Forged dining card shared in posts targeting Pakistan ex-PM's sons

Published on August 8, 2025 at 10:26
4 min read
By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan

A forged menu saying a prominent Washington clubhouse does not offer halal food proliferated in social media posts from Muslim-majority Pakistan after the sons of jailed former leader Imran Khan made a recent visit. A side-by-side comparison between the circulated document and genuine dining cards on the club's website showed several inconsistencies.

"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.

Screenshot of an X post taken on July 31, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

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).

Comparison of the club's logo on the circulated document (left) with the real logo as seen on Capitol Hill Club's website and menus online

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.

A comparison between the fabricated document (left) and the banquet lunch menu on the official website (right), with the highlighted portion on the right document done by AFP. The red X on the fabricated document was also done by AFP. Both screen captures were taken on August 7, 2025.

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.

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