Fact-check: AI-generated clip spreads false claim about PTI leadership succession

Following a sit-in by the sisters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan outside Adiala Jail on the night of January 6, a video began circulating on social media purportedly showing Aleema Khanum telling reporters that her nephew, Hassaan Niazi, would succeed Imran Khan as the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The claim is false. Aleema Khanum made no such statement.

Claim

On January 7, a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a video clip lasting over one minute, showing Aleema Khanum speaking to the media outside Adiala Jail on January 6.

The post was captioned: “Imran Khan’s successor will only be a member of Imran Khan’s family. Aleema Khanum did very well to openly state this in front of everyone. Hassaan Niazi will be the one to run the party. Not Marwat nor Afridi will have a role.”

In the accompanying video, Aleema Khanum can be heard saying: “Why would we give poison to our brother? The party is going to come to us anyway after he is gone. Hassaan Niazi will be the next chairman. We will be the ones to lead this party.”

At the time of writing, the post had been viewed over 30,000 times, reposted 147 times and liked 201 times.

Fact

Aleema Khanum did not make any remarks about the future leadership of PTI. Independent verification confirms that her voice in the viral clip was manipulated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to insert words she never spoke.

Geo Fact Check reviewed Aleema Khanum’s original media talk from January 6, published on PTI’s official YouTube channel, recorded outside Adiala Jail.

During the interaction with reporters, Aleema Khanum was asked about the facilities and food being provided to Imran Khan in jail. In response, she explained that the family does not provide food from home, as meals are prepared by a designated jail cook. She added that this was done to prevent any blame being placed on the family should Khan’s health deteriorate.

At no point in the interview did she mention Hassaan Niazi, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence, or discuss party succession.

Her actual statement can be heard at the 5:50 timestamp in the following video:

Geo Fact Check also analysed the viral clip using the University at Buffalo’s DeepFake-o-Meter, which returned a fake probability score of 100%, indicating the video was highly likely to be AI-generated.

Further, visual analysis shows that Aleema Khanum’s lip movements and facial expressions do not consistently align with the audio, which is another strong indicator that the video was manipulated.

Verdict: The viral clip was manipulated using AI tools. Aleema Khanum did not make any statement regarding PTI’s leadership or name Hassaan Niazi as Imran Khan’s successor.

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