An image, purportedly showing two women protesters in Pakistan's Punjab Assembly misspelling the word 'condemn' as 'condom', while demonstrating against ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan, is doctored.
The text on the doctored protest Placard reads "We condom Imran Khan for threatening female judge". The edited photograph is being shared on social media with netizens taking a dig at the protesters for misspelling the word.
BOOM found that the image has been digitally morphed. We found the same photo, tweeted by Pakistani politician Hina Parvez Butt - who is seen in the image carrying the placard - where the word was correctly spelt as 'condemn, instead of condom. Furthermore, we found videos from the event, where yet another version of the placard was seen - where the word was misspelt as 'comdemn'. The word 'condom', however, does not appear in any of the photos or videos from the event.
According to The Dawn, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan threatened a woman judge Zeba Chaudhry on August 20 at a public rally and warned the judiciary of consequences alleging their bias against his party. His controversial remarks led to widespread protests in Pakistan and a case was registered against Khan. A larger bench of the the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has been constituted against Khan in this context, reported ANI on August 28.
The viral photograph is circulating on Twitter with the caption, "Pakistan legislators 'Cøndom' Imran Khan for threatening a female judge."
Click here to view the post.
A similar tweet has also been retweeted by Pakistan-born Canadian influencer Tarek Fatah. BOOM has earlier fact checked Fatah for sharing misinformation. Click here to read.
Another Twitter user wrote, "Super English Standards in Pakistan!!!"
Click here to view the post.
Fact Check
BOOM performed a reverse image search on the viral picture and found a photograph in a tweet by Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Hina Parvez Butt on August 24, 2022.
Butt tweeted the image with a Urdu caption that translates to, "Today, we expressed solidarity with the female judge who was threatened by Imran Khan in Lahore."
Click here to view the tweet.
The comparison between the viral image and the picture tweeted by Hina Parvez Butt can be seen below.
We however found another video, tweeted by Pakistani journalist Saif Awan, where the word in question in the placard has been misspelt as 'comdemn', instead of 'condemn' - as opposed to the placard in the photo tweeted by Butt.
We also found a Pakistani based media outlet SAMAA TV's news bulletin on its official YouTube channel carrying the visuals of the protest uploaded on August 24, 2022.
The visuals of the protest can be seen from the 51 seconds mark. The placards in the video show the word being misspelt as 'comdemn'. BOOM could not independently verify whether the image tweeted by Butt, carrying the placard with the word 'condemn', is doctored to rectify the typo, or whether a new placard has been used entirely with the fixed typo.
Butt also tweeted out, acknowledging the error in the spelling of 'condemn' in the placard. However, she did not confirm whether the image tweeted by her was photoshopped, or whether a new placard was used, to rectify the spelling of 'comdemn' to 'condemn'.
Finally, in all the different versions of the placard seen in the videos and the photo tweeted by Butt, the word 'condom' was not found to be used.
The protest reportedly took place in Pakistan's Punjab Assembly. Several other women protestors can also be seen in the news bulletin carrying placards in Urdu and English condemning Imran Khan's remarks.
