LAHORE: In a pre-emptive move to counter the impact of ‘indecent’ video clips allegedly prepared by his opponents to stop his “revolution”, former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday claimed the ruling coalition was allegedly making ‘deep fake’ videos to malign him and his party Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

“All of the thieves have joined hands to defame me and my party… they are making [my] dirty videos [through the use of] deep fake technology,” Imran Khan said in Nankana Sahib during a political gathering.

“The videos will be shown to the public… but they will fail to achieve the objective,” he said, adding that the government could stoop to every low but it would not be able to stop his long march.

Mr Khan also shared some ‘deep fake’ audio clips of the Sharif family with the audience. In one clip, Nawaz Sharif was speaking against himself, while in another Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was speaking ill of his brother, whereas in the third clip, Maryam Nawaz was praising Imran Khan. “Just for fun – 100 per cent fake” was written on these clips while they were being played by Imran Khan to prove his point about the deepfake technology.

The PTI chief also referred to the recent audio clips leaked to the social and mainstream media and said that he will go to court for an inquiry into the audio leaks.

The former premier said that he wanted to find out which spy agency was responsible for tapping the secure phone line of the prime minister’s official office and added that “surveillance of the premier was fine” but leaking these clips was criminal.

Referring to the money laundering case registered against him and some other PTI leaders by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), he said that the ruling coalition was treating him like a hostile element by registering cases against him and his aides.

About the cipher, the PTI chairman said that he wanted to thank the incumbent government for bringing the cipher into the limelight. He, however, added that the commission to investigate the issue should include “credible judges” as those who were “part of the foreign conspiracy are not competent to make the commission” over the issue.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2022