On February 11, 2024, a video message of politician Javed Akhtar circulated on social media platform X with the claim that he was forcibly made to win the general elections and refused to accept this. However, he did not say this nor did he win in the constituencies he was contesting.
Winning candidate Javed Akhtar Lund refuses to accept false mandate in elections
The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.
To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team has analysed the video message of former Punjab Assembly member Javed Akhtar and checked the election results from the Election Commission of Pakistan.
On February 11, 2024, news outlet Naya Pakistan made a post on social media platform X regarding Akhtar.
The caption quoted him as saying: “I have been forced to win. my opponent Sardar Farhat (PTI) had won. Defeating the winner is an insult to the people’s mandate.”
The caption also said: “Independent candidate Javed Lund refuses to take fake mandate. Condemns rigging, congratulates PTI candidate.”
Notably, the caption did not mention which constituency Akhtar had supposedly won from.
The post gained 1.9 million views and 40,000 reshares.
The same video message with the caption was shared here, here, here, here and here with a combined 359,200 views.
The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and the public’s keen interest in the electoral success of PTI-backed candidates in the general elections.
The team first analysed the attached video itself. The transcript is reproduced below:
“First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the people of PP-286 and NA-184 who voted for and supported us. I thank them from the depths of my heart. And amongst the winning candidates, I extend heartfelt congratulations to Ali Muhammad Khan and Sardar Farhat Khan.
“In my view and the eyes of the public as well, they had already won. However, what happened afterwards is a different story and I strongly condemn it. A person who won by a lead of 37,000 votes was defeated and even a person who won by a lead of 15-16,000 votes was defeated. This is a violation of the public’s mandate and I condemn it.
“I also extend my congratulations to them. The people gave them the mandate. The public voted for Imran Khan. What has happened is in front of all of you. We have accepted all of this wholeheartedly. People voted for Imran Khan, congratulations to him, but what is happening here after that is worthy of criticism and I strongly criticise it.”
Notably, the team observed that Akhtar did not say that he was forced to win against Sardar Farhat as attributed to him in the viral claim.
The iVerify Pakistan team then checked the Form 47s uploaded on the results portal of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for Dera Gazi Khan’s NA-184 and PP-286 constituencies.
Contrary to the viral claim that Akhtar was the winning candidate who refused his mandate, Form 47 from both constituencies indicated that Javed was never declared the winner, as he did not come close to securing victory.
As per the Form 47 of NA-184, PML-N’s Abdul Qadir Khan Khosa won with 110,999 votes while Akhtar received 507 votes.
Similarly, PML-N’s Salahuddin Khan Khosa secured 37,513 votes while Akhtar received 17,265 votes in PP-286 according to the Form 47.
As per the ECP portal, the results of 264 of 266 National Assembly seats have been announced with independent candidates leading with 100 seats, followed by PML-N and PPP with 75 and 54 seats, respectively.
The PTI claimed that it had become the single largest party in the Centre and two provinces and has launched allegations of rigging and discrepancies in results as per Form 45s and Form 47s. The party has alleged that its candidates were in the lead as per Form 45s but others were made to win through Form 47s.
Other politicians have lent support to this narrative such as Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem who stepped down from his Sindh Assembly seat on Feb 12, saying: “A PTI-backed independent candidate has won, and I will not avail this seat.”
Similarly, former PPP senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar who contested the elections as an independent candidate posted the following message on X on Feb 9: “I have no shame in saying that I openly admit my defeat. It is sad to see that PTI candidate Ali Bukhari has been defeated in Islamabad’s NA-48 while he was clearly winning. The person who was made the victor by changing the result was nowhere in the race.
“Similarly, Shoaib Shaheen has also won from NA-47 with a clear margin, but the results are not being handed over to him either. This is the worst kind of rigging and playing with fire.”
The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim regarding Akhtar being the winning candidate and refusing to accept his mandate is false.
In the viral video message of his, he never made the alleged claim that was attributed to him and the official ECP results also showed that he did not win from the constituencies he was contesting.
