Claim: Wazir Mansion in Karachi, where Quaid e Azam was born, is in a dilapidated state with stagnant sewage water on the street right in front of the Wazir Mansion.
Fact: It is debated whether Quaid e Azam was born in the Wazir Mansion or in a locality called Jherruck. Twitter users shared old images of the Wazir Mansion from 2016 before Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui renovated it in 2021.
On 18 May 2023, Twitter users shared images of a building claiming that these are current photos of the Wazir mansion, lamenting the dilapidated condition of the building and the sewage water that stands stagnant right outside the gates of the mansion. Social media users claimed that it is disgraceful to treat Quaid e Azam’s birthplace in this manner.
Fig 1 Fig 2
These were the two images shared on Twitter.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false.
Wazir mansion was officially recognised as Quaid e Azam’s birthplace in 1953 by the Pakistan government, however, it still remains a subject of debate among historians; some believe Jinnah was born in Wazir Mansion, and others believe he was born in a town in Sindh called Jhirk [also called Jerruck]. Historians who support the Jhirk claim, base it on a history textbook in the 1950s in Sindh.
Soch Fact Check also found the original image for Fig 1 in a 2017 article from The News, published on 15 January, it argued that the Wazir Mansion was suffering from negligence. This means that although Twitter users shared the Figure 1 claiming it to show the current status of the Wazir Mansion, it is actually from 2017 and does not represent the current condition and upkeep of the site.
We found Fig 2 published earlier on 13 July 2022, in The Express Tribune, in an article reporting on last year’s Karachi monsoon urban flooding. Using Figure 2 to claim that it represents the current condition of the Wazir Mansion is misleading because this image was taken during a spell of urban flooding in Karachi.
Virality
On Twitter we found the images shared here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Wazir mansion’s pictures showing a dilapidated condition are old.
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