Claim: PTI lawyer Advocate Naeem Haider Panjutha called for a boycott of the 2024 general elections in a newly-issued video statement.
Fact: The audio of the clip is seemingly altered, with remarks that Panjutha did not make. In the original video, which was posted on 31 December 2023 and is over five minutes long, he does not make any comments on a boycott of the 2024 general elections.
On 7 February 2024, X (formerly Twitter) account @NaeemPanjutaa posted (archive) a video in which Advocate Naeem Haider Panjutha, one of the lawyers (archive) of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, can be heard making the following comments:
“بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم۔ عدلیہ نے جو فیصلہ سنایا ہے، وہ آپ سب کے سامنے ہے۔
[In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The decision that the judiciary has announced is in front of you all.]”
“لہٰذا ہم نے خان صاحب کے ساتھ ڈسکس کیا اور ہم اس الیکشن 2024 کا بائیکاٹ کر رہے ہیں۔
[Therefore, we discussed with Mr. [Imran] Khan and we are boycotting this election 2024.]”
“ہم سب خان صاحب کے ساتھ کھڑے ہیں اور آپ سب سے بھی امید کرتے ہیں کہ آپ 8 فروری کو اس حقیقی آزادی کے لیئے ہمارا ساتھ دیں گے۔
[We all stand with Mr. [Imran] Khan and we hope that you will support us [in our struggle] for this true freedom on February 8.]”
The caption accompanying the video posted by @NaeemPanjutaa is as follows:
“عمران خان کا فیصلہ
[Decision of Imran Khan]”
Though associated with the PTI, Panjutha contested elections for two Punjab Assembly seats and one National Assembly seat as an independent candidate; these were the Sargodha I (PP-71) and Sargodha X (PP-80) constituencies, as well as the Sargodha I (NA-82) constituency, for which he was assigned the electoral symbols of a “bowl,” “laptop,” and “hukkah,” respectively.
Related: PTI’s Sher Azfal Marwat did not call for 2024 election boycott; video is a deepfake!
The different symbols were allotted after the PTI’s electoral symbol, the cricket bat, symbolising Khan’s past as a cricketer, became a bone of contention ahead of the general elections and was taken away (archive) through a Supreme Court ruling on 13 January.
Amid the 2024 general elections in Pakistan, which took place on 8 February, Soch Fact Check observed an influx of false and misleading claims that may impact public opinion and voter behaviour.
2024 elections
The general elections in Pakistan were marred by allegations of rigging as results were declared (archive) “more than 60 hours after voting ended”, with PTI-backed independent candidates taking the lead over those who contested on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) ticket.
Read more: Video of PTI’s Basharat Raja boycotting elections is a deepfake
Despite being jailed (archive) for a total of 31 years for corruption, leaking state secrets, and an unIslamic marriage, former prime minister Imran Khan declared victory in a speech generated by artificial intelligence (AI), with 93 of the 264 seats secured by his independent candidates, according to the Reuters article cited above. The party of his main opponent, PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif, got 75 seats, with the former premier, too, claiming he won.
Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was able to secure 54 seats, while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) bagged 17 seats.
The PTI cried foul (archive) as the results of 18 seats “allegedly won by the party were ‘falsely changed’” and called upon its supporters to protest wherever they are in the world.
Also read: Nawaz Sharif’s video boycotting the elections is old
The pre-poll political landscape in Pakistan was characterised by distinct circumstances for Khan and Sharif amid the shadow of alleged military interference. The former, incarcerated since 5 August 2023, was consequently disqualified from contesting elections, whereas the latter was “once targeted by Pakistan’s military establishment” but “appeared to have won the favour of the generals for the 2024 vote”, according to an Al Jazeera report (archive).
Sharif returned (archive) to Pakistan in October 2023 after staying in London for years. He had left for the UK in 2019 on medical grounds (archive) after being handed a seven-year jail sentence over corruption charges (archive). Six years later, however, he was cleared (archive) of all charges and a lifetime ban on convicted politicians for running for office was ruled unconstitutional.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first noticed that the audio is completely out of sync and does not match what Panjutha’s lips appear to be uttering.
We also observed that the handle of the PTI lawyer’s official X account is @NaeemPanjuthaa, and not @NaeemPanjutaa, which posted the video in question. The former account has over 266,900 followers, whereas the latter has two.
Related: Yasmin Rashid’s video announcing PTI’s boycott of 2024 elections is AI-generated
When Soch Fact Check used reverse image search tools, we found that the original video was posted on 30 December 2023 on multiple platforms by Panjutha (archive), the PTI (archive), and Intazar Hussain Panjutha (archive), who is another one of the party’s lawyers.
The caption accompanying the original video is as follows:
“میرے کاغذات نامزدگی کیوں مسترد ہوۓ ؟ کیا میں اشتہاری مجرم بگھوڑا ہوں ؟ اس کے پیچھے کون تھا ؟ میں اس کو چیلنج کرنے جا رہا ہوں.تفصیلات سنئیے!
[Why were my nomination papers rejected? Am I an absconding, wanted criminal? Who was behind this [decision]? I’m going to challenge this. Listen to the details!]”
On 31 December 2023, Panjutha made another post (archive) on X, writing, “Our nomination papers have been declined, yet we have not received any official order to substantiate this decision. It is a legal imperative to furnish the order at the time of announcement, but it seems like following this rule or law in general isn’t a priority.”
Panjutha’s nomination papers for the Sargodha X (PP-80) constituency were submitted (archive) on 24 December 2023 and rejected (archive) on 30 December 2023. His nomination papers for the Sargodha I (NA-82) constituency were rejected (archive) on the same date.
Also read: PTI is not boycotting 2024 general election
Soch Fact Check concludes that the video is doctored or could be a deepfake. According to Poynter, a deepfake is “a machine-generated image or video that changes faces, bodies or voices, making people appear to do and say things that they never did or said. Items can also be added to a video to distort the truth”.
Virality
The video posted by @NaeemPanjutaa gained close to 200 views. The clip was also shared on Facebook here.
Conclusion: The audio of the clip in question has been altered as we can hear Naeem Panjutha making remarks that he did not originally make. The original video, posted on 31 December 2023, which is over five minutes long, does not show Panjutha announcing a boycott of the 2024 general elections. Soch Fact Check concludes that the video is doctored or could be a deepfake.
Background image in cover photo: PTIOfficial
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