Imran Khan’s name removed from NSTP’s inauguration plaque

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false since current pictures of the inauguration plaque show that the name of former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan is still present.

To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team investigated the claim by running the circulated image through various fake image-detecting tools, contacted the institute and procured pictures of the plaque from various sources.

HOW IT STARTED

On January 15, 2024, a PTI supporter, posted the photo of the inauguration plaque from National Science and Technology Park (NSTP) on social media platform X.

In the post, the X user pointed out that the name of former prime minister Imran Khan was removed from the plaque.

This post gained over 385,000 views and was shared 1,100 times. 

Another PTI supporter also shared the same picture of the plaque, with the post gaining over 115,000 views.

“According to reports, this has been done ahead of COAS visit to NSTP,” the post added, referring to Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir.

It is worth noting that none of the X users mentioned the date and time when the image of the inauguration plaque without Imran’s name was taken.

METHODOLOGY

Seeking to determine the veracity of the image and claim, the iVerify Pakistan team initially checked the official social media accounts of NSTP to see if the institute had formally addressed the topic.

The team found that there wasn’t any official word from the institute; however, the pictures of the inauguration ceremony from December 2019 were still present, in which Imran’s name could be seen very clearly.

Investigating further, the iVerify Pakistan team reached out to Dawn reporter Kashif Abbasi on Jan 16 who approached a spokesperson for the National University of Sciences & Technology (Nust) — NSTP is located inside Nust.

The spokesperson, on condition of anonymity, denied the claim being circulated on social media and said Imran’s name was not removed from the inauguration plaque.

The spokesperson also addressed the supposed connection made to the purported upcoming visit of the army chief, saying that the former prime minister’s name was not removed from the plaque during the prior three such visits, so why would it be taken down now.

The spokesperson also provided an undated picture of the plaque which showed Imran’s name still present.

Reaching out to Geo Fact Check for corroboration, Nust public information officer Raza Ali provided photographs on Jan 19 to the outlet.

A student on campus also provided a picture of the plaque with Imran’s name to the outlet.

The iVerify Pakistan team then ran the plaque image shared by the X user through different tools for detecting manipulated images such as fotoforensics and fake image detector.

Both tools showed that the circulated image, in which Imran’s name is missing, is manipulated to some extent.

Similarly, the image shared by the student to Geo Fact Check was also run through the same image manipulation tools. No image manipulation and tampering was found in it.

Comparing the two pictures, the font and its size used in the circulated photo and the student’s photo are different. The font in the circulated image is of a uniform size while the ‘P’ in prime minister is crooked.

Meanwhile, the font size in the original inauguration picture and the current ones sourced from the student and university official is similar in how different sizes are used for the text.

One difference that can be seen between the old images of the plaque and the current ones sourced is that originally, the plaque was fixed to the wall but it now appears to be set in an engraved space in the wall.

NSTP DECEMBER 2019 INAUGURATION

Imran had inaugurated the country’s first National Science and Technology Park in Islamabad on Dec 9, 2019 while he was serving as the prime minister.

NSTP was launched under the overarching theme of “Innovate Pakistan”, a platform designed to synergise researchers, creators, investors, implementers and end users of technologies to transform innovative ideas into successful products and services while promulgating a culture of entrepreneurship in Pakistan.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim about the viral image of NSTP’s inauguration plaque, in which Imran’s name is missing, is false.

The former prime minister’s name is still present on the plaque as per photographic evidence from officials and a student while the circulated image shows signs of image manipulation.

Evidence and References

NSTP’s official coverage of inauguration ceremony:
https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=592469141517132&set=a.592469111517135