PTI never backed Ghulam Murtaza Satti for 2024 elections

The iVerify Pakistan team has checked this content and has established that it is false as Ghulam Murtuza Satti is not a candidate of the PTI for the February 8 general elections.

To arrive to this verdict, the iVerify Pakistan team has checked an official PPP press release and the PTI’s candidate lists for elections 2024.

HOW IT STARTED

On January 30, 2024, ARY News published a report on its website titled: “PTI candidates declare support to PPP in Rawalpindi, Islamabad”.

The report said that in a meeting with PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad, “Ghulam Murtaza Satti of PTI, along with other party candidates announced their support for the PPP in Rawalpindi and Islamabad during the general election 2024.”

The report subsequently added: “The PTI candidate along with other general election contestants announced their support for PPP in twin cities.”

ARY News also posted the news report on its official X account.

METHODOLOGY

The iVerify Pakistan team sought to determine the veracity of the claim due to the public’s keen interest in the upcoming February 8 general elections which are only a week away, who the PTI’s backed candidates are as well as because the report was widely called out as being false by social media users.

Via Dawn reporter Nadir Gurmani, the iVerify team procured the Jan 30 official PPP press release of the meeting titled: “President Asif Ali Zardari welcomes the new entrants in the PPP”.

The relevant portion of the press release about the meeting is reproduced below:

“PTI leader Ghulam Murtaza Satti called on PPP-Parliamentarians President Asif Ali Zardari at Zardari House Islamabad. Ghulam Murtaza Satti along with his comrades announced joining PPP. Ghulam Younis Satti, Abid Majeed, Mustafa Latif Satti and Saqib Satti also announced to join the PPP and promised their support for the party’s candidates in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

“On this occasion, President Zardari welcoming Ghulam Murtaza Satti and other leaders in the party said that the PPP will give surprise in elections in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. President Asif Ali Zardari said that the struggle of the jiyalas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad is engraved in history. PPP’s activists of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been the protectors of democratic traditions. PPPP Secretary General Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari and former President Azad Kashmir Sardar Muhammad Yaqub were also present on the occasion.”

Notably, unlike the news report, the PPP press release referred to Satti as a “PTI leader” and those with him as his “comrades”.

The press release only used “candidates” to refer to the PPP’s contestants in the twin cities whom the new entrants pledged to support.

The PPP also shared visuals of the meeting, which differed from the image used in the news report.

Furthermore, the iVerify team checked the official list of PTI-backed candidates for the Punjab and National Assemblies but did not find Satti to be among them.

WHO IS GHULAM MURTAZA SATTI?

Satti is a politician who served as a member of the National Assembly in 2002-2007 on the PPP ticket.

Satti later joined the PTI in 2017, contested the 2018 elections from Rawalpindi’s PP-7 constituency and lost.

This time around, the PTI-backed candidate for PP-7 is Muhammad Shabbir Awan.

Satti is contesting elections for Murree’s NA-51 seat as an independent candidate while the PTI-backed candidate is Latasub Satti.

However, an investigation on his activities since his 2018 loss or his recent status in the PTI after numerous members deserted the party after the riots of May 9, 2023, yielded no news report or story. Satti also does not have any social media presence on major platforms observed such as X or Facebook.

CONCLUSION

The iVerify Pakistan team has determined that the ARY News report is false as Satti is not a PTI candidate for the general elections and nor did the PPP refer him as such.

He is also not present in the PTI’s officially issued list of candidates associated with the party.