Claim: The prices of petrol and diesel are down to PKR 250 and PKR 320 per litre, respectively, effective 17 April 2026, “due to Harmous opening”. The claim refers to the Strait of Hormuz.
Fact: The petrol and diesel prices are PKR 366.58 and PKR 353.42 a litre, respectively, as of 18 April 2026. The image in the viral posts is AI-generated.
On 17 April 2026, multiple social media users posted a visual of a signboard depicting fuel prices at a Pakistan State Oil (PSO) petrol pump (archived here, here, and here, respectively.)
Titled “new rate due to Harmous opening”, effective 17 April 2026, the signboard states that petrol and diesel are priced at PKR 250 and PKR 320 per litre, respectively.
The caption accompanying most of these posts is an opinion wherein users make an urgent appeal to Pakistan’s civil and military leadership to drastically reduce the prices of fuel and essential food items as recent news indicated improving global conditions and an imminent ceasefire. It also calls for immediate government action and public support on social media to stabilise the economy and improve the national standard of living.
However, Soch Fact Check is only investigating the image — and not the text — as opinions and analyses do not come under the purview of our work.
Pakistan mediates ceasefire, hosts peace talks
Towards the end of the US-Israel war against Iran that started on 28 February and lasted over five weeks, US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened the Islamic Republic with destruction.
On 7 April, he went as far as to say that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran did not give in.
However, Pakistan-led mediation efforts eventually culminated in a two-week ceasefire on 8 April, with Islamabad Talks scheduled to discuss the way forward.
Held on 11 and 12 April 2026, the Islamabad Talks marked the first direct, high-level diplomatic engagement between the United States and Iran since 1979. They were aimed at converting a fragile ceasefire into a lasting resolution to the war.
Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, was put on high alert ahead of the arrival of foreign delegations.
Vice President JD Vance led the US delegation, which included Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as confirmed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. The one from Tehran comprised Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, among many others.
Pakistan hosted the talks at the renowned Serena Hotel where the two sides provided each other written proposals regarding the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear programme. However, the negotiations ended without any success and Trump announced the imposition of a naval blockade in the key shipping route.
Iran momentarily opened the Strait of Hormuz but closed it again after it claimed the US was violating the ceasefire terms by imposing the naval blockade on its ports.
A second round of talks are now expected to take place again in Islamabad with the US president saying he would send his representative to Pakistan but Iran denying plans to send negotiators.
On 19 April, the US seized Iran’s Touska merchant ship after attacking it with a guided-missile destroyer, a move over which Tehran vowed retaliation. The same day, Trump issued another warning on his Truth Social platform, saying:
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.”
The ceasefire has been extended as of the time of publishing, as confirmed by both Trump and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
International oil prices
Oil prices shot up due to the US-Israel war against Iran, with the impact felt around the world, including Pakistan.
The government of Pakistan hiked the prices of petrol and diesel by almost 43% and 55% to PKR 458.40 and PKR 520.35 a litre, respectively, on 3 April. This also included a petroleum levy.
A day later, PM Sharif announced that the petroleum levy would be slashed by PKR 80 a litre, bringing the petrol price to PKR 378.
On 10 April, the prices of petrol and diesel were brought down further to PKR 366 and PKR 385 per litre, respectively.
A week later, Sharif approved a further reduction in the per-litre price of diesel, bringing it down to PKR 353.43. However, petrol remained unchanged.
Fact or Fiction?
According to PSO’s website, as of 18 April 2026, the per-litre prices of various petroleum products are as follows:
- Premier Euro 5 = PKR 366.58
- Hi-cetane Diesel Euro 5 = PKR 353.42
- Light Diesel Oil (LDO) = PKR 299.32
- Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO) = PKR 428.81
- Jet Propellant 1 (JP-1) = PKR 471.01
With regard to the image in the claim, it appears to be generated through artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
According to Hive Moderation, the visual is 99.9% likely to be AI-generated or is deepfake content, specifically through “gptimage1_5,” or GPT Image 1.5, which is an image generation model from OpenAI.
Moreover, an assessment provided by the “Image Verifier” generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) — which is available in ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI — said the visual “is very likely AI-generated, not a real photograph”.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim is false and the visual has been generated through AI tools.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook and here, here, and here on Instagram.
Conclusion: The prices of petrol and diesel are PKR 366.58 and PKR 353.42 a litre, respectively, as of 18 April 2026. The image in the viral posts is AI-generated.
Background image in cover and featured photos: Google Maps & Hans Eiskonen
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