On February 11, 2024, a claim circulated on social media platform X that PTI-backed candidate Meher Bano Qureshi won Multan’s NA-151 seat in a recount. However, no recounting occurred.
Meher Bano Qureshi wins Multan’s NA-151 after recount
The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false.
To arrive at this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team traced the origin of the claim.
On February 11, 2024, a claim was posted by PTI activist Falak Javaid Khan on social media platform X that, “Meher Bano Qureshi won in the recount and the Faisalabad seat was also won by PTI.”
The post gained 529,000 views.
Meher Bano is the daughter of PTI leader and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
The same claim was shared by another X user, who appeared to be a PTI supporter according to his past posts.
The post gained over 32,000 views.
The same claim was shared here, here and here for a combined 32,000 views.
The news of Meher Bano winning was also aired by media outlet Capital TV.
The same claim was shared on social media platform TikTok, gaining over three million views.
The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality, the public’s keen interest in the electoral success of PTI-backed candidates in the general elections as well as interest in Meher Bano due to her being Qureshi’s daughter.
To investigate the claim, the iVerify Pakistan team checked Meher Bano’s X post that was referred to in the Capital TV video.
The Feb 11 X post is reproduced below:
“Congratulations to the amazing people of NA-151! Victory is ours! Thank you to my workers, supporters and leadership.
“It is clear from the complete Form 45s collected, I have won the election defeating Musa Gillani by a margin of 5995 votes.
“Rejected votes as per Form 45 are 4,151 and not 16,555 falsely shown in the Form 47 issued by the ECP.
“In light of this clear evidence, Musa Gillani should gracefully accept defeat and show political maturity and respect for the people’s vote.
“The people of Pakistan will never accept those made to win by rigging and tampering. There is no dignity or honour in robbing the people of Pakistan.”
Notably, she claimed to have won in her post on the basis of Form 45s and not a recount as per the claims and Capital TV‘s video.
The post did not mention that a recount occurred in the constituency.
During further investigation, the team came across a Feb 11 X post by the Gillani House Media Cell which uploaded the supposed Form 49 or final result of the election for the constituency.
The form showed Musa with the highest votes in the constituency at 79,082 to Meher Bano’s 71,659.
“Thank God he (Musa) has won. Opponents are spreading false propaganda on social media which has nothing to do with reality,” the post said.
The team confirmed the authenticity of the Form 49 via Dawn reporter Tassur Subhani who also said: “No recounting occurred in the NA-151 constituency of Multan and the circulating claim is not correct.”
Meher Bano was the PTI-backed candidate for Multan’s NA-151 constituency while Musa was the PPP’s.
A tough competition took place between the two for the seat as Musa beat Meher Bano by a margin of 7,423 votes as per the Form 49.
Meher Bano and the PTI have alleged rigging in the constituency’s result.
The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the claim regarding Meher Bano’s win in NA-151 after a recount is false.
No recounting occurred in the constituency and nor did Meher Bano claim to have won because of a recount.
February 11, 2024, X post of Mehr Bano Qureshi:
https://web.archive.org/save/https://x.com/MeherBanoQ/status/1756566941949374491?s=20
