The drama of audio and video leaks has been begun in the country’s politics for some time now, so political opponents are trying to humiliate each other by using these leaks.
Last day, three audios attributed to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief and former prime minister Imran Khan, whose career has always been surrounded by various controversies, were leaked.
In these three audio tapes, leaked on the same day within a few hours, Imran Khan is allegedly heard having an inappropriate conversation allegedly with Ayla Malik, while the the woman (allegedly Ayla Malik) can also be heard fully enjoying the dirty conversation.
Who is Ayla Malik?
Initially, the name of the female interlocutor included in these tapes was not disclosed, later it was claimed that the female interlocutor with Imran Khan in the audio tapes is Ayla Malik, a leader of PTI.
Ayla Malik belongs to Mianwali and she is the granddaughter of Nawab of Kalabagh Ameer Muhammad Khan, and the niece of late former President Sardar Farooq Khan Laghari. Being the central leader of PTI, she has also been very close to Imran Khan.
میں 2013 میں پی ٹی آئی اور @ImranKhanPTI کے انتخابی مہم کا حصہ رہی۔ جو لوگ ہمارے کرداروں پر انگلیاں اٹھا رہے ہیں ان کو شرم آنی چاہیے۔ میرا اب PTI سے سیاسی اختلاف ہے لیکن اس بات میں کوئی شک و شبہ نہیں کہ عمران خان نے ہمیشہ خواتین کی عزت کی
— Ayla Malik (@AylaMalikMNA) December 21, 2022
Opinions of opponents and supporters:
After the audio tapes surfaced, once again there is a debate about whether these tapes are real or fake. Opponents of Imran Khan are running a smear campaign against on the basis these tapes, while supporters of Imran Khan and PTI workers are calling the audios fake and part of a dirty smear campaign.
These discussions are taking place only on social media, while there has been no large-scale rhetoric from political leaders in this regard.
However, PTI leader and spokesperson of Punjab government, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, has taken a stand while speaking in this regard that whenever Imran Khan takes a difficult decision, audio and video leaks start surfacing to blackmail him.
Musarrat Jamshed Cheema said in a media talk with Fawad Chaudhry at Zaman Park Lahore that all this is done to blackmail the PTI leadership. He said that audio, video leaks are nothing but deepfake technology, this technology has been used the most in Pakistan.
Positive response of Maulana Fazlur Rehman:
Among the political opponents, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has reacted over the issue. However, he has strongly condemned the campaign of character assassination and the process of audio and video leaks. PTI circles have also apricated this positive attitude of Maulana.
What is reality?
If keep aside the statements and comments of Imran Khan’s supporters and opponents regarding the reality of the audio, in fact there are no findings and fact-checking report about the audios so far.
However, it cannot be ignored that the misuse of deepfake technology to smear the character of opponents has been a common practice in Pakistani politics for some time now.
PTI supporters were initially on the defensive position after the audio tapes came to light, but after a few hours, Imran Riaz Khan, a well-known pro-PTI anchor person, termed these tapes fake in one of his programs and tried to explain how one’s voice can be changed using some apps.
Whether these audio tapes are real or fake, it is not clear yet, however, after this video of Imran Riaz Khan, PTI supporters have come out of the pressure they faced after these tapes went viral.
