?:reviewBody
|
-
A video has been viewed thousands of times across multiple Facebook posts that claim it shows the nephew of assassinated Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto dancing in traditional clothing. This is false: the video has circulated since at least September 2018 in posts by a Pakistan choreographer, who told AFP the video had been reshared with the wrong name. The video was shared in this Facebook post on May 1, 2021. It has been viewed more than 3,800 times. The six-minute clip shows a dancer dressed in traditional Pakistani clothing performing on a street in the British capital of London. The caption claims the dancer is Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior, the grandson of former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , who founded the centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) before he was overthrown and executed by the military. The Urdu-language caption translates to English as: The real heir of the Bhutto family Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior demonstrating his art on the streets of London. A screenshot taken on February 11, 2022, of the misleading Facebook post Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior is also the nephew of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- the first female prime minister of a Muslim nation -- who some Bhutto loyalists have claimed was not the real heir to the family's political dynasty. The PPP, one of the country's major opposition parties, is now led by Benazir's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Some of the misleading posts appear to taunt Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior for supposedly being forced to make a living by performing in the street. According to this New York Times article published on February 20, 2018, Bhutto Junior was working as an artist in San Francisco. The video was also shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here , here and here. However, the claim is false. AFP found that the full video was actually posted by Karachi-based Pakistani choreographer Wahab Shah in a Facebook post here on September 23, 2018. Shah told AFP the clip shows him performing in the London borough of Camden. His original post reads in part: So here is the full video of me performing @camdentown just on streets. Making head turns (sic) and converting ppl to LOVE Pakistan. We are not a nation of terror but in fact peace ✌️ loving culturally rich beautiful heritage wi h (sic) people who believe in love, it continues. Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading Facebook post (L) and the original video (R): Below is a comparison of a screenshot from the video in the misleading Facebook post (L) and a photo of Shah that he shared on his Instagram account (R): A comparison of screenshots of the video in the misleaidng Facebook post (L) and a photo from artist Wahab Shah's Instagram account (R) shows it is Shah performing in the video. Shah told AFP: The video has been going viral with the title being given to junior Bhutto. I really don't know where it all started from, but this has been happening since 2019 onwards. He added the video had been widely reshared with the wrong name.
(en)
|