Viral Imran Khan Adiala Images Are AI-Generated

Viral Imran Khan Adiala images claiming to show the PTI founder meeting his lawyers inside Adiala jail are AI-generated, fact-checkers have found.

The images and a short video clip circulated on X, Facebook and TikTok on November 11, drawing hundreds of thousands of views. They appeared to show Imran sitting with his lawyers, Salman Safdar and Sardar Latif Khosa, in a room inside the jail. The fact check found the claim false.

The images were shared by several pro-PTI accounts. One post asked whether a photo said to be from the day’s meeting was real, and it drew 235,949 views. Another post called the image real and said supporters had finally seen their leader. It drew more than 25,000 views.

A short video clip with music, captioned as Imran Khan’s message to his lawyers, drew 2,176 views on X. The same clip was shared on TikTok by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Law Minister Aftab Alam, where it drew more than 614,000 views.

Imran Khan Adiala images fail detection tests

iVerify Pakistan, a fact-checking project of the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at IBA and the United Nations Development Programme, ran the visuals through several detection tools. Deploy Detect flagged the image as a 99 per cent deepfake. Fake Image Detector put the AI-generated score at 73 per cent, and Diopter put it at 83 per cent.

OpenAI’s SynthID tool detected a watermark signal in the image, which indicates it likely came from, or was edited using, OpenAI tools. The video scored 53 per cent AI-generated on Diopter and 64 per cent on Undetectable AI.

The image itself gave the game away on close inspection. Imran’s hand resting against his face had unclear finger details, with some fingers appearing merged, a common flaw in AI-generated images.

A keyword search found that no credible Pakistani media outlet and no official PTI platform had shared the same visuals. The fact-check verdict was clear: the claim is false, and the visuals are AI-generated.

Why the images spread so fast

Imran has been in prison since August 5, 2023. No recent images of him have been available since his incarceration, which leaves a gap that fake visuals can fill. His wife was arrested on January 17, 2025, in a separate case in which the couple was sentenced.

His sisters went on hunger strike during their detention, their cousin said, and were later released after 50 days in custody. The Islamabad High Court has allowed Imran to meet his family, lawyers and other associates twice a week, but his meetings have been largely restricted. His lawyers did meet him on November 11, a day after the court ordered the authorities to facilitate the meeting, and they discussed his health and legal issues. The meeting was real. The pictures of it were not.

The case also shows how AI verification now works in practice. Detection tools score how likely an image is to be synthetic, and watermark checks can trace an image to the AI tools that made or edited it. AI training for Pakistani workers is now teaching these checks, and deceptive uses of technology are a growing problem online. For readers, the rule is simple: a viral image of a public figure proves nothing on its own, and a minister sharing it does not make it real.

Frequently asked questions

Are the viral Imran Khan Adiala images real?

No. iVerify Pakistan found the images and video claiming to show Imran Khan meeting his lawyers in Adiala jail on November 11 are AI-generated. The fact-check verdict is false.

Who shared the fake images?

Several pro-PTI accounts shared them on X and Facebook. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Law Minister Aftab Alam shared the video clip on TikTok, where it drew more than 614,000 views.

How was the image exposed as fake?

Detection tools flagged it as AI-generated, including a 99 per cent deepfake score from Deploy Detect and a SynthID watermark signal from OpenAI’s tool. The image also showed merged fingers on Imran’s hand.

Did Imran Khan meet his lawyers on November 11?

Yes. His lawyers met him that day, a day after the Islamabad High Court ordered the authorities to facilitate the meeting. The meeting was real, but the pictures of it were not.