Fact check: JUI-F’s Asad Mehmood has not been nominated as KP governor
Posts from multiple users on Monday on social media platform X claimed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi was removed and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Maulana Asad Mehmood has been nominated for the office. However, no such development has occurred.
Mehmood is the son of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Fazl played a pivotal role in the passage of the 26th constitutional amendment on Monday after weeks of political wrangling.
Initially opposed to the amendment and aligned with the PTI, he eventually agreed to the constitutional reforms after much deliberation with the government.
However, the PTI did not support the amendment and did not vote for it despite expressing agreement with the draft birthed after consultations with Fazl.
On October 21, a fan account of PTI lawyer Naeem Bukhari shared a post with the caption: “Maulana Asad Mehmood, nominated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as governor of KP, has removed Governor Faisal Kundi. This appointment is the first outcome of maulana’s deal with the government.”
The post gained over 203,000 views and was shared 6,900 times.
The claim was also widely shared by other users as can be seen here and here.
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the political developments related to the outcomes of the newly approved constitutional package.
Checking the official social media accounts of the involved parties to see whether they addressed the alleged development yielded an October 21 X post from JUI-F spokesperson Aslam Ghauri who rubbished the matter.
“The baseless news is an attempt to sabotage the historic and successful efforts of JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman regarding the 26th constitutional amendment,” he said.
He said it was baseless news that was “contrary to journalistic values” and rooted in “fabrication and lies”.
Furthermore, there was no mainstream media coverage of the alleged development, something which could reasonably be expected if it had actually occurred considering it was about a province’s governor being changed.
Lastly, as per his official X account, Governor Kundi still continued in his duties and continued to occupy his office as seen in multiple posts about his activities today.
Therefore, the fact-check determined that the claim that Governor Kundi has been removed from his designation while Mehmood has been nominated for the post is false. A JUI-F spokesperson dismissed any such development while Governor Kundi still continues in his duties.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.