Multiple Facebook posts have shared a photo which claims to show Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry half naked and morbidly obese. The claim is false, the photo has been doctored from an original image of an overweight Irish man with Chaudhry’s face superimposed on top.
The image has been posted by multiple Facebook accounts, for example on a Facebook page, where it has received more than 12,000 shares since it was posted December 15.
It contains a photo purportedly showing Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry looking morbidly obese and wearing only a pair of red shorts.
The caption says in Urdu: “First he ate the money of Musharraf, then (Pakistan) People’s Party and now he is eating the money of PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf). He is making people fools by raising fake slogans about corruption. This fat gang.”
Chaudhry has worked for president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan People’s Party and most recently the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
He has been the country’s information minister since August.
A reverse image search on Google found the original photo which shows a morbidly obese Irish man Ritchie Doyle.
The image has been flipped, a tattoo has been removed from one arm and Chaudhry’s head has been superimposed on top of Doyle’s.
Here are both images side by side:
The similar images of Doyle have appeared in multiple online reports, for example in the Irish Independent and in the Daily Mail.
According to a report, Doyle passed away in July 2016.
