On February 10, 2024, a claim circulated on social media platform X that The New York Times announced Imran Khan as the winner of the general elections. However, the publication made no such announcement and only said the PTI gained the most seats.
New York Times announced Imran Khan as the winner of general elections
The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is misleading.
To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team checked the The New York Times article published on February 10, 2024, on the results of the general elections.
On February 10, 2024, Globe Eye News, an account covering international affairs, politics and global happenings, made a post on social media platform X with the caption: “New York Times announce Imran Khan as the winner of Pakistan elections.”
The post gained one million views and 18,000 reshares.
The claim was also shared here with over 268,000 views, here and here.
The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the validity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the results of the general elections and the PTI’s performance.
Investigating the claim, the iVerify Pakistan team examined the full article published by The New York Times on Feb 10 titled: “Shocking Opposition Victory Throws Pakistan Into Chaos”.
The excerpt for the article said: “The party of Imran Khan, the jailed former prime minister, took the most seats, humiliating the country’s military rulers and creating a political crisis.”
The article said that in the Feb 8 polls, “candidates from Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, or PTI, appeared to win about 97 seats in the National Assembly”.
At a later point, it said: “While candidates aligned with Khan were set to be the largest group in Parliament, they still fell short of a simple majority.”
It said the “success of Khan’s party was a head-spinning upset in an election” and “upended the decades-old political playbook governing Pakistan”.
Notably, the article did not use or contain the term “winner” anywhere.
Instead of attributing the PTI’s performance as a success or win for Imran, the article repeatedly pointed out that it was the success and achievement of “Khan’s party”, indicating a distinction between the individual and the party.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) result portal, 264 results have been announced out of 266 NA seats. As reported by Geo news PTI-backed independent candidates are leading with 94 seats followed by PML-N and PPP with 75 and 54 seats, respectively.
Meanwhile, the PTI claims to have won more than 170 seats as per the Form 45s.
Imran is presently incarcerated in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail and is no longer the PTI chairman. The ECP rejected his nomination papers and he didn’t participate in the elections.
The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim regarding The New York Times announcing Imran as the winner of the general election is misleading.
The publication constantly referred to the success of the PTI or “Khan’s party” but did not attribute the electoral gains to the party founder.
