On February 12, 2024, viral social media posts circulated images of billboards put up by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan in Karachi thanking the military and army chief. However, the images were manipulated.
MQM-P billboards thanking military, army chief
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 circulated images and corroborated the matter with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
On February 12, 2024, posts began circulating on social media platforms with pictures of MQM-P billboards on which “Thank you Pakistan Army” and “Thank you Hafiz sahib” were written.
PTI Shahzad Gill shared a post on his X account that said: “Thank you, Hafiz sahib“. The post also had a billboard image saying the same.
A hafiz is someone who has memorised the Holy Quran. The billboard’s caption was referring to Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir who is a Hafiz-i-Quran.
The post gained 1.2 million views and 15,000 reshares on X.
The same pictures were also shared here and received over 57,000 views.
A Facebook user also posted an image which was shared 1,800 times.
The iVerify Pakistan team sought to investigate the claim due to its high virality as well as the nature pertaining to a political party thanking the military following the general elections.
An iVerify team member went to the ground to see the billboards and did not find any text written on them as claimed by the viral posts.
The team also found what many social media users claimed to be the original photo of the billboard that allegedly said: “Thank you Hafiz sahib.”
Comparing the two photos, it can be seen that the supposedly original image as claimed by social media users had an electricity pole in front of the billboard.
On the other hand, on the billboard thanking the army chief, the pole is abruptly cut and blurred out as seen in the circled part.
Furthermore, the team contacted Maaz Muqaddam, the joint in-charge for MQM-P’s digital media wing, who said: “MQM-P did not write such texts that are circulating. We sent our workers to check as well. This is clear photoshop.”
Muqaddam also shared pictures taken by party workers from various locations in Karachi.
Notably, the pictures shared by the MQM-P official also included one of the viral images. All of the images showed billboards on which it was written: “Thank you Karachi.”
Ahsan Ghouri, in-charge of MQM-P’s Central Information Committee, also told the iVerify team: “We condemn it, we ran a campaign to thank the people of Karachi who voted for us. Our opponents are posting such doctored images, this act is not good.”
As per the result portal of the Election Commission of Pakistan for the general elections, the MQM-P bagged 17 National Assembly seats.
Other political parties in Karachi such as the PTI, Jamaat-i-Islami and Tehreek-i-Labbail Pakistan claimed rigging in the results for the city’s constituencies.
The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the viral images of the MQM-P billboards thanking the army and its chief are false.
The viral images were manipulated and party officials confirmed that the billboard were part of a campaign to thank its voters in Karachi.
