Rana Sanaullah says X account with his name posting against media is fake

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that Rana Sanaullah’s claim is false.

To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team has investigated and researched the two X accounts of the PML-N leader.

HOW IT STARTED

On February 11, 2024, a Geo News panel covering the general elections and their results was discussing recent criticism of the media by the PML-N on media, including an account of former interior minister and PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah.

Sanaullah, however, rejected the criticism regarding his account posted and labelled it as fake and not operated by his social media team.

Below is the relevant transcript of a portion of the segment posted on X by anchorperson Shahzad Iqbal:

Anchor: “PML-N’s official account is doing a lot of criticism on us and there’s a verified account of Rana Sanaullah, we are being criticised by that account too … Why are you so angry at the media?”

Sanaullah: “Thank you, Shahzad. As this is in your knowledge … there is an allegation that from my account there is a lot of aggression and criticism toward the media. This is very sad that you did not even verify it from me … The X account that is in discussion, I showed it to my social media team and they said that this account is not related to us. We don’t know who is running this account.”

Anchor: “Because you said I put an allegation on you … I had mentioned that this account is verified with Rana Sanuallah’s name and I don’t know if he is tweeting from this or if someone else is doing it and using his name.”

Sanauallah: “You said on air that I was doing it.”

Anchor: “Let me explain, the account from which the tweets are being made, it is written [in its description] that it is your official account.”

Sanaullah: “See … putting such allegations on me is not justified.”

Anchor: “Firstly, I said [whether] you are tweeting or someone else is tweeting from your account … and it is mentioned [in bio] that it is your account and your media team is running it.”

Sanaullah: “This is wrongfully mentioned [in bio]. My media team is not running this account.”

Anchor: “And your account which you said is the only personal account, is reposting posts from this account. So if this account is fake then why are you reposting it from your personal account?”

Sanaullah: “This is wrong as well. You are accusing me without any verification.”

Anchor: “Sir this is on screen … you have 500,000 followers on this account … Sir, you reposted three days back from your personal account … sir verify this by yourself.”

Sanaullah: “I checked it, this matter is not related to my personal account at all… [and] the account that my team handles is Ranasanaullahkhanpk.”

Anchor: “Yes sir, it has a grey check and you have reposted from that account.”

Sanaullah: “No, absolutely not … I was not very active on social media so i didn’t look it up.”

Anchor: “Sir, PML-N’s official account also reposted from that account, criticised and flinged allegations.”

The PML-N leader continued to deny any association with the account and said it was not operated by him or his social media team.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of Sanaullah’s claim due to his denial of all the allegations about criticism from his account and its direct connection with the party’s reaction to the media coverage of elections.

The team checked Sanaullah’s account whose X handle is written PresPMLNPunjab. The account’s bio says, “President of the PML-N Punjab!”.

The account has a blue checkmark, designating it as a verified account.

The account has over 284,000 followers, including senior party leaders Maryam Nawaz and Marriyum Aurangzeb, along with the official PML-N X account as well.

The official PML-N X account also reposts content from the account.

Sanaullah’s other account that he described as his “personal account” has its handle written as RanaSanaullahPK and has over 428,000 followers.

It also has a grey checkmark, designating it as a verified account for a “government or multilateral organization account”.

Notably, this account has shared posts from the previous account and also links to it in the bio.

The previous account provided a clarification on the matter earlier today. “This is the account of President Punjab’s office, not his official one,” it said.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that Sanaullah’s claim regarding the account that is criticising the media being fake is false.

The account is not only followed by official PML-N-associated accounts but its posts are also reshared by them. Sanaullah’s personal account itself links to it and the explanation provided by the account itself said it was related to the PML-N leader’s affairs as the party’s Punjab president.

Evidence and References