Jailed Imran Khan uses AI to claim victory in Pak elections; calls Sharif a 'stupid' person

Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan in an AI-generated audio-video message on Saturday claimed victory in the general elections and termed his arch-rival Nawaz Sharif a "stupid" person. Khan's message was uploaded on the official X account of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

In the video, he congratulated the people on the election results and said he had trust in them. He said his belief was firm that people would come out to vote and praised his followers for keeping up his trust to vote in a big turnout.

"By turning out in such huge numbers and exercising your democratic right of franchise, you have laid the foundation for the restoration of the freedom to exercise citizens' rights," Khan, 71, said.

This is not the first time Khan's party has used AI technology to reach out to his supporters. 

During the campaigning period, they used AI to convey Khan's message to the people.“Now we are winning 170 seats as per Form 45,” he claimed referring to the form showing results of individual polling stations. He criticised his arch-rival Nawaz Sharif for making a victory speech despite having 30 seats less than PTI.

"Nawaz Sharif is a stupid person who gave a victory speech despite his party trailing by 30 seats,” the cricketer-turned-former prime minister can be heard saying in the video.

He said no one would accept it and the international media was writing about it.

On Friday, Sharif urged all political parties to join hands to form a unity government since no party received enough seats in the National Assembly to form a stable government.

Khan said that the people of Pakistan made history and he was proud of it. He also urged the people not to worry at all, to celebrate the victory and be grateful.

"Even after two years of massive oppression and injustice, we have won the 2024 election with full force,” he said.

The speech came as PTI-backed independence candidates won the most number of seats in the National Assembly as per the result's announcement by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

According to the latest data from the Election Commission of Pakistan, the counting of 250 seats has been completed. Independent candidates, a vast majority of them backed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, were at the top with 99 seats. Central Information Secretary Raoof Hasan said the PTI had already started the consultation process on its future course of action. 

However, he added, physical meetings have not been possible since most elected candidates are either in jail or underground, reported the Dawn newspaper.

“We will soon conduct intra-party elections, after which the party will again approach the court to regain its symbol (bat),” Hasan told the Dawn newspaper.

Although he did not specify when the intra-party elections would be conducted, he did say “they will be held soon”. It may be recalled that Khan had recently announced that the party would hold its intra-party polls after February 8.

At a press conference earlier, Hasan credited the people for a massive and unprecedented turnout to vote for PTI-backed candidates despite all odds. He warned that any attempt to derail the people's decision would have “deadly consequences”, adding that power-wielders must learn to respect the people's choice.

He said PTI had emerged as a leading political force in the Centre, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, but efforts were underway to manipulate the results in the Centre and Punjab to establish governments of their choice.“We will exercise all legal and constitutional rights to frustrate all bids to tamper with the election results.” 

Hasan said the PTI founder would never strike a deal with the powers that be until the ascendency of democracy is established and accepted in a true sense. He added that PTI would use legal and constitutional means to block the undue “interference of non-political forces” in political affairs.

The PTI leader also demanded the constitution of an empowered commission to probe the fraud in the election, reported Dawn.