A video clip of children singing has been circulating with claims that students in the Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are being forced to sing political songs of the ruling party in the province instead of Pakistan’s national anthem.
The claim is misleading. The video is old and not new.
Claim
On January 15, a user on X (formerly Twitter) shared a one-minute video of children singing a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) campaign song. The user claimed the children were being told to sing the song instead of the national anthem in a school in Mardan.
The post reads: “In a school in Mardan, instead of the national anthem, children are being told to sing the anthem of the PTI.” The post has been viewed over 10,000 times, re-posted over 280 times, and liked more than 467 times.
The same video was shared by another user with the claim that since PTI came into power in the province after the 2024 elections, students have been forced to sing the PTI anthem instead of Pakistan’s national anthem.
The user further stated: “In this way, the minds of the new generation of Pakistan are being brainwashed”.
Fact
The video in question is not recent. It was filmed in 2018, long before PTI’s recent election win in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the district education officer in Mardan and media reports confirm this.
Zahid Muhammad, the district education officer for Mardan, informed Geo Fact Check that the video was recorded six years ago. He further clarified that no such incident has occurred recently.
He said: “I have been working here for the last two years, and there has been no such incident recently. The video dates back to 2018, when a child sang the PTI anthem at an event, such as a parent-teacher day. Following that, the teacher, the head of the school, and the assistant sub-division education officer present at the event were suspended by the PTI government at that time.”
Geo Fact Check also found a news report from November 2018, which confirms that the PTI government took notice of the incident. The news report details how children were made to sing political songs, prompting swift punishment for the responsible parties.
Verdict: The video of children singing the PTI song was filmed in 2018. After the video circulated, authorities took disciplinary action and suspended the teachers involved. The claim that this incident happened recently under PTI’s current governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is false.
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