A collage of two photos showing jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is viral online with the misleading claim that the photo shows him casting his vote for the general election while being jailed.
BOOM found that while Khan did cast his vote, this photo is old and unrelated to the ongoing general election of Pakistan.
Pakistan held its general elections on February 8, 2024, where candidates backed by Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf ran as independents against Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). PTI candidates are leading as counting of votes nears its final phase--Khan's official social media accounts even posted an AI-generated victory speech calling the election an "unprecedented fightback from the nation". Sharif, whose party is trailing behind, has claimed that he will seek to form a coalition government to gain a majority in the elections.
The two photos show him standing near a ballot box and casting his vote. A caption on Facebook reads, "IMRAN KHAN HAS CAST HIS FIRST VOTE FROM ADIALA JAIL,CONSTITUENCY NA 47 ISLAMABAD..!"
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The photos are being shared with a similar caption on X.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the claims are misleading, the photos are from a 2018 by-poll in Pakistan and are unrelated to the recent general elections.
We ran a reverse image search of the viral image on Google and found a news report by Pakistani news outlet Dawn published on October 14, 2018. The report carried pictures of by-polls across 35 constituencies in Pakistan, including a photo of Imran Khan casting his vote from Islamabad's NA-53.
The same photo was shared on Imran Khan's verified Facebook page on the same date.
Click here to view.
The former cricketer is currently serving a 10-year jail term after a closed-door trial indicted him for leaking state secrets. Other charges against Khan also include terrorism, contempt of court, and inciting violence. However, Khan did cast his vote in this election via postal ballot from the Adiala Jail, along with other jailed political leaders including former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry.