The information minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, has said that none of the hospitals will be renamed, contradicting social media posts that falsely claimed that a cardiology institute was named after the prime minister is named. Maryam Nawaz Sharif. The messages shared a fabricated message from a government department from Punjab.
“Cardiology Institute Aligned (sic) with Allama Iqbal Medical College/Jinnah Hospital has been named as ‘Maryam Nawaz Institute of CVD’,” read part of a X message shared on May 30, 2024.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif was the first woman to govern a province when she became the province Prime Minister of Punjab in February 2024. Her father – widely known as the ‘Lion of Punjab’ – was chief minister three times and his last stint ended in 2017.
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The message was accompanied by a fabricated notification from the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department of the Government of Punjab, dated May 29, 2024.
It falsely claimed that the Institute of Cardiology at Jinnah Hospital had been named the “Maryam Nawaz Sharif Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (MNICVD), Lahore”.
The same image was shared elsewhere on X with a similarly false claim here, here And here; and further Facebook here And here.
It was mainly shared by the supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Sharif’s uncle Shehbaz was replaced Khan as prime minister in 2022, when he was replaced by the opposition in a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
He was elected to the country in March 2024 Prime Ministerwho leads an alliance that excludes Khan’s followers.
Responding to the false reports, Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari wrote further X on May 30 that they had shared a “fake” post (archived link).
“This false report is circulating across the Punjab government, which is strongly denied, the name of any hospital is not changed,” read her Urdu-language post.
A search on the website of the Department of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education, where notifications were placed, found no evidence that the cardiology institute of Jinnah Hospital had been renamed (archived link).
The fabricated report was dated May 29, 2024, but the department posted no updates that day.
A search for the government of Punjab website also found no data on the false report circulating online (archived link).
