The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim that international news outlet Al Jazeera termed a political coalition bidding to form Pakistan’s new government as “mandate thieves”.

To investigate the claim, the iVerify Pakistan team investigated what the Feb 14 Al Jazeera article actually said.

The article was titled: “‘Mandate thieves’: New Pakistan government takes shape amid slew of jabs”.

The phrase “mandate thieves” is used in the third paragraph of the article which is reproduced below:

“However, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated on multiple convictions, described the alliance as ‘mandate thieves’ and insisted that a government formed by the grouping of parties would lack ‘credibility’.”

As can be seen, the article expressly mentioned that the PTI described the political alliance as “mandate thieves” and was quoting the party.

Read the full report here.