Claim: DG ISPR Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that Imran khan will not be allowed to win in the June 2026 Gilgit Baltistan elections and a PML-N government will be brought into power instead, ARY News reported.
Fact: This claim is false. The DG ISPR never made any such comment, and the image of an ARY News bulletin claiming as such is doctored.
On 31 May 2026, Facebook user Imran Safi posted the following image of an ARY News bulletin in a group called “PTI Lovers”:
Screenshot from the Facebook post
The news clipping is translated below:
[Translation: Breaking News
We will never allow Imran Khan to win from Gilgit Balistan, DG ISPR
We will bring in the Pakistan Muslim League]
Gilgit Baltistan 2026 Elections
Gilgit Baltistan elections were held on 7 June 2026. The official announcement was issued by Chief Election Commissioner Raja Shahbaz Khan on 11 April, triggering the formal rollout of the electoral process.
The Gilgit Baltistan Assembly was last elected on 15 November 2020 with the PTI forming the government, and Khalid Khurshid elected as Chief Minister of the region; however, he was later removed. The Assembly was dissolved on 24 November 2025 as the five-year constitutional term came to an end.
Consequently, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the appointment of Justice (retd) Yar Muhammad Khan as Chief Minister of the caretaker administration. This administration had mandated for an election to take place within three months, which would have formally been 24 January 2026, but it was postponed due to extreme weather conditions. The Assembly elections did conclude on 7 June 2026, while the local government body elections were postponed to 27 September 2026 due to Muharram.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated the authenticity of the statement by going to the ISPR’s official YouTube channel where we went through all the recent conferences and press briefings conducted by the DG ISPR himself since his appointment. We found that the most recent instance in which the DG ISPR mentioned former Prime Minister Imran Khan was 5 December 2025.
The press conference was published on the YouTube channels of various local news outlets on 5 December 2025 as well. When Soch Fact Check reviewed this one hour and 32 minute footage, we did not find any mention of the Gilgit Baltistan elections. Imran Khan was mentioned as a “national security” issue”, as was his political party and their “anti-army narrative” which needed to be stopped. Furthermore, social media campaigns were shown in regards to this matter, and the DG ISPR asserted that they must be put to an end.
The briefing addressed PTI’s governance and its performance against terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when army operations was raised as an issue. But there was still no reference made to Imran Khan, or the upcoming elections in GB. As of 2026, there is no evidence of any official comment made by DG ISPR about the 2026 elections.
Soch Fact Check further notes that the picture used in the image in the claim could be a generic image from any individual press briefing conducted by the DG ISPR that was likely shared with doctored text.
As seen on the official channel, in all press briefings, the background always includes four flags: the national flag of Pakistan, the Pakistan Army flag, the Pakistan Navy flag. The DG ISPR is always in the standard Pakistan Army green combat uniform or digital camouflage, featuring an authorized rank insignia on the shoulders or chest. On the press desk we can see three mics, one always on with a red light, and two with the official logos of the ISPR. A picture highlighting these standard features is presented below.
Screenshot taken from ISPR’s Youtube Channel
Furthermore, Soch Fact Check found “ARY News” coverage of DG ISPR’s 5 December 2025 press conference, and compared it to the Facebook post to see if any discrepancies can be picked up on the ARY News logo and news bulletin format. Some of the observations are as follows:
- The ARY News logo is similar to the original, but it has uneven spacing and alignment between the words “NEWS.”
- In the fabricated image, a different color palette is used throughout the image. For example, ARY News’ signature blue is absent throughout, making it appear more inauthentic in the image on the left.
- Every section seems to have a different font, and a different level of brightness. For example, the Urdu text in the image in the claim is bolder and brighter, seemingly more enhanced and over-saturated, whereas the Urdu text in the 5 December press conference footage is more intricate and dim.
A side-by-side comparison of ARY News Broadcast (Image in the claim on the left and authentic screenshot from the 5 December 2025 press conference on the right)
ARY Breaking News comparison (left is original and right is from Facebook post being fact-checked)
Secondly, we compared the image in the claim with an original ARY Breaking News broadcast and noted that the image in the claim contains some other visual inconsistencies within the “Breaking News” bulletin format:
- The authentic ARY News footage, as seen on the left, is less airbrushed and does not have any defined boundaries, which is how a normal breaking news bulletin would have been televised.
- The faded strip between the live footage and the red bulletin panel is visible in the original screenshot featuring the DG ISPR, where the text box naturally blends into the live video broadcast. However, there is no TV transition layer or even a semi-transparent gradient in the image in the claim.
- Soch Fact Check also discovered a similar inconsistency in the yellow hues of the text “بریکنگ نیوز” [Breaking News]. In comparison, the colour in the post seems to be slightly brighter than the outlet’s normal broadcast even though the font is the same as the original.
- Moreover, the background of the DG ISPR seems more unnatural on the right due to it being more heavily edited. Meanwhile, the background on the left seems more blurry and realistic, as in a live broadcasting.
Hence, the format of the news bulletin does not appear to be authentic.
Results from AI Detection Tools
Soch Fact Check, ran the image through Image Whisperer to verify if the image was AI-generated or not. Image Whisperer makes the image go through nine different detection tools and fact-checks the image feed (where the image is generated from) and location verification, making it more credible.
Image Whisperer is known to be internationally acclaimed as well as BBC Verify has quoted Image Whisperer’s analysis in their article on the AI-generated video of giant drifts going viral after record snow in Russia’s Far East.
The tool found the image to possibly be a heavily manipulated picture. 6 out of 9 models agreed with this verdict. For more detailed information the results are seen below:
Results from Image Whisperer
Results from Image Whisperer
For further verification, Soch Fact Check ran the image through a tool designed by OpenAI to check if it was created using the American artificial intelligence company’s tools.
It confirmed that the picture was “generated with OpenAl tools”, saying it “found a SynthID watermark that originated from OpenAl.” SynthID watermark usually is embedded into the photo or video created by OpenAI,and hence it is not visible to the bare eye.
OpenAI’s verification that SynthID does exist in manipulated photo
Based on a comparison with original ARY News broadcasts, results from two AI-generated tools and a lack of credible news reports on any such statement by the DG ISPR, it appears that the image in the claim is not authentic. Therefore, Soch Fact Check rates the claim as false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found this image shared on a Facebook group called ‘PTI lovers’ and was widely shared among PTI followers. The PTI fan group has 225.1 K followers, but the main claim post got an interaction of 43 likes, 22 comments and 11 reshares.
The claim was shared in another Facebook with 583.9 K members, where it was shared 74 times, and liked 257 times
The claim was shared on X as well, and gained more traction than Facebook. For example, one account gained 2,217 views since it had been posted. While the same news posted on X saw 9,482 views.
Soch Fact Check has previously fact-checked fake news bulletins attributed to ARY News.
Conclusion: The claim is false. The DG ISPR never made any comments about Imran Khan or the Gilgit Baltistan elections, and the image of the ARY News bulletin is doctored.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com