Hoax news reports claim Pakistani government hired former army general to head medical regulatory body
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 26, 2021 at 13:31
- 2 min read
- By AFP Pakistan
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The claim was published on January 21, 2021 a Facebook page called “Vocabulary and Dawn News’ Informative Articles”, which has more than 50,000 followers.
The page's profile picture is identical to the logo of major Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn, which can be seen here.
The post shows a photo of retired Lieutenant General Asif Mumtaz Sukhera and has a caption that reads: “Lieutenant Retired General Asif Mumtaz appointed as Chairman Pakistan Medical Commission PMC.”
The post circulated as the current government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan faces criticism for appointing senior army officials to top civilian jobs.
Similar claims about Sukhera being appointed to head the PMC were also made on Facebook here, here and here and on Twitter here, here and here.
However, the claim is false.
A reverse image search found that the photo of Sukhera shared in the posts is from an army ceremony in 2016. It was published on an official Pakistani military Facebook page here on August 26, 2016.
Below is a screenshots comparison of the 2016 military Facebook post (L) and false post shared on the imposter Facebook page (R):
Moreover, the PMC is led by a president and not a chairman, as the posts claim.
The current president of the commission is Dr Arshad Taqi, as noted on the PMC’s website here.
Sukhera, however, is currently serving as a member of Pakistan's Higher Education Commission, as noted on the commission’s website.
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