A TikTok video circulating online, featuring a news broadcast, claims to show Punjab’s Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announcing a complete lockdown on the weekends due to rising smog in Lahore and Multan.
The claim is false. The video is not recent, and no such decision has been made by the Punjab government as of October 24.
Claim
“There will be a complete lockdown in Lahore and Multan next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, says Marriyum Aurangzeb,” read an Urdu-language text overlaid on a video posted on TikTok on October 19.
The video includes a graphic from a private news channel with the text: “All types of construction will be banned as well, said Marriyum Aurangzeb.”
At the time of writing, the post had been viewed over 453,000 times, shared more than 1,160 times, and liked over 9,300 times.
A similar claim was also shared on the same platform here.
Fact
The video circulating online is from last year, and the Punjab government has not recently announced a lockdown in Lahore or Multan due to poor air quality.
Geo Fact Check traced the viral video to a press conference by Minister Aurangzeb, aired on November 15, 2024, when she announced a three-day lockdown in Lahore and Multan due to the intense smog.
Furthermore, Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari told Geo Fact Check over the phone: “There is absolutely no possibility of any lockdown and no decision has been made about it [as yet].”
Verdict: The lockdown announcement from November 2024 has been falsely shared as a recent lockdown announcement in Lahore and Multan.
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