Claim: An image shows the arrest of now-dysfunctional Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi.

Fact: The image is AI-generated.

On 12 October 2026, an account on X named ‘Mrs Adnan شیرنی’ shared an image of an army and a police officer escorting the now-dysfunctional Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkwa Sohail Afridi. The visual surfaced after the federal government imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in the province on 11 October. The caption reads: 

خیبر پختونخوا میں ایمرجنسی کے بعد بڑی کاروائی!”

 وزیراعلیٰ سہیل آفریدی گرفتار  ہوگئے۔ صوبے میں امن و امان کی بحالی کی جانب اہم قدم۔

“عوام نے سکھ کا سانس لیا۔ 

[Translation: “Major action in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the declaration of an emergency!

Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has been arrested. 🤣 A significant step towards restoring law and order in the province. 

The public has breathed a sigh of relief.”]

Governor rule imposed in KPK

On 11 October 2026, the federal government imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The development came after President Asif Ali Zardari gave his approval under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution, dealing with the proclamation of emergency in a province and imposition of governor’s rule in case of “failure of constitutional machinery” in a province, respectively.  

President Zardari approved the summary after his meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif a day earlier, on 10 October 2026, where they discussed the possibility of imposing an emergency in KPK. The move comes after the talks between the PML-N led federal government and the PTI-led government in the province reached a “deadlock” on 3 October when the two sides had met to discuss PTI’s long march to Islamabad and counter-terrorism policy in KPK.

After the talks ended, Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas told the media that they had reached a “deadlock” over issues regarding meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan and resolving terrorism in KPK. PTI interim chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said that the party’s long march would still go ahead, and also asserted that imposing an emergency or governor rule was not a solution to terrorism. PTI also posted a press release on their X account and stated that the “principal point of deadlock” between the two was their demand for immediate access to former prime minister Imran Khan. According to the party, the government did agree to restore meetings between Khan and his family but refused additional measures concerning his health and medical assessment. 

On the other side, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry blamed the provincial government for failed negotiations because they “could not assure whether they would cooperate in the fight against terrorism in the future”. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also addressed a press conference in Lahore on October 4 where he held Afridi responsible for “sabotaging negotiations”. He said that the two sides had agreed upon “100% of political things” so that the KP government could come on board with the federal government on issues regarding counter-terrorism.

Following the imposition of governor’s rule in KPK, the federal government formed an 11-member technocratic KP Advisory Council to assist Governor Faisal Karim Kundi with taking charge of the province. Simultaneously, KPK Information Minister Shafi Jan and MNA Shahid Khattak took to their X accounts and claimed that Afridi had been arrested. A day later, on 12 October 2026, Chaudhry confirmed to Reuters that Afridi and some of his cabinet members were in preventive custody. He further clarified that those facing criminal cases would be charged and tried while the rest will be released. 

Fact or Fiction?

Soch Fact Check first searched for any credible news organisations sharing visuals of Afridi’s recent arrest but couldn’t find anything. Furthermore, Soch reporter Sidra Dar confirmed that no visuals or images of his arrest have been released yet, prompting us to look for tell-tale signs of the image being AI-generated. We observed the following:

• Afridi’s fingers appear to be slightly blurred and unnaturally positioned.
• The ‘PAK ARMY’ signage on the vest is slightly warped. The emblem on the officer’s cap also looks distorted, typical of AI rendering text and logos.
• The lighting across all faces is uniformly smooth, lacking skin imperfections or natural cast shadows.

Visual discrepancies in the image under investigation.

To investigate whether the image is AI-generated or not, we ran the image through Hive Moderation’s AI-Generated Content Detection tool. It gave the image a rating of 99.8%, concluding that it is most likely AI-generated.  

Result by Hive Moderation.

We also ran the image through OpenAI to check if it was created using the American artificial intelligence company’s tools. It confirmed that the picture had been “generated using OpenAI tools,” as it “found a SynthID watermark that originated from OpenAI”. A SynthID watermark is an invisible logo detected in OpenAI’s verification tool which indicates that the media file (such as an image or audio) was generated using supported OpenAI tools. 

Result by OpenAI.

The lack of an original, credible source for this image and results by AI detection tools therefore led us to conclude that the image is AI-generated.

Virality

A user on Facebook named M Q Wazir shared the image several times on the platform where it received 3,200, 1,800  and 2,700 likes via separate posts. 

The image also received 6,108 views on X.

Conclusion: A viral image claiming to show former CM KPK Sohail Afridi’s arrest is AI-generated. While the now-dysfunctional official is in “preventive custody”, no images or visuals have been released recording the moment of his detention. 

To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com