Claim: A picture shows Imran Khan “escaping” arrest at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore by climbing out through a ladder.
Fact: The picture is unrelated to Khan and, in fact, shows Hamza Shahbaz Sharif in 2019.
On 5 March 2023, Jawad Ahmad — singer-turned politician and chief of the Barabri Party Pakistan (BPP) — posted a picture (archive) on Twitter showing a man in a blue shalwar kameez and a waistcoat climbing a ladder in what appears to be the rear side of a bungalow.
Ahmad captioned the image as follows:
“میں گرفتاری سےنہیں ڈرتا۔ عمران خان
[I’m not afraid of being arrested, Imran Khan]”
Imran Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which is currently in the Opposition, served as the country’s 22nd prime minister. Orders for his arrest were issued following consecutive court absences (archive) in the ‘Toshakhana’ case hearings; however, Islamabad Police — which went to Zaman Park, Lahore, which is Khan’s other home — turned back empty-handed.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check used reverse image search tools to ascertain that the picture actually shows Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, the son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The first result of our search turned up an article (archive) from the satirical news outlet, The Dependent, which had also tweeted out its story here (archive).
We then reverse-searched the image available in The Dependent’s tweet, which led us to this UrduPoint article (archive) from 7 April 2019, titled, “حمزہ شہباز کی وائرل ہونے والی تصویر کی حقیقت سامنے آ گئے [Truth about Hamza Shahbaz’s viral photo comes out].”
An excerpt of the article states that Hamza Shahbaz — then the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly — was “going to the terrace to give a speech after the departure of the NAB [National Accountability Bureau] team”.
We also found the image shown in a 7 April 2019 video on YouTube channel Duniya Tv titled, “Hamza Shahbaz Sharif Running Through Wooden Stair On Roof After Nab Raid Lahore” (archive).
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that the picture was also shared by two other Twitter accounts with blue checkmarks — here (archive) by Mussarat Ahmadzeb, a former member of the National Assembly and a leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) who has a legacy verified account and here (archive) by Nasir Butt, the vice president of the PML-N’s United Kingdom chapter who has purchased the verified status through Twitter Blue.
The image was also shared here, here, here, here, and here on Twitter. On Facebook, we found the picture shared here, here, here, here, and here, among others.
The photo had also surfaced — wrongly — in February 2023 here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The picture shows Hamza Shahbaz Sharif in 2019. It is unrelated to Imran Khan or Zaman Park in Lahore.
Background image in cover photo: @ImranKhanOfficial