Fact check: Viral video shows Lebanese president falling during Arab League summit in March 2017, not PM Shehbaz
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.
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.
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality 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.
Therefore, the fact-check determined that 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.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.