Punjab hospital billboard in DG Khan’s Choti Zarin titled “Maryam Nawaz Mental Hospital”

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan analysed the image via fake image detection tools, conducted a keyword search to check for the official name and corroborated the hospital board via a reporter.

Posts from multiple users on social media platform X on July 14, 2025, shared an image of the board for a Punjab government hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan’s Choti Zarin, which allegedly showed that the facility was named “Maryam Nawaz Mental Hospital”. However, the viral image is doctored and the facility is ordinarily named the “Maryam Nawaz Hospital”.

On April 25, the Punjab Health Department announced a transformative healthcare initiative to upgrade 315 newly constructed rural health centres to fully equipped hospitals under the Maryam Nawaz Hospital Project.

HOW IT STARTED

On July 14, an X user, who appeared to be a PTI supporter based on their past posts, posted an image of a billboard featuring a picture of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz alongside text that read, “Maryam Nawaz Mental Hospital” in Urdu.

The hospital is located in “Choti Zareen, Tehsil Kot Chutta, District Dera Ghazi Khan”, which was written at the bottom of the sign.

The post was viewed over 115,000 times and reshared 1,400 times.

The image was also shared by former federal minister and PTI leader Moonis Elahi with the caption, “Has she gone crazy?” gaining over 506,000 views.

The image with the same claim was also widely shared by other users on X as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the Punjab chief minister’s activities concerning public health institutions that have generated controversy recently.

Reviewing the viral image showed several inconsistencies that suggested possible digital alteration.

Notably, the word “Mental” appears misaligned compared to the rest of the text. Its placement is slightly off-centre, and the font style differs from that of “Maryam Nawaz Hospital”, indicating it may have been inserted separately.

Analysing the image via forensic tools Forensically and FotoForensics revealed significant blurriness and distortion throughout the image, especially around the text, an indicator of potential digital manipulation.

A keyword search for “Maryam Nawaz” and “Dera Ghazi Khan hospital” also yielded the list of hospitals in Punjab under the Maryam Nawaz Hospital Project on the Punjab Health and Population Department’s website.

It featured only one hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan by the titular name, located in Choti Zarin, Kot Chutta.

Corroborating the billboard in person via Dawn correspondent Imran Gabol showed that it indeed only featured “Maryam Nawaz Hospital” as the text, and the word “mental” was not included on it.

The correspondent also provided the following video, recorded by a contact of his, that showed the billboard.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a viral image of the billboard for the Punjab government’s hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan’s Choti Zarin has “Maryam Nawaz Mental Hospital” written on it is false.

The image is doctored and the billboard actually has the following text: “Maryam Nawaz Hospital”.

Evidence and References

July 14, 2025, Facebook video:
https://www.facebook.com/ikram.changwani/videos/753387120422697