Claim: Opposing party politicians claimed that the University of Sargodha refused to invite Imran Khan for a political address. While other posts claimed that he was invited by the university.
Fact: The University of Sargodha administration never invited Imran Khan to deliver a speech, nor did they disinvite him. He was invited by the Punjab Information and Technology Board on 12 October 2022.
On 20 October 2022, PMLN MPA Hina Pervez Butt shared a tweet claiming that the University of Sargodha refused to invite Imran Khan for a speech. The tweet said, “سرگودھا یونیورسٹی کی انتظامیہ نے عمران خان کو جلسے کی اجازت دینے سے انکار کر کے بہت اچھا کیا۔۔تمام جامعات کو ایسا ہی کرنا چاہیے۔۔بے شرمی کی حد ہے اب تعلیمی ادارے نیازی کے سیاسی شو کیلئے استعمال ہونگے۔۔۔” [University of Sargodha administration did very well to disallow Imran Khan from organizing a political rally. All universities should follow this example. It is disgraceful that universities are being used for Niazi’s political show]
Fact or Fiction?
A letter circulating on Facebook, with the University of Sargodha letterhead and a notification signed by Dr Masood Sarwar Awan, Director of Academics at the university, claims that ex-prime minister Imran Khan was invited at the special request of the students and all departments and administrative offices are to remain closed that day.
Dr Masood Sarwar Awan told Soch Fact Check that the letter is fake and that he never signed such a document. University of Sargodha’s PRO Muhammad Usman also confirmed that the university was approached by the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) to book campus grounds for an event titled “Taleem aur Hunar saath saath”, which was supposed to be a charity fundraiser for education. Without the university administration’s consent, the PITB and the district government invited Imran Khan to speak at the event, confirmed Usman.
We also did not find any announcements of a university event hosting or inviting Imran Khan made by the University of Sargodha on their verified Facebook page.
We found different variations of the poster announcing an event where Imran Khan will deliver a speech on campus grounds on 10 October 2022 at 12pm.
All of these posters were posted on 9th October 2022 and 10th October 2022 and from PTI related accounts or individuals claiming to be PTI supporters. These posters are misleading since they imply that the University of Sargodha is hosting Imran Khan.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 4-day period since 20 October 2022 to 23 October 2022 using the following search terms:
- “Imran khan” “sargodha” “university”
- ““عمران خان” “سرگودھا” “یونیورسٹی”
We found several posts on Facebook showing Imran Khan in University of Sargodha gathering over 22,168 interactions. A post circulated the false letter here.
We also found several tweets on Twitter, here, here, here, here, here. We also found one Instagram post sharing the same claim. It can be seen here.
Conclusion: The University of Sargodha never invited Imran Khan to speak on campus. The Punjab Information and Technology Board and the local government in Sargodha booked university grounds to host an event on education and invited Imran Khan without the university administration’s involvement.