Claim: A video on social media shows the poor state of Services Hospital in Lahore under the leadership of Chief Minister of Punjab Maryam Nawaz.
Fact: The claim is misleading as the video is from July 2023 when the interim government was in charge. The incident shown in the video is not recent nor is it from any point in time since Maryam Nawaz assumed the role of Chief Minister of Punjab in 2024. This article is not fact-checking the current or past condition of Services Hospital.
On 1 March 2025, a user on X (formerly Twitter) appearing to be PTI supporter posted a video (archive) with the caption,
ایک نہیں دو پاکستان 🚨
ہسپتال میں آپریشن کے دوران جنریٹر کا پٹرول ختم، مریض کا اللہ حافظ کوئی مریم کو بتادو چولستان میں زراعت نہیں ہسپتالوں میں مریض بجلی نا ہونے کی وجہ سے مررہے
Translation: [Not one, but two Pakistans 🚨
The generator ran out of petrol during an operation in the hospital. May Allah protect the patient, someone tell Maryam, there is no agricultural land in Cholistan, patients in hospitals are dying due to lack of electricity].
In the video, a doctor in an operation theater can be heard saying that they are in Services Hospital Lahore in the ENT ICU and the generator is not working as there is no oil. He then asks how they can perform surgery in such conditions as the Intensive Care Units are not functional.
The video was shared after a 60 page advertisement showing one year’s performance of Punjab’s Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was published in newspapers on 26 February 2025. The ad has sparked online debate as many accused the government of using taxpayer money and having inaccuracies in the content. Members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have also alleged that the PML-N led government is now taking credit for the initiatives introduced during PTI’s tenure.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated this claim as a matter of public interest following the recent advertisement published by the Government of Punjab. It is important to note that we are not examining the overall conditions of government health facilities and hospitals in the province or assessing the government’s claims about their performance. This fact check solely aims to determine whether the reported incident regarding the lack of resources and deteriorating conditions at Services Hospital occurred recently.
A reverse image search on the keyframes of the video led to a Facebook video published by Urdu news outlet Dunya News on 22 July 2023. When translated from Urdu into English, the caption of the news story reads, “During a patient’s operation in Services Hospital, the generators in the operation theaters ran out of gasoline.” The same clip as that of the viral video can be seen in the news story.
Another result led to a TikTok video published by the official account of Urdu news outlet Naya Daur on 22 July 2023. The caption of the video reads, “During the operation in Pakistan hospital, the generator ran out of gasoline.” The TikTok video features the same Urdu headline and logo of the news outlet as in the viral video.
Taking a cue from here, a keyword search on Google then led to a news report published by Pakistan’s leading English Newspaper Dawn on 25 July 2023. It reports that the then dismissed Services Hospital Principal Dr. Farooq Afzal and Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr. Ahtishamul Haq on complaints of a prolonged power breakdown at the state-run hospital in hot and humid conditions.
Soch Fact Check thus confirms that this particular video is not from Chief Minister of Punjab Maryam Nawaz’s tenure. At the time of this incident, Mohsin Naqvi was Punjab’s caretaker chief minister, which makes this claim misleading.
Virality
On X, the viral video received 72,000 views, 3,210 likes and 1,839 reposts. It was also shared here.
The video was also posted on Facebook and can be seen here, here and here.
Conclusion: A video showing the poor condition at Lahore’s Services Hospital during a power outage is from 2023. The incident shown in the video is not recent and did not take place during Maryam Nawaz’s incumbent government in Punjab.
Background image in cover photo: ABC News
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