Viral video of PM Shehbaz stumbling, falling during meeting

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a keyword search to corroborate the alleged incident and a reverse image search to find the original video.

Posts shared on multiple social media platforms by users since March 5, 2025, shared a video, claiming it showed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif falling during a meeting. However, the video from March 2017 shows the Lebanese president falling during a summit of the Arab League.

HOW IT STARTED

The iVerify Pakistan team was alerted on April 15 about a Facebook post and requested authentication for the content.

On March 5, a Facebook user, who appeared to be pro-PTI based on their past posts, shared a video showing a man tripping and falling during a formal gathering.

The video was captioned: “Shehbaz Sharif became dizzy during a meeting.”

The post did not offer any other details such as the location, context or date of the alleged meeting in which the incident occurred.

The video gained 2.7 million views, 13,500 reactions and re-shared 4,300 times.

The same video and claim were shared by other Facebook users here, here and here, and also on Instagram here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality, to satisfy the public’s request seeking authentication for the claim and keen interest in the prime minister’s activities.

A keyword search for “Shehbaz Sharif”, “falling”, “tripping” and “meeting” to find news stories corroborating the alleged incident did not yield any news reports.

A reverse image search yielded a news story from British tabloid The Daily Mail, accompanied by the footage, published on March 29, 2017.

Titled, “Lebanon’s president takes a hilarious tumble, faceplanting the red carpet in front of Arab leaders as Dead Sea summit starts,” the report detailed the incident of Michel Aoun taking a fall on a low, red-carpeted podium at the Arab League summit in Jordan.

The footage also showed two men rushing to help him to his feet as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stood nearby. The report said the summit brought together 22 leaders from the Arab world to discuss the war in Syria, the threat of terrorism and other issues.

The incident was also covered by other reputable international news outlets.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim about a viral video showing PM Shehbaz tripping and falling during a meeting is false.

The video is an old one from March 2017 that shows Lebanese President Michel Aoun tripping during an Arab League summit in Jordan.

Evidence and References

March 29, 2017, Daily Mail report:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4360416/Lebanon-s-President-takes-tumble-Dead-Sea-summit.html

March 29, 2017, Reuters news report:
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/lebanon-s-aoun-takes-tumble-as-arab-summit-starts-idUSKBN170192/