Alleged viral video of Iddat case judge Shahrukh Arjumand

Rating Justification

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

To arrive at this verdict, the team investigated the video through a reverse image search to determine if it featured District and Sessions Judge Shahrukh Arjumand.

HOW IT STARTED

On May 29, 2024, an X user, who appeared to be a PTI supporter based on her past posts, shared a video showing a person dancing with a woman while showering her with money.

The caption said, “This is the honourable judge who has to give the verdict in the Iddat case.”

The post garnered over 370,000 views.

The same claim and video were shared by other PTI supporters here and here, garnering over 85,000 and 48,000 views respectively.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and the public interest in the claim as it involved Judge Arjumand who heard the Iddat case.

To investigate the circulated claim, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a reverse image search using multiple screenshots from the video, leading to a video uploaded on YouTube on April 26, 2024.

The video was uploaded by 92 Entertainment and showed a man named Papu Patwari dancing with a woman to the beat of a song.

A keyword search for his name also yielded multiple other videos in which the moustached man with the same facial features can be seen dancing at different occasions.

Meanwhile, a search for the judge’s picture to determine his physical appearance led to a LinkedIn post by Supreme Court Advocate Adil Aziz Qazi who shared a photo of Judge Arjumand’s visit to the Islamabad Bar Council.

Dawn.com correspondent Umer Burney, who covers court reporting in Islamabad, confirmed that the person on the right receiving the book is the judge.

The judge presents starkly different facial features to the dancing man in the video.

IDDAT CASE

On February 3, an Islamabad court sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to seven years in jail each for marrying during the Iddat period.

Both appealed the decision and Judge Arjumand reserved his verdict on May 23. However, the ruling was deferred on May 29 after the judge requested the case be transferred due to a conflict of interest with the complainant.

The PTI subsequently alleged that the judge was threatened and pressured to not announce his reserved verdict.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim regarding the video showing the Iddat case judge is false.

The video does not feature Judge Arjumand but a man known as Papu Patwari. There is no facial resemblance between the two.

Evidence and References

April 26, 2024, 92 Entertainment Youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-8Wia0Vg4E

LinkedIn post by Adil Aziz Qazi:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adil-aziz-qazi-4207931a2_district-and-sessions-judge-shahrukh-arjumand-activity-7166468727889092608-vrWp/