X account of IHC’s Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and the account and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team investigated whether the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had addressed the matter of an alleged social media account of one of its judges.

The iVerify Pakistan team was alerted by the public to an account on social media platform X seemingly of IHC’s Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri that posted content supporting the PTI and critical of the military. However, the account is an impostor.

Justice Jahangiri is among six judges who previously complained to the Supreme Judicial Council about their own chief justice and accused the Inter-Services Intelligen­­ce of interfering in judicial affairs.

He is also hearing election petitions from PTI runners-up from Islamabad. However, the winning PML-N candidates have expressed no confidence in the judge, accusing him of bias in favour of PTI candidates.

On July 8, 2024, the IHC issued notices to two journalists and a social media activist, taking notice of a “scurrilous campaign” against Justice Jahangiri regarding the controversy surrounding his LLB degree.

HOW IT STARTED

The alleged X account of Justice Jahangiri joined the social media platform in November 2010 and was based in Pakistan. As of July 12, 2024, it had 2,913 followers and was following 2,873 accounts.

The handle for the account was spelt “TheGreatAgain”. While the profile picture was of the IHC judge, the header image featured a quote popularly attributed to PTI founder Imran Khan: “Break the idols of fear.”

An examination of the posts by the account showed content largely critical of the military as can be seen here or supportive of the PTI as seen here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the account due to keen public interest and the nature of the issue since it concerned an alleged social media account of an IHC judge openly sharing content dismissive of the army while showing a partisan bias towards the PTI when he is currently hearing cases related to the party and is at the forefront of a controversy involving the intelligence agencies and the judiciary.

Reaching out to the high court via Dawn.com correspondent Umer Mehtab Burney, who covers court reporting in Islamabad, yielded a notification issued by the IHC public relations officer on July 11.

The notification’s message is reproduced below:

“It is clarified that the honourable Mr Justice Tariq Mehmood Jehangiri does not operate any account/handle on social media ‘X’ (Twitter). All such posts associated to accounts in the name of his lordship, are fake and baseless. Therefore, this press release is being issued for correction of facts and record.”

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim regarding an alleged X account of IHC’s Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri is false.

The account is an impostor as confirmed by the IHC’s public relations officer and as also observably apparent due to the partisan nature of the content being shared.

Evidence and References