Fact-check: Posts falsely claim Shaukat Khanum Hospital’s posters are being removed

Social media users are claiming a video, seen tens of thousands of times in January, shows the removal of banners of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Rawalpindi, Punjab.

The claim is misleading.

Claim

“Boards of Shaukat Khanum,” tweeted television anchor Imran Riaz Khan, to his over four million followers on Twitter, “Give so much donations now that no one ever forgets.”

A video clip he posted with his tweet showed a man in a vehicle of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board taking down a poster of the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital.

The clip drew nearly 400,000 views.

Another verified account posted the same footage with the text: “Those removing the boards of Shaukat Khanum from everywhere may never have a cancer patient in your home.”

This tweet has received over 2,400 retweets and 5,700 likes.

Fact

The video is not recent and neither does it show the forceful removal of the roadside posters of the cancer hospital.

Officials at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and at the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board confirm that the video was recorded in April last year, after the permission for the hospital to advertise had expired.

“Shaukat Khanum Hospital asked for permission to advertise and we gave them the permission,” Umer Khan, the official in-charge of hoarding at the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board, told Geo Fact Check over the phone, “The banners were removed after the time-limit ended for the advertisements.”

Those privy to the developments at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, also confirmed the same to Geo Fact Check on the condition of anonymity.

“We had an agreement [last year] and when an agreement ended then the [posters] were removed,” an employee of the hospital said.

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