Forged dining card shared in posts targeting Pakistan ex-PM's sons
"The biggest proof has arrived. Imran's sons ate at the Capitol Hill Club, this is the club's menu card," reads an Urdu language post shared July 25, 2025 on X, referring to a private club for Republicans in the US capital.
On the bottom of the image attached to the post, text highlighted with a red box reads: "We dont offer halal or Kosher food as per restaurant policy."
It was reposted over 1,300 times, while similar posts have also been shared on Facebook.
Khan, a former cricket star-turned premier, has been jailed since August 2023 on a slew of corruption charges his party says are politically motivated.
His supporters and senior party leaders have also faced a crackdown, with police firing teargas at protesters during a recent demonstration against his two years of incarceration (archived link).
Last year, a UN panel of experts found that Khan's detention "had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him" from contesting elections (archived link).
His sons, Kasim and Sulaiman Khan, went to the United States in late July to campaign for their father's release from prison with Washington lawmakers, some of whom shared posts about their meetings on X (archived here, here and here).
Some social media users appeared to believe the menu was genuine.
"So the meat was pork," one wrote, adding that "the youth are indulging in forbidden food and lying".
Pakistan is a majority Muslim country, which means that the population largely adheres to halal practices -- consuming food that is slaughtered and produced according to Islamic law.
Muslims are prohibited from eating pork.
Warped logo, misspellings
But there are clear signs that the document was fabricated, including the URL provided which is listed as "wwweapitolhillslub.org".
A Google search of the Capitol Hill Club leads to its official website hosted at www.capitolhillclub.org (archived link).
Closer inspection of the forged document also reveals that the club logo on the top-left corner is warped with missing letters, while the official logo seen on Capitol Hill Club website and their 2025 menus uploaded online shows the name clearly (archived link).
All four menus listed on the official website also do not mention having a policy of not offering halal or kosher food.
In fact, two of the menus -- the "All Day Banquet Beverage & Breakfast" menu and the "Banquet Lunch" menu -- request that planners send allergies and dietary restrictions for guests.
There are also major written errors in the forged document, including the misspelling of the words "opportunity" as "opporennity", "members" as "eembefse", and "luggage" as "cluggage".
Repeated sentences and errors in punctuation are also present throughout.
The Capitol Hill Club has not responded to AFP's requests for comment.
AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation around the jailed former prime minister.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
29 minutes ago
- Axios
Inside the spicy Senate fight coming on confirmations
President Trump has added an unsolicited, high-profile confirmation fight to the Senate's plate when they're back from August recess. Why it matters: With a 140+ person backlog on civilian confirmations, Senate Republicans left Washington vowing to fast-track the rules. Senate GOP leaders told senators to be ready to move as soon as they return to D.C. in September, sources familiar tell us. Senators have suggested everything from shorter debate time to allowing more nominees to be voted on en bloc. 🌶 But the newest nominee's a doozy: Trump said yesterday he'll nominate Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after he fired Erika McEntarfer. Zoom in: Antoni's confirmation process will first have to go through the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee which is chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) Cassidy called McEntarfer's removal "understandable," and he had previously demanded answers as to why BLS's jobs reports were inaccurate. He's also up for re-election next year. But HELP includes frequent Trump critics: Sens. Susan Collins (R-Me.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). "BLS's years-long failure to produce reliable data — especially when that data has broad market-moving implications — is unacceptable," a Cassidy spokesperson told Axios. "Cassidy looks forward to meeting with Dr. Antoni to discuss how he will accomplish this."
San Francisco Chronicle
29 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
GOP Washington state Sen. John Braun is running for Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez's seat
CHEHALIS, Wash. (AP) — Washington state Sen. John Braun announced Tuesday that he will run next year for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House seat held by Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Braun, the Republican minority leader of the Democratic-controlled state Senate, will be vying for a competitive, conservative-leaning district in southwestern Washington that was carried by President Donald Trump last year. Braun said in a statement issued by his campaign that he would work to secure borders and maintain national defense. The statement said Braun is the president of a family-owned manufacturer of emergency vehicles who served in the Navy for 31 years. 'I know how to fight bad policy — and how to craft good policy that makes a difference for people here in Southwest Washington. I look forward to working with President Trump on a positive agenda that gets America back on the right track," he said. Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto repair shop owner, flipped Washington's largely rural 3rd Congressional District in 2022. The six-term Republican who previously held the seat, Jaime Herrera Beutler, did not make it out of the primary that year. Right-wing constituents angry about her vote to impeach Trump instead cast their lot with Joe Kent, a former Army special operations soldier who promoted Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen and touted conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by less than a percentage point in 2022. Heading into a rematch with Kent last fall, she was considered one of the most vulnerable members of Congress but won reelection by nearly 4 points. Gluesenkamp Perez has described political polarization as destructive to democracy and used a nuts-and-bolts approach to governing. Some progressives in her district have said she has not pushed back hard enough against Trump's second presidency. But some consultants say her approach could help boost her support among independents and moderate Republicans. Federal elections filings show that Democrat Brent Hennrich, a former movie theater operations manager who has dismissed Gluesenkamp Perez's moderation as the wrong approach, and Republican businessman Antony Barran are also running for the seat.
New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Misstates Washington Crime Data to Justify Takeover
President Trump cast the nation's capital as overwhelmed by record-breaking levels of violent crime as he announced a federal takeover of the city. On Monday, Mr. Trump and his newly confirmed federal prosecutor for Washington cited an array of inaccurate statistics about murders in the city and crimes committed by children. It was part of a broader bid by his administration to rail against crime in urban, largely liberal cities, often turning to exaggerated and inaccurate figures to portray soaring violence and lawlessness. Here's an assessment of some of their claims. What Was Said 'Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever. They say 25 years, but they don't know what that means because it just goes back 25 years.'— Mr. Trump in the news conference on Monday False. There were 274 homicides in Washington in 2023 for a population of about 679,000 people, a rate of about 40.4. That was the highest rate in over 20 years, but not 'ever.' Moreover, the homicide rate has since declined. The number of murders declined by more than half in 2024 to 187 while the population grew to over 702,000 people, for a rate of 26.6 per 100,000. The recent trend of declining homicides appears to be holding, with 100 homicides as of Aug. 12, compared with 112 at the same point last year. The 274 homicides in 2023 was the highest number since 1997, when the city reported 301 homicides, according to police data compiled by the F.B.I. And the rate was the highest since 2003, which had a rate of 44 per 100,000, according to an analysis by Jeff Asher, a crime analyst based in New Orleans. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
