The information minister for Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, has said that none of the hospitals will be renamed, contradicting social media posts falsely claiming 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 an X-post shared on May 30, 2024.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif became the first woman to govern a province when she became chief minister of Punjab in February 2024. Her father – widely known as the ‘Lion of Punjab’ – was prime minister three times, his last stint ending 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 here, here and here with a similar false claim; 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.
In March 2024, he was elected the country’s prime minister, leading an alliance that excluded Khan’s followers.
In response to the fake messages, Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari wrote on X on May 30 that they had shared a “fake” message (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 of the Department of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education’s website, where notifications are posted, found no evidence that Jinnah Hospital’s cardiology institute had been renamed (archived link).
The fabricated report was dated May 29, 2024, but the department posted no updates that day.
A search of the Punjab government’s website also found no mention of the fake report circulating online (archived link).
