Fact-check: Photo of Fazlur Rehman on plane with bottle is doctored

Pakistani online users are once again sharing a photo that allegedly shows politician Maulana Fazlur Rehman on a plane with a bottle of whiskey on his table.

The photo has been digitally altered to include the bottle. Also, this image has been fact-checked by several news outlets in the past.

Claim

On July 20, a user on X (formerly known as Twitter) posted a picture of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Pakistan, seated in the business class section of a plane. Next to the religious leader was a bottle of whiskey and a half-filled glass.

The user captioned the post: “Now look whose real face comes to the fore.” The post has garnered over 100 views to date.

Similar claims were shared here and here.

Fact

Two members of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Pakistan have confirmed that the image has been doctored to include a bottle of whiskey.

Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro, the secretary general of Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam in Sindh, confirmed to Geo Fact Check that the original photo was taken on May 2, 2019, when Rehman was on his way to Saudi Arabia. He further added that the image was snapped by Abdullah Hasan, who was traveling with the politician at the time.

Soomro shared the original image, which does not include a bottle of whiskey, as well as other photos taken on the trip.

The same was corroborated by Muhammed Tariq Baloch, the personal secretary of Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Additionally, the photoshopped image has been fact-checked several times in the past by local and international fact-checking organisations.

Follow us on @GeoFactCheck. If our readers detect any errors, we encourage them to contact us at [email protected]