Fact check: There was no recent book fair in Lahore that sold only 35 books

Despite several social media posts alleging that a recent Lahore book fair sold only 35 books, no evidence was found to prove that any such incident occurred and the source of the information admitted that the news was shared without verification.

On October 20, a Facebook post by Startup Karachi, a page describing itself as a media company, garnered 1,900 reactions and 1,400 shares.

The caption of the post read, “At a recent book fair in Lahore, the spotlight was unexpectedly stolen by delicious food rather than literature. While only 35 books were sold, attendees indulged in a remarkable 1,200 shawarmas and 800 biryanis. The event, which aimed to promote reading and culture, turned into a culinary extravaganza, highlighting the community’s love for food.”

Similarly, a reel on the alleged book fair’s sales by digital creators TheMedBros attracted 6,200 reactions and 629 shares. Many other similar Facebook pages that aggregate news and information also shared the alleged development.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif weighed in and shared his thoughts on the matter in a tweet on October 22, stating: “In the battle between the stomach and the mind, the chances of the mind dominating are low. In general, our collective mental appetite is still low.” His post gained 50,500 views.

Notably, none of the observed posts shared specific or important details such as the organisers of the event, the location, dates and any photographs of the event.

After investigating the viral posts further, they were sourced to a social media post by actor and producer Khaled Anam.

The actor’s X and Instagram accounts showed no such post, however, an October 19 post on his Threads account read: “Last week, a book fair was organised in a college in Lahore. According to the report of the college administration, 1,200 shawarma, 800 biryanis, 900 burgers, 1,800 Coca-Cola drinks and a total of 35 books were sold at the fair.”

iVerify initiated a fact-check to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and strong public interest in and engagement with the alleged development that led to even a federal minister commenting on it.

No relevant news reports of medical coverage regarding any recent major book fairs were found. The most prominent book fair in Lahore is the Lahore International Book Fair (LIBF), which is usually held in February.

LIBF Vice Chairman Kashif Mir Zubair told iVerify, “The genesis of this so-called ‘news’ seems to be from a clickbait social media page/website. I am happy to report that this news is 100 per cent fake, as far as it pertains to the LIBF. It is possible that a small book fair was held at some college which also had stalls for food and someone has written the story in a way which reflects on the LIBF.

“The 37th LIBF was held in February 2024, at the Lahore Expo Centre, with 200+ stalls. It was attended by hundreds of thousands of people during the five-day event and books worth tens of millions of rupees were sold at great discounts. All major publishers and booksellers of Pakistan participated in this book fair [as they do every year]. I also need to point out that there were not [nor have there ever been] any ‘food stalls’ at the LIBF as we only allow exhibitors who are publishers or booksellers.”

Anam offered an apology and clarification in a subsequent video message on his X account for his earlier social media post.

“A clarification was needed from which I am about to give because something arose on social media and it escalated. Two days ago, I saw someone’s post in English which I found to be humorous so translated it in Urdu and shared it on my social media page as a joke.

“It was wrongly interpreted, well I am not concerned with how it was interpreted, but my mistake was that I should verified whether something like that actually happened and if it did, then I should have mentioned the source. I’ll tell you the source, they were some webpages that I can name but I don’t want anyone to be troubled because of me,” he said.

“Because the fault was mine I shared something without verification, so I apologise for that. Because I shared it as a joke, I did not know that it would be taken in the wrong direction. I still think it is a joke but because some people got the opportunity to [make fun] of our country, cities and students so we should not at all give such a chance to anyone.”

The actor said he had immediately removed his post when he saw that it did not seem appropriate, while some pointed out that the post was shared every now and then and was attributed to different people.

Reiterating his apology, the actor vowed to never again share anything without verification. His clarification was also reported by BBC Urdu, which reached out to the actor for a comment on the matter.

This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.