Fact-check: Did Shahid Afridi discourage donations to Shaukat Khanum?

Some Pakistani social media users allege that former sportsman Shahid Afridi has insisted that people do not donate to Shaukat Khanum Hospital as the funds are instead diverted and used to launch online campaigns against the country.

The claim is false. No such statement has been made by the former cricket star.

Claim

On July 4, a Facebook user shared a graphic with the following text: “Do not give your donations to Shaukat Khanum Hospital, instead give them to someone who is needy as your donations are being spent on social media to launch activities against the country: Shahid Afridi.”

The post alone has been shared over 200 times, to date.

The graphic and alleged statement by Afridi was also shared on TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter) here, here and here.

Fact

Former sportsman Shahid Afridi did not make any such statement, Geo Fact Check has found.

“Do you think I can say this?” said Shahid Afridi when asked over the phone, adding that the statement being attributed to him was “fake”.

Geo Fact Check then went through Afridi’s recent interviews to find any such comment by him. It could not find any statement.

In fact, in a television interview on July 1, Afridi praised the work being done by Shaukat Khanum Hospital and said his own father was treated at the hospital. He further spoke against those who politicise charity organisations.

Link to his interview can be found here.

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