Opinion of interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi on remarks by judges

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is misleading since the clip of caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi from the interview is incomplete and does not fully depict his comment.

To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team has sourced the original interview aired on January 6, 2024, from where the clip is cut.

HOW IT STARTED

On January 6, 2024, a 13-second clip of Solangi from an interview was shared on social media platform X by a PTI supporter, quoting the minister as saying: “I don’t care about the remarks of the Supreme Court.”

In the clip itself, the host asked the information minister, “‘Does the interim government want to derail the elections?’ these are the remarks of judges of the Supreme Court and high court. You’re saying you don’t care about this as well?”

To which Solangi replied, “No, I do not at all care about it.”

The post referred to Solangi as an “occupying unconstitutional” caretaker information minister and was viewed more than 27,000 times and shared more than 500 times.

A share of the same video clip by another PTI supporter gained 86,000 views and 2,700 shares.

A post with close to 13,000 views by another PTI supporter asked: “Will [Chief Justice of Pakistan] Qazi Faez Isa summon him to the Supreme Court?”

The clip was also shared by a user calling themselves the former information secretary of the PTI’s Canadian chapter. It gained over 12,000 views.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the clip since it seemingly showed a federal minister saying he did not have any regard for remarks of the superior judiciary.

The iVerify Pakistan team’s investigation on the clip’s origin traced it back to an interview of Solangi on Geo News show Naya Pakistan with anchor Shahzad Iqbal on Jan 6.

Solangi addressed criticism towards the government regarding its neutrality for the upcoming February 8 general elections at the 6:20 minute mark.

The following is the relevant transcript of the interview:

Solangi: “There is no restriction on raising questions or criticising the caretaker government. Criticism is happening and is generated every day, we don’t care about it. The information we have is from state institutions and will give our requests in light of it. We are not a tribunal or a court and we are not punishing anyone.”

Anchor: “You said the caretaker government is being criticised and you don’t care about it. Why don’t you care if the caretaker governments are being accused of partiality or not providing a level playing field to one party. Why should you not care about it? You should be especially concerned about it because it is your job to remain neutral.”

Solangi: “We should be concerned about doing what we need to do in light of the law and the Constitution. We cannot stop criticism, if we have to make decisions while only looking at criticism then maybe we cannot complete any task of ours.”

Anchor: “If this criticism is only from political circles then it makes sense you say you aren’t affected by it but is this not concerning that observations regarding the caretaker government are coming from judges of the superior courts such as Justice Athar Minallah from the Superior Court and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb from the Islamabad High Court … you’re saying you don’t care about this as well?”

Solangi: “Yes, I do not care at all because it is not our job to pass comments on judges’ remarks. If you like, I can find you completely opposite remarks … but this is not our job. Our job is to implement court orders, making comments on those remarks [of judges] is not our job.”
 

BACKGROUND OF JUDGES’ REMARKS ON CARETAKER GOVERNMENT:

The PTI is currently subject to a clampdown with party chief Imran Khan incarcerated and the party accusing the caretaker government of denying the PTI equal opportunities for election planning and campaigning.

The Geo News anchor referred to remarks from Justices Minallah and Aurangzeb from hearings on separate PTI petitions in the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court.

According to a Dawn report, Justice Minallah was a member of a Supreme Court bench that on December 22, 2023, heard the PTI’s plea seeking a level playing field in the elections.

In response to the PTI’s apprehensions, Justice Minallah had remarked, “The party’s concerns about not having a level playing field seem valid.”

A separate Dawn story, about a Dec 29 Islamabad High Court hearing on a PTI petition seeking permission to hold meetings with Imran, said Justice Aurangzeb had remarked that the caretaker government should remain neutral and should not take such steps that would derail the election process.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify team determined that the 13-second clip of the information minister is misleading.

This is because the complete context of the information minister’s full response does not forward the impression that he has no regard for the superior judiciary.

Rather, Solangi only said that the caretaker government’s job was to act on and implement court orders instead of analysing the remarks of judges.

Evidence and References

Circulated clip links from the interview
https://web.archive.org/web/20240108073358/https://twitter.com/ArtistInWarTime/status/1743690840739115017?s=20%2A

https://web.archive.org/web/20240108071016/https://twitter.com/balochi5252/status/1743696186387657148

https://web.archive.org/web/20240108085051/https://twitter.com/RebelByThought/status/1743720796634427643

Clip of Original Interview
https://web.archive.org/web/20240108085931/https://twitter.com/geonews_urdu/status/1743696832302318035?s=20

Link to original interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPqnvt3wqxg&t=1s

Dawn December 22, 2023 story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1799936

Dawn story on December 29 court hearing:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1801794#comments