Imran Khan’s party said on Tuesday that a recent piece in a British magazine that was credited to him was actually written by the imprisoned former prime leader of Pakistan, not by artificial intelligence.
The article, titled “Imran Khan warns that Pakistan elections could be a farce,” appeared in The Economist on Thursday and cast severe doubt on the validity of the votes that are set on February 8 in Pakistan.
The founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Khan, is being tried in several other cases and is currently detained at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. He was found guilty in the Toshakhana corruption case.
The 71-year-old former prime minister reaffirmed his “engineered” ouster from office in 2022 by the establishment “under pressure from America” and the lack of “level playing field” in the elections in the article, which attracted harsh criticism from the caretaker administration.
The Dawn daily reported that some onlookers questioned whether the PTI founder had written the article himself. Additionally, it was alleged that the politician who had previously been a cricket player claimed artificial intelligence had written the essay for him, dictating the arguments.
On X, his party wrote, “The said piece has been authored by the PTI Chairman-for-life, Imran Khan, vindictively incarcerated at Central Jail, Rawalpindi. In no way, this has been compiled through the use of artificial means, including artificial intelligence.”
“It is clarified that the news/reports carried by local media on the contents and mode of publication of an article by the PTI Chairman-for-life in a foreign publication The Economist does not reflect the actual state of facts regarding the matter,” a statement by the media added.
In a Monday interview with reporters at the high-security Adiala Jail, the PTI founder also addressed the doubts and claimed to have “verbally dictated” the piece.
Concerning an essay ascribed to Khan when he was detained, the administration would be writing to the editor of the British journal The Economist, according to Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi on Friday.
“We believe it is critically essential to uphold ethical standards and promote responsible journalism,” the paper quoted Solangi, ex-journalist.
“We would like to know how the editorial decision was made and what considerations were taken into account regarding the legitimacy and credibility of the content by The Economist,” he averred.
“We would also be interested to know if The Economist has ever published such ghost articles by jailed politicians ever from any other part of the world. If jailed convicts were free to write to the media, they would always use the opportunity to air their one-sided grievances,” the minister added.
