Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday confirmed surfacing of a spurious web portal, masquerading as the official platform designated to furnish information about independently endorsed candidates in the upcoming elections.
The alleged impostor website, pticandidate.com, purportedly disseminated inaccurate details to misguide unsuspecting voters.
The claim of PTI was verified by a fact-checking platform iVerify Pakistan that gave the glaring disparity between the candidate information disseminated by the questionable website and the verified records from both the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the party’s internal archives.
PTI activist, Azhar Mashwani also took to the social media platform X on Wednesday to expose the fraudulent activity.
Mashwani said that the authentic PTI portal for candidate information bears the URL pticandidates.com.
He lambasted the perpetrators of misinformation, highlighting the deliberate mimicry in the fraudulent website’s nomenclature, which substituted ‘candidates’ with ‘candidate.’
The distinction, he argued, was crucial in discerning the official platform from its deceptive counterpart.
However, the PTI had “relaunched” its web portal to facilitate voters seeking information on independently endorsed candidates supported by the party.
The rebranded portal promised voters a user-friendly experience, enabling them to easily access pertinent details by inputting their national or provincial assembly constituency.
However, a twist in the tale emerged as the fact-checking platform iVerify Pakistan reported that, as of 1:10 pm on Thursday, the provided website links from the party were non-functional.
Speaking in a television talk show of a private media, PTI Spokesperson Hassan Rauf ruled out technical problem behind the blocking of the party’s official websites.
He said he had taken up the issue with the authorities concerned, but received no positive response.
