Claim: An image shows Imran Khan walking out of jail with inmates and prison guards in the background.
Fact: The image is not real but generated by artificial intelligence.
On 29 August 2023, Instagram user @talhamalik.pti posted a picture (archive) showing Imran Khan — Pakistan’s former prime minister and the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — walking out of a jail with inmates and prison guards in the background.
Large text on the bottom of the picture reads:
“آ رہا ہوں میں! تيار ہو؟
[I’m coming! Are you ready?]”
@talhamalik.pti captioned the picture, “Khan is Back❤️🕊️”, tagged the accounts of the former premier and his party, the PTI, as well as what appears to be his second Instagram account, @talhamalikpti, and added the hashtags “#explore,” “#imrankhanpti,” “#viral,” “#trending,” and “#pti.”
The image, it appears, surfaced as the Islamabad High Court on 29 August suspended (archive) Khan’s conviction and, subsequently, his three-year jail sentence on corruption charges and ordered he be released on bail. The PTI chief was arrested (archive) earlier the same month.
Also read: AI-generated photo of woman at PTI protest passed off as real
The 70-year-old Khan, who has maintained his innocence, faces over 100 charges since his removal from power last year, according to the BBC (archive).
The former PM was transferred (archive) from Attock Jail to Adiala Jail — formally known as the Central Jail Rawalpindi — on 26 September.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check tried to reverse-search the image but did not find any relevant results; we only came across links to posts carrying the same image on different social media platforms.
We then analysed the image for any inconsistencies that are present in the content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and found a few that are depicted in the visual below and listed under the graphic:
- The first figure from the left is a headless body
- The second figure from the left has a head but no body
- The third figure from the left is an inmate who is standing outside the prison bars and has five fingers on his left hand
- The fourth figure from the left has one closed eye and a melting face
- The fifth figure is Khan himself, whose hair on his right side has a weird texture; there’s also no left side of the garment (possibly a sherwani or a coat) he appears to be wearing over his kurta; the left leg of his shalwar under the text has an unnaturally clear outline
- The sixth figure from the left has distorted facial features
- The eighth figure from the left is a police officer whose left eye appears to be closed
- The text on the right chest pocket of the eleventh figure from the left is gibberish
- The prison bars are disconnected from the ceiling
- The officer’s caps do not match those worn by Punjab Police
It also looks like Khan’s hands have been purposefully hidden by the large text — which reads “آ رہا ہوں میں! تيار ہو؟ [I’m coming! Are you ready?]” — to ensure hand-related errors, a telltale sign of AI-generated content, can’t be detected.
Read more: Viral photos showing Modi and Biden sharing Indian food are AI-generated
The evidence above is enough to conclude the image in question has been generated by artificial intelligence.
This is not the first time AI-generated photos have circulated on Pakistani social media; earlier, Soch Fact Check investigated and debunked a poster that people claimed showed a woman standing in front of riot police in Lahore during protests against Khan’s arrest.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the image here (archive) on Instagram, here (archive) on X (formerly Twitter), here (archive) on Pinterest, and here (archive) on Facebook.
Related: Karachi protest over Imran Khan’s ouster did not attract 200,000 people
The X post above gained close to 100 likes, while the Facebook post received more than 2,100 reactions, 180 comments, and 100 shares.
Conclusion: The image of Imran Khan exiting jail is not real but generated by artificial intelligence.
Background image in cover photo: Valeriia Kogan
To submit an appeal on our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com