Claim: Journalist Iqrar ul Hasan claimed that Imran Khan, in a recent interview, did not deny that the recently leaked audio clips were legitimate, implying he confessed they were real.
Fact: The interview clip shared by Hasan was taken out of context. PTI spokespersons have formally denied the audio’s veracity in multiple forums on behalf of Imran Khan.
On 25 December 2022, journalist Iqrar ul Hasan tweeted a short clip from an hour-long interview with former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan. The interview with journalist Habib Akram was originally aired on Suno TV the day before, on 24 December 2022. In his tweet, Iqrar ul Hasan claimed some “are still trying to prove the leaked audio to be fake despite Khan Sahib’s confession”.
On 19 December, an audio clip of an alleged private phone call between Khan and an unidentified woman went viral on social media. The audio gained particular traction due to its sexual nature but the PTI asserts that it is doctored. In his tweet a few days later, Hassan implied that Khan, in the interview clip, admitted the leaked audio was real by not specifically denying its veracity.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found Hasan’s claim to be false.
Through a quick Google search, we found that PTI’s official media spokesperson had already formally denied the audio’s veracity in multiple forums on behalf of Khan before the interview.
On 21 December 2022, days before the 24 December 2022 interview with Habib Akram on Suno TV, Arsalan Khalid, PTI’s media spokesperson, told NDTV, “Political opponents of the PTI chairman can’t think beyond creating fake audios and videos,” denying the audio leak was legitimate.
Soch Fact Check also watched the rest of the interview for context that the author of the claim may have missed out. We found the clip shared by Hasan around the 25-minute mark.
In response to the journalist’s question about what measures Khan took during his government to prevent private data leaks, around the 26-minute mark, Khan stated, “such recordings are created using artificial intelligence,” and “there weren’t any doctored audio leaks during [his] tenure.”
Therefore, the interview clip shared by Hasan on Twitter was taken out of context. Khan’s media spokesperson had already denied the veracity of the audio leak. While Soch Fact Check cannot confirm or deny the authenticity of the audio clip, we can confirm that Imran Khan and his team have said it is doctored.
Virality
Iqrar ul Hasan’s tweet was shared with 6,826,939 followers on Twitter and gathered over 245,788 interactions and views.
Conclusion: Imran Khan did not accept that recently the leaked audio call allegedly between him and an unidentified woman is real.