A day after critics started training guns at the Punjab government for “lying to the masses” about the opening of an Imperial College London campus at the Nawaz Sharif IT City in Lahore, the Capital Business District (CBD) Punjab has cleared the air on the matter.

 

Imperial College London on Tuesday denied claims that it was opening a campus at the IT city being developed as part of CBD – a project aimed at making Lahore a distinguished business hub. The university clarified that all of its campuses were based in the United Kingdom (UK) and that there currently were no plans to expand overseas.

 

The statement came after the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, in a post on X on October 18, said that a meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Maryam Nawaz had decided to establish a campus of Imperial College London at the Nawaz Sharif IT City. The post had also mentioned that a foundation stone would be laid in November and that a 300-bed modern hospital would be built within the campus.

Nawaz Sharif IT City will have an Imperial College London campus.

🔹The foundation stone for the local campus of Imperial College London will be laid in November.

🔹A modern 300-bed hospital will also be built within the Imperial College campus. pic.twitter.com/41JXSAOGbk

— PMLN (@pmln_org) October 18, 2025

 

As trolls took to social media to call out the government for what they said was “misleading the masses”, CBD on Wednesday clarified that the project was actually being built, however, it was a collaborative initiative between Novacare and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (UK), which is an independent NHS institution.

 

“The upcoming Healthcare University and Affiliated Medical College at CBD NSIT is a collaborative initiative between Novacare and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (UK) — an independent NHS institution,” it said in a statement on X.

 

CBD further said that the project remained firmly on track under the Novacare–Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust partnership, advancing their mission to establish a world-class hub for healthcare education, research and innovation at CBD NSIT Lahore.

 

Separately, Novacare also issued a statement on the matter.

 

"We wish to clarify and nuance recent media reports and social media posts mischaracterising the entities and relationships involved in Novacare’s upcoming project at CBD NSIT Lahore," the statement read, adding that Novacare has been affiliated with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust since March 2024, under the Trust’s International Affiliate network.

 

"The affiliation supports Novacare’s first state-of-the-art 250-bed tertiary hospital in Islamabad, now over 50% complete and scheduled to open in Q4 2026. Under the Trust’s International Affiliate network, expert multidisciplinary teams from the Trust work with aspirational healthcare organisations like Novacare to help them establish and develop high-quality clinical standards and practices."

 

It further said that Novacare was the second entity globally to join this network and seeks to build a nationwide healthcare network across Pakistan.

 

"As part of its national expansion, Novacare has been allotted land in CBD NSIT Lahore for its second project — an Academic Medical Centre integrating healthcare provision, education, research, and innovation within a world-class setting, benefiting from the cutting-edge technological and academic ecosystem under development by the Government of Punjab."

 

This Lahore project, it added, will be similar in scale, quality and structure to Novacare’s Islamabad project, and Novacare intends to build upon its wider collaboration framework with the Trust, under which it is the exclusive affiliate of the Trust across Pakistan.

 

"It is important to distinguish between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London. The Trust is a UK National Health Service (NHS) organisation, operating five major hospitals in London and leading one of the UK’s largest teaching hospital groups. Imperial College London is a separate academic institution; while the two work together and collaborate closely in several areas, the university is not involved in the Trust’s International Affiliate network, and hence issued a statement refuting its presence in Pakistan," the statement concluded.

 

While the provincial government is yet to address the blunder itself, it merits a mention that Punjab Central Business District Development Authority (PCBDDA), also known as CBD Punjab is a massive project aimed at transforming Lahore’s urban canvas.

 

Situated near the city’s economic hub, this initiative covers extensive land, aiming to establish Lahore as a business hub with a preliminary financial estimate ranging from Rs2,700 billion to Rs3,000 billion.

 

The project promises to redefine urban development paradigms in the heart of Pakistan.