2018 image of Imran Khan casting vote shared as from 2024 Pakistan General Elections

The image is from Pakistan’s 2018 by-elections, not the 2024 general election. Imran Khan cast his vote via postal ballot from Adiala Jail for the 2024 election.

In Pakistan, the voting completed on February 8. It took place for a total of 265 seats in the Pakistan National Assembly, with the next Prime Minister requiring a simple majority in the NA to be sworn in. There are three main political contenders — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its key leader, former PM Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by Imran Khan, and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), who is projecting former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto as the PM candidate.

Following the elections, an image of former Prime Minister Imran Khan casting his vote went viral on social media with a claim that this picture of Imran Khan was taken inside the Adiala Jail in Islamabad, where he has been detained since August 2023.

The caption of the post states, “IMRAN KHAN HAS CAST HIS FIRST VOTE FROM ADIALA JAIL, CONSTITUENCY NA 47 ISLAMABAD”.

Facebook Post |Archive link

Fact Check-

We began our investigation by conducting a reverse image search on Google, which led us to this image shared by former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on his own official Facebook  page, dated October 14, 2018, stating Prime Minister Imran Khan had cast  his vote in the NA-53 constituency earlier today.

Facebook Post 

The same image was uploaded on his party’s Facebook page with a caption, “I just cast my vote, we need your support to continue in our mission for Naya Pakistan … have you cast your vote?”  

We also discovered the same image in multiple other news reports from October 2018, confirming that it was not taken during Pakistan’s recent general elections.
All this evidence indicates that it was an old image being passed off as current.

According to a report published by The Dawn on 8 February 2024, Imran Khan and other major jailed political personalities voted from Adiala Jail via a postal ballot.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo has found the claim made along with the viral image to be Misleading. The viral image does not relate to the recent general elections held in Pakistan. The image is from Pakistan’s 2018 by-elections, not the 2024 general election.