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Claim: All construction work has been halted at the Shaukat Khanum Karachi building, and its intended inauguration for 14 August 2023 has now been postponed.
Fact: The video is out of context; Dr Faisal Sultan has publicly rejected this claim.
A video of a building under construction went viral online on 27 June 2023. The video claimed to show that this is the building for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH), which was initially planned to be inaugurated on national independence day, 14 August 2023, but its construction has been halted. The transcript of the voiceover is written below:
“27th July 2023 what a tragedy k is saal 14 August ko iska, Shaukat Khanum Hospital Karachi ka iftitah hona tha aur is waqt is per bilkul bhi koi kaam nahi horaha, kaam ruka hua tha. Ye ek national tragedy hai k Karachi aur pooray Sindh k liye ek itni bari facility ban rahi thi aur yeh kiya se kiya hojata. Such a huge structure it is. Aur abhi Shaukat Khanum Karachi mein koi kaam nahi horah ajabke iski iftitiah ki date jo thi jo originally planned thi for 14 August 2023 thi, agley mahinay. Ye kiya hai in logon ne hamarey sath.”
[Translation: “27th July 2023 what a tragedy that this year on 14 August, Shaukat Khanum Hospital Karachi was supposed to be inaugurated but now there is no work happening towards it. The work has completely stopped. This is a national tragedy that such a big facility was being constructed for Karachi and the people of Sindh and it could have done so much.Such a huge structure it is. And now there is no work happening on Shaukat Khanum Karachi although its originally planned date for inauguration was 14 August 2023, next month. This is what these people have done to us.”]
Fact or Fiction?
On Twitter this video was captioned as “Shaukat Khanam Hospital, Karachi. Inauguration was planned for August 14th 2023. Now all construction works have been stopped. شکریہ PDM حکومت او PPP پارٹی کا جنھوں ہمیشہ کسی نہ کسی آڑ میں ہمیشہ کراچی کے پراجیکٹس کو نشانہ بنایا کچھ نہ ملا تو عمران کی آڑ یہ پراجیکٹ بھی بند کردیا” OR “27th July 2023… Shaukat Khanam Cancer Hospital Karachi
Original inauguration was planned for August 14th 2023 Now all construction works have been stopped thanks to PDM and PPP governments under the umbrella of Mahikma Zarat The poor and helpless peoples must not get any relief.” These captions imply that the PDM government, which is in power at the moment, has intentionally put a stop to the construction work being done for SKMCH Karachi.
Dr Faisal Sultan is the CEO of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, according to their official website. So we searched for recently made public statements by Dr Faisal Sultan on Google and Microsoft Edge. This was uploaded to YouTube by Suno News on 24 July 2023. It shows Dr Faisal Sultan attending a talk show called Jahan Numa during its 177th episode.
At 2:06, Dr Sultan says that they are currently constructing the Karachi chapter now, and its construction is ongoing. He confirmed that the grey structure is complete, and now the building will reach its final stages of construction. The host then asks him when the building be ready by, to which Dr Sultan says most of the work should be complete by the end of this year, and they will inaugurate it; but, certain supply-chain problems regarding the construction material have caused delays but it will be clearer in the next two months when the construction will be complete.
We also found another tweet by journalist Zarrar Khuhro which claimed that this rumor around halted construction at SKMCH Karachi’s site is not true and that he has confirmed this with Dr Faisal Sultan while citing the same clip mentioned in the paragraph above.
Virality
On Twitter, the claim received more than 5,148 interactions and was viewed 46,034 times.
On Facebook, we found the claim shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: SKMCH Karachi’s construction has not been halted by the PDM.
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