Claim: An image of the newly elected Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan sitting in an office in front of two flags — the Pakistan flag and the Government of Punjab flag — is being shared online with claim that “the flag of Azad Kashmir region is missing from the Prime Minister’s House of Azad Kashmir…instead of the flag of Azad Kashmir, the flag of the government of Punjab was hoisted.”
Fact: The claim is false and misleading. The image in question is not new but from 2018, when Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan was serving as Caretaker Punjab Minister for Agriculture, Food and Planning & Development. Ilyas shared the image on his Facebook page on 12 August 2018.
Fact or Fiction?
On 23 April 2022, Facebook user Safeer Kash shared an image of newly elected Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan sitting in front of two flags — the Pakistan flag and the Government of Punjab flag — with the claim that the Punjab government flag is being hoisted at Azad Kashmir’s PM House. The long caption, written in Urdu, also stated that the Government of Pakistan is being unjust with Azad Kashmir and attempting to make it part of the Punjab province.
However, Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false and misleading. The image is, in fact, from 2018, when Ilyas served as Caretaker Punjab Minister for Agriculture, Food and Planning & Development. This explains why the image shows him sat in front of the Government of Punjab flag. The image is now being re-shared after Ilyas became the new Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, with the false claim that the Punjab government flag, not the flag of Azad Kashmir, has been hoisted in the Azad Kashmir PM House. Bol News shared the photo in question with its report on the recent election of Ilyas as Azad Kashmir PM without mentioning that it is an old photo.
The original image posted in 2018 on Ilyas Facebook page can be seen below:
Screenshot of 2018 Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Profile Picture – Source Facebook
The miscaptioned image was shared here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook. The caption of the image in question has sparked controversy on social media.
Conclusion: The Punjab government’s flag was not hoisted at the Azad Kashmir PM House. The image of newly elected Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan is from 2018 when he was working as a caretaker minister of Punjab and does not reflect the current state of the Azad Kashmir PM House.