New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz is now “the Queen of Fabrication”. She is being called out in Pakistan for lying about the Imperial College London opening a new campus in Lahore.
About a week after she made such a claim, the college officially made a statement refuting it and asserting that no such plans are underway. Pakistanis are embarrassed and angry.
“She just can’t stop lying. From motorways to make-believe — now we’ve got Imperial College Lahore, courtesy of the Queen of Fabrication. Maryam Nawaz just launched a new degree: Bachelor in Blatant Lies. Admissions open everywhere,” an angry Pakistani X user wrote.
Imperial, or not
This weekend, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) announced via its official X account that a campus of Imperial College London would be established in the Nawaz Sharif IT City, Lahore. The post stated that the foundation stone for the project would be laid in November and that the campus would also include a modern 300-bed hospital.
Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz officially launched the Nawaz Sharif IT City project for commercial development in May last year. During the inauguration ceremony, she stated that numerous international tech giants had expressed interest in the project, with 10 companies already preparing to set up offices within the IT City. Spread across 853 acres, the zone has been designated as tax-free for a period of 10 years.
Nawaz was said to have chaired the meeting where this decision was discussed, Dawn reported. Punjab’s Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb echoed the announcement in a separate X post, also claiming that the prestigious UK-based institution would establish a campus in Lahore. The Punjab government’s official account repeated the same claims.
However, Imperial College London has categorically refuted these assertions. In a statement published on its official website, the university said the reports were “incorrect.”
“Reports that Imperial College London plans to open a campus overseas are incorrect,” the statement read. “There have been erroneous reports in the media and online that Imperial is opening a campus at Nawaz Sharif IT City in Lahore, Pakistan. Imperial has no such plans, with all the university’s campuses based in the UK.”
Following Imperial’s clarification, Marriyum Aurangzeb’s original post has been deleted.
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‘Verification is still a novel concept’
Perhaps among the most embarrassed were the Pakistani alumni of Imperial College London. Former chairman of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), Javed Hassan, said that as an alumnus of Imperial College London, he was “briefly bemused by the bold claim of a campus in Nawaz Sharif IT City”.
“Being constantly among the top ten universities globally, I was surprised and pleased to hear that Imperial College London was setting up a campus in Pakistan. Even more so since I’m an alumnus of Imperial. Alas, Imperial promptly denied the news,” he told ThePrint.
“Turns out Imperial College is less adventurous — its campus plans remain firmly UK-bound. Verification, it seems, is still a novel concept,” he also wrote on X.
“No, Imperial College London is not establishing a campus in Pakistan, & Stop DM’ing me to ask! Not only is this extremely irresponsible, but also very embarrassing! Someone of this stature, serving in public office, ‘@MaryamNSharif’, should not be making such claims!” Saklain Shah Gilani, a London-based Pakistani researcher wrote on X.
Others are bemused. They have moved on from blaming Maryam Nawaz to blaming the “real culprit”— the Pakistani military establishment. “Pakistan’s ruling military junta caught lying once again – this time false representation by the nominal czar of the country’s largest province Punjab, Maryam Nawaz Sharif who’s lie was caught by imperialcollege, which issued a correction,” Ali Mustafa wrote on X
“Army brought this Chacha & Bhatiji to power through stealing elections & Form 47 giving them a clean chit from NAB cases!How can generals do this damage to the country which they were supposed to defend?” an X user, PompousProfessor, wrote.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)