Shireen Mazari’s interview to Rabwah Times on PTI agreement with Ahmadi community

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.

To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team has sourced the original interview where the clip has been taken from.

HOW IT STARTED

On February 8, 2024, an X user, who appeared to be a Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam supporter based on his past posts and header image, shared a three-minute video with the caption: “Tehreek-i-Insaaf or Tehreek-i-Ihyaa-e-Qadiyanit? Shireen Mazari, an important member of PTI and a close associate of Imran Niazi, admitted on the Qadiani TV channel Rabwah Times that, PTI tried hard to give rights to the Qadianis but there was a lot of pressure from the Muslims, due to this we could not complete our work and so now an agreement has been made with the Qadianis that if PTI gets another chance now then we will give priority to the Qadianis”.

The video claiming that Mazari gave an interview to Rabwah Times gained over 100,000 views.

The same video with a similar claim was shared here and here.

A similar video was shared on Facebook here and here on May 2022.

The transcript of the clip is reproduced below:

Anchor: “You have, of course, the Ahmadis who are in a tricky situation because you say they’re not Muslims. They say they are Muslims. Here’s what an Ahmadi spokesman said this year under your government. He said, ‘Ahmadis have no religious freedoms in Pakistan and recent actions taken by the authorities mean that the situation is going to deteriorate further and make it impossible for Ahmadis to carry on with their everyday lives.’ That was just six, seven months ago under your government.

Mazari: “Listen, the Ahmadis, according to our Constitution, now are non-Muslims. They have every right to come into politics, to contest elections on non-Muslim seats. They have every right to practice their religion.”

Anchor: “But they have to declare themselves non-Muslim to participate in Pakistani public life. Some would say that’s a form of apartheid.”

Mazari: “No, not to participate in public life. But yes, when we have to sign a form declaring accepting the finality of the Prophet (Peace be upon him). And those who don’t, by our constitutional definition are non-Muslims. So there is no denial of their political rights. But if they insist that our Constitution is wrong and they want us to change that, then I’m afraid that that creates problems.”

Anchor: “You say there’s no denial of rights. On this show back in 2016, when I asked Imran Khan, your prime minister, if he would extend equal rights to Ahmadis, he said, and I quote, “All human beings have equal rights. Anyone who is a Pakistani has an equal right.” Yet, shortly after he was elected to office last year, Princeton University economist Atif Mian, who had been selected to serve on the prime minister’s Economic Advisory Council, was asked to step down because he’s an Ahmadi. Why didn’t the prime minister stand by him? Why didn’t you stand by him if everyone has equal rights in Pakistan?”

Mazari: “He(Atif Mian) was not in Pakistan. He was in the US. So let’s be very clear. When you say equal rights, you have equal rights under the Constitution. You want to bring about constitutional changes. There are many constitutional changes which may improve the country. With the 18th Amendment, we have now power devolves. So bringing about any change becomes ever more difficult at the Centre. But I agree the Atif Mian case was unfortunate.”

Anchor: “Unfortunate or discriminatory?”

Mazari: “No, I think that it is the choice of the government finally, but I think that it should have been dealt with in a better way. And the fact of the matter is that it should not have been done in the way it was done. If you knew it would become controversial, we should never have taken that decision in the first place. The gentleman is not in Pakistan. He’s been living in the States. So it’s not that he was being denied a right to be part of the government in Pakistan. He was being asked to be an adviser. And I think that it would have been good because he was he’s one of the leading economists.”

Anchor: “Okay, but he was targeted because he was an Ahmadi.”

Mazari: “No, the controversy was created needlessly. And I think that it would have been handled better. But he was not denied any right because he was he was being asked to come as an adviser in a sort of proposal capacity.”

Methodology

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to investigate the claim since it asserted a very dangerous allegation against former PTI minister Shireen Mazari and PTI founder Imran Khan which can be used to influence voters and also have harmful repercussions during the February 8 general eections.

It is further also an attempt to dissuade voters from supporting the PTI on the day of the general elections by using religion.

Investigating the video, the iVerify Pakistan team did a reverse image search and found the full video of the talk show Upfront (headliner) uploaded by Al-Jazeera on YouTube on December 7, 2019.

During the interview, then-human rights minister Shireen Mazari was questioned by anchor Mehdi Hasan about the performance of the PTI government.

In the viral clip, we can see that Al-Jazeera‘s logo is hidden behind the Rabwah Times logo.

The team went through the entire interview and found no mention of any agreement being made with the Ahmadi community as claimed by the viral post.

BACKGROUND

According to Dawn.com, the then-PTI government faced controversy in 2018 surrounding Mian’s removal.

Mian, a renowned Princeton University economist, was appointed to serve on the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. However, his appointment stirred controversy due to his Ahmadiyya faith, leading to demands for his removal from certain quarters within Pakistan.

Succumbing to pressure, the PTI government had asked Mian to step down from his advisory role, sparking debates about religious discrimination and equal rights in the country.

Conclusion

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim about the viral clip regarding PTI supporting Ahmadis when they will come into power due to an agreement is false.

Former minister Mazari never gave an interview to Rabwah Times and the clip was taken from an Al-Jazeera interview which mentioned no agreement of any kind.

Evidence and References

December 19, 2019 , YouTube video of Upfront(headliners) show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca8lr8hk8Ng