Pakistan PM's tweet congratulating Karnataka for electing Congress party is fake

Hyderabad: A screenshot of a tweet reportedly of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulating the people of Karnataka has gone viral on social media. The purported tweet reads, “I would like to heartily thank the people of Karnataka for electing Congress, I hope Congress along with our SDPI will work for the strengthening of Islam in India and the sovereignty of Karnataka.”

NewsMeter received the screenshot on its WhatsApp tipline number (7482830440).

Fact Check

NewsMeter found out that no such tweet was tweeted by Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif.

The viral screenshot is dated 13 May 2023. Taking this as a cue, we looked for the tweet on Mr. Sharif’s Twitter account but did not find him congratulating Kannadigas for giving the mandate to the Congress Party.

On 13 May, Mr. Sharif tweeted three times but none of them was about Congress’s victory in Karnataka. (Click here, here and here to see the tweets)

Further, we confirmed from the analytics tool Social Blade that Mr. Sharif had made only three tweets on 13 May.

Lastly, we ran a keyword search and found that the viral screenshot was initially tweeted by a parody account, @N0rbertElekes, on 13 May. (Archive tweet here)

Hence, we conclude that the viral screenshot is fabricated and the claim that the Pakistan PM congratulating Kannadigas for electing the Congress party is false.