Claim: A picture shows a shop selling kites, which are imprinted with an image of Information Minister Attaullah Tarar raising his middle finger while holding the Constitution of Pakistan.
Fact: The image was generated using Google’s AI tools.
On 29 January 2026, Facebook page ‘Sanam Javid PTI’ posted (archive) a photo of a worn-down shop selling kites, which featured an image of Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar from 2022 showing a middle finger while holding the Constitution of Pakistan.
The image has likely surfaced in connection with Basant, a kite-flying traditional spring festival that is set to return after a years-long ban in Lahore in 2026.
Tarar’s action from 2022
Tarar — a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — faced backlash online and offline after he showed the middle finger during a Punjab Assembly session on 13 June 2022 for being asked to leave by former Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. At the time, he was the provincial government’s spokesperson
His offensive gesture, while holding a copy of the Constitution, came as he was leaving to chants of “Go, Tarar, go” from the opposition, according to different media reports.
However, in an X (formerly Twitter) post, Tarar said, “If anyone felt hurt by this, I apologise; it was wrong.”
Basant returns to Lahore after ban
According to the Government of Punjab, “the festival will be ‘completely safe, regulated, and strictly monitored’ under the new Punjab Kite Flying Ordinance, 2025”. The three-day event will be held on 6, 7, and 8 February 2026, as per its dedicated page.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif announced on 29 December 2025 that “manufacturers and sellers must register via the E-biz App or the official portal” and that “kite shops can only sell to the general public from 1 February to 8 February 2026”.
In an Instagram post, the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) issued further guidelines for Basant.
“The festival was banned nearly 20 years ago after dozens of people were killed or injured by metallic or chemically coated kite strings, which posed serious risks to pedestrians and motorcyclists,” Arab News reported. Citing local media reports, it added that under an extensive safety plan, authorities “have distributed one million safety rods among motorcyclists through 100 designated points across Lahore”.
According to ARY News, the rooftops of a few schools in Lahore’s interior city have been allotted for Basant celebration. “The Education Authority Lahore has forwarded the report about selected 10 schools to the School Education Department,” it said.
On 26 January 2026, The Express Tribune reported that the concerned authorities informed a hearing presided over by Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Malik Muhammad Owais Khalid about safety planning, which “was based on a decade of data, leading to the creation of red, yellow and green zones” across the provincial capital. They also explained that emergency response “would be operational during Basant” and that “hospitals have been placed on alert”.
In a separate report, the publication said authorities have banned “kites carrying political, religious or provocative imagery after photographs of kites bearing images of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan surfaced on social media, raising concerns over public order at a politically sensitive moment”.
The festival, it noted, is “coinciding with PTI’s protest call on 8 February” and “the provincial administration has enforced Section 144 across Lahore”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check observed that the right hand of the shopkeeper appears distorted and the image overall appears artificial. Particularly, the kites in the foreground lack crispness, as if they were altered by overly sharpening them using a photo-editing software. Moreover, the ones in a pile on the right side look flat.
We also checked the picture through Hive Moderation, which yielded a probability of 99.9% of the image being generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
We then checked if the image contained SynthID, an imperceptible watermark embedded in all content generated by Google’s AI tools.
This can be done through SynthID Detector, which currently works through Gemini in Pakistan.
“Based on a digital watermark check, this image was generated or edited using Google AI,” the portal said, adding that the confidence was “very high”.
When we tested a cropped version of the picture, showing only the kite with Tarar’s image, from a separate Facebook post, the tool explained, “Digital analysis indicates that part of this image was edited or generated with Google AI. This is a cropped version of a larger image that also carries a digital watermark indicating AI generation.”
Furthermore, we were able to trace the viral image to X user @thebilal_a, who posted (archive) it on 28 January 2026 with the caption, “بسنت کا آفیشل ڈیزائن پنجاب حکومت نے جاری کردیا [The Punjab government has issued the official design of Basant.]”.
The X bio of @thebilal_a describes their work as “AI Art based content”. This is not the first time visuals they created have gone viral on social media; Soch Fact Check has previously debunked their claims here and here.
Soch Fact Check concludes that the image is not authentic and was generated using Google’s AI tools.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the picture circulating here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here on Threads.
It was also shared here on X.
Conclusion: While the image of Tarar raising a middle finger is authentic, the image of the shop with questionable kites was generated using Google’s AI tools.
Background image in cover photo: VD Photography
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com