minister,” read one post on X (formerly Twitter) on October 16.

Posts by Indian accounts also claimed that the foreign minister’s address was censored, further accusing Pakistan of being "scared" to hear what Jaishankar had to say.

Similar claims can be read here.

Fact

Contrary to these claims, Jaishankar’s speech at the opening ceremony of the SCO summit was not muted by the state broadcaster. In fact, none of the speeches, except that of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, were broadcasted live on October 16 during the opening ceremony.

No exception was made for the Indian minister.

Geo Fact Check reviewed the entire livestream posted on PTV’s official YouTube channel, which can be viewed here. It clearly shows that besides the speech of Sharif, who opened the ceremony, none of the other heads of state or delegations' remarks were aired.

Also officials familiar with the developments told Geo Fact Check that, as per protocol, only the opening remarks of such events are typically aired.

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