PAT announces support for PTI-affiliated candidates in Lahore

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.

To arrive to this verdict, the IVerify Pakistan team has contacted spokespersons of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) who denied the claim.

HOW IT STARTED

On February 5, 2024, a social media user, who appears to be a PTI supporter based on his past posts, shared a post on platform X, stating: “Pakistan Awami Tehreek has announced its support for the nominated candidates of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in all constituencies from Lahore”.

The post gained over 52,000 views and was reshared 1,800 times on X.

Hum News reporter Shakir Mahmood Awan also posted the claim with the caption: “Apart from Bilawal Bhutto’s constituency from Lahore, Pakistan Awami Tehreek has announced its support for the nominated candidates of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf”.

The post gained over 66,000 views and was shared 2,200 times.

The similar claim was shared here, here and here with over 17,000, 88,000 and 19,000 views, respectively.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to the public’s keen interest in the upcoming elections as well as the status of PTI-backed independent candidates.

Via Dawn reporter Adnan Sheikh, the team contacted PAT spokesperson Muhammad Hafeez for comment who said: “There is nothing like this. We are only supporting Bilawal Bhutto. There is no deal with the PTI and this is false news.”

However, further investigation yielded a post by Awan on Feb 4 saying the PAT had announced complete support for PTI-affiliated candidates in Lahore’s NA-118 (Aliya Hamza Malik) and PP-148 (Saba Diwan).

The post also attached a purported video of the meeting between Diwan and PAT officials.

Questioned about the purported development, PAT spokesperson Noorullah Siddiqui maintained that the party had not adopted any official policy about supporting the PTI and that any personal decisions by some of its members could not be associated with the party itself.

BACKGROUND

According to Dawn.com, the PAT pledged support to Bilawal for NA-127 (Lahore-XI) during the PPP chairman’s visit to the PAT secretariat on January 12.

It is believed that the PAT has a considerable vote-bank in the constituency as its founder, Dr Tahirul Qadri, had claimed the seat back in 2002.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim regarding PAT’s announced support for the PTI in Lahore is false.

PAT spokespersons shot down the alleged development and further said any decision by an individual member could not be taken to mean as official party policy.

Evidence and References

January 13, 2024, Dawn story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1805429