Claim: An ARY News graphic quotes Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif telling Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman that petrol price will rise to Rs 500 by November 2026.
Fact: The graphic is fake, and is likely edited.
On 5 October 2026, a Facebook account named “پکھی واس” shared a graphic of Pakistani channel ARY News which quoted a conversation between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan’s chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman as following:
وزیر اعظم شہباز شریف سے امیر جماعت اسلامی حافظ نعیم الرحمان کی ملاقات اور یقین دہانیاں”
وزیر اعظم نے نومبر تک پیٹرول 500 تک لے جانے کی یقین دہانی کروائی ہے
“حافظ نعیم الرحمن نے سردیوں میں برف سستی کرنے کا بھی بھی مطالبہ کر دیا
[Translation: “Meeting and assurances between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman:
The Prime Minister has given assurances regarding the price of petrol reaching 500 by November.
Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman has also demanded a reduction in the price of ice during the winter season.”]
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search of “shehbaz sharif meets hafiz naeem ur rehman” which led to ARY News’ original news bulletin on 5 October 2026. In the one-minute and 32-seconds-long video, a reporter named Zahid Mashwani quoted sources privy to the matter saying that the government has asked for more time from Rehman to abolish the petroleum levy.
The development came after the JI launched its march towards Islamabad on 20 September 2026 to protest against the rising tax on petroleum. After his caravan arrived in Multan on 22 September 2026, the JI chief announced that they are postponing the march on PM Shehbaz’s request as he had agreed to meet him after returning from the United States.
ARY News then reported on the meeting on 5 October. According to Mashwani, the premier told Rehman that he needed time to look over the petroleum levy matter as they are currently dealing with PTI’s long march. The bulletin did not include any quotes by PM Shehbaz stating that petrol will rise to Rs 500 nor did the reporter say anything as such.
Left: ARY News bulletin shared in the claim, Quotes mentioned in the image under investigation, Right: Original ARY News bulletin on the meeting between PM Shehbaz and JI Chief from 5 October 2026.
Soch Fact Check also contacted Head of Assignment Desk at ARY News Fayyaz Mangi who also debunked the image as false. He clarified that they did not run any such story, leading us to suspect that the image was likely manipulated.
We then ran the image through AI detectors to look for signs of manipulation. First the image was tested with TruthScan, which is a platform co-founded by the tech entrepreneur behind Undetectable AI, Christian Perry. The tool concluded that the notification is “digitally edited” and flagged it at an edit probability of 96%.
Result by TruthScan.
Another AI detection tool, Image Whisperer, also detected “mixed signal” and concluded that its forensic editing detectors confirmed “localised visual manipulation across the red lower-third banners”.
“This image is a satirical composite consisting of modified ARY News broadcast templates showing Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman. Standard JPEG compression (199KB file size) and stripped metadata reflect typical social media sharing. While B-Free flags AI patterns (90%), forensic editing detectors confirm localized visual manipulation (IML-ViT: 96%) across the red lower-third banners where satirical text has been inserted over original broadcast graphics,” the tool elaborated on its results.
Result by ImageWhisperer.
The original 5 October news bulletin by ARY News, a comment from a senior employee at ARY, and results from AI detection tools confirm that the graphic makes a false claim. The image is likely digitally manipulated.
Virality
Soch Fact Check first came across a viral Facebook post with as many as 131 likes and 57 shares.
It garnered further reach after it received 262 and 142 likes via separate posts on the platform.
Conclusion: The viral graphic of ARY News quoting PM Shehbaz as saying that petrol prices will rise to Rs 500 are digitally manipulated. The Head of ARY News’ Assignment Desk also stated that the channel did not run any such story.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com