PML-N’s Punjab government launched mobile health units in 2010, not the Buzdar government

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

To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team investigated the history of the Mobile Health Unit programme in Punjab.

HOW IT STARTED

On May 1, 2024, PTI leader Shahbaz Gill shared a post from the PML-N about the launch of the Field Hospital initiative in Punjab under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on his X account.

The caption for the post said, “Madam should get some tuition from [Usman] Buzdar sahib. Buzdar has already done this work.”

Buzdar was the Punjab CM under the PTI tenure from August 20, 2018, to April 30, 2022.

The post gained 179,000 views.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality, as well as because many people in the post’s comments were disputing Gill’s claim that Buzdar had laid the foundation for the Mobile Health Unit programme.

To investigate the claim, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a search using the keywords “Mobile Health Unit,” “Punjab” and “inauguration” which yielded three news stories from different news outlets.

The first story the team found was from Business Recorder, dated December 2010, with the headline, “Shehbaz inaugurates mobile health unit in Muzaffargarh”.

Additionally, the news of the Mobile Health Unit’s inauguration of the mobile health unit was also published by Dawn in December 2010, with the headline, “Mobile hospital inaugurated in Muzaffargarh”.

The Nation also published the story on December 26, 2010, with the headline, “CM opens first mobile health unit in Punjab”.

The stories said that Shehbaz as the then-CM had inaugurated Punjab’s first Mobile Health Unit in Muzaffargarh.

Furthermore, the pictures that Gill shared were of Mobile Health Units under the Karwan-e-Sehat programme.

Investigating it, the team found a September 11, 2017, X post from the Punjab Health Facilities Management Company (PHMFC) about Mobile Health Units under the programme stationed outside the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Shehbaz Sharif was the Punjab CM at the time the X post was made, thus showing that the Karwan-e-Sehat programme existed before Buzdar became the provincial chief.

Users in Gill’s post also pointed to then-CM Shehbaz launching a Karwan-e-Sehat Mobile Health Unit in Burewala, Vehari in February 2018.

This was corroborated by a February 15, 2018, article by Business Recorder titled, “CM inaugurates, lays foundation stones of projects in Burewala, Vehari”.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that Gill’s claim regarding Buzdar’s government launching the Mobile Health Programme in Punjab is false.

Mobile Health Units were first initiated by Shehbaz in 2010 as the Punjab CM and the Karwan-e-Sehat programme was also operating before Buzdar became the chief minister.