How Imran Khan is campaigning from jail in Pakistan: AI and covert canvassing

How Imran Khan is campaigning from jail in Pakistan: AI and covert canvassing
A man views a computer screen displaying the AI-crafted speech of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, to call for votes ahead of the general elections in Karachi, Pakistan February 2, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 05 February 2024
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How Imran Khan is campaigning from jail in Pakistan: AI and covert canvassing

How Imran Khan is campaigning from jail in Pakistan: AI and covert canvassing
  • Khan has been in prison since August and numerous members of his party are behind bars or on the run from criminal, terrorism charges
  • His party is deploying two-pronged strategy of secretive campaigning, often led by female teacher volunteers and generative AI technology

LAHORE/KARACHI: Days before Pakistan’s Feb. 8 election, a masked and headscarf-clad Komal Asghar led a team of similarly dressed women through alleys in the eastern city of Lahore.
Their mission: to knock on doors and distribute campaign pamphlets adorned with photos of jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan.
Asghar, a 25-year-old insurance company employee, gave up her day job for a month to canvass for Khan’s embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Khan has been in prison since August. Numerous PTI candidates are behind bars or on the run from criminal and terrorism charges that they say are politically motivated. A Reuters reporter witnessed one of the many rallies that PTI supporters say have been disrupted.
“I’m with Khan. I don’t care about my life. My God is with me,” said Asghar, adding the former premier’s opponents can “do whatever.”
Asghar said the face and hair coverings — which not all the women usually wore — made it easier for them to canvass without attracting unwanted attention. The public perceives women as non-threatening, she said, making it less likely their campaigning would lead to conflict.
The PTI is deploying a two-pronged campaign strategy of secretive campaigning, often led by female teacher volunteers, and generative AI technology, according to interviews with fifteen of its candidates and supporters, as well as political analysts and IT experts.
The party has used generative AI to create footage of Khan, its founder, reading speeches he conveyed to lawyers from his prison cell, urging supporters to turn out on election day. It has organized online rallies on social media that have been watched by several hundred thousand people at a time, according to YouTube data. Khan, who was barred by a court from holding political office last year, is not the first Pakistani leader to be imprisoned during a campaign. But PTI’s ability to tap into new technology and the former cricketer’s personal popularity have kept him in the headlines.
ONE-MAN SHOW?
Khan was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on Jan. 30 for leaking state secrets. He then received a 14-year sentence on Wednesday for illegally selling state gifts. And on Saturday, he was sentenced to seven years for unlawful marriage. He denies all charges and his lawyers say they plan to appeal. The 71-year-old won the last election, in 2018, but was ousted in 2022 after falling out with the country’s powerful military, which PTI has accused of trying to hound it out of existence.
The military denies the allegations and interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi told Reuters that PTI was only stopped from campaigning when it did not have the required permits or if supporters clashed with law enforcement.
Usman Anwar, police chief of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, said his force’s job was to provide security: “We have not and will not interfere in any political process.”
Rights groups and rival politicians have accused Khan of undermining democratic norms when in power by cracking down on media and persecuting his opponents through the same anti-graft tribunal that sentenced him on Wednesday.
PTI and Khan have called the allegations baseless.




Supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan wave flags during a rally ahead of the general elections in Lahore, Pakistan January 28, 2024. (REUTERS)

No reliable polling is publicly available but PTI’s workers and independent analysts such as Madiha Afzal of the US-based Brookings Institution think-tank say Khan maintains strong support, especially among the nation’s large youth population. Nonetheless, restrictions are likely to limit PTI’s ability to compete with rivals such as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by the frontrunner, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said Afzal. Sharif returned from exile late last year and his corruption convictions and lifetime ban from politics were recently overturned by the Supreme Court.
A PML-N spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
“The major structural barriers to the PTI in this election ... make it likely that the party will lose despite its popularity,” said Afzal, adding that Khan’s dedicated supporters meant it was too early to write off the party entirely.
PTI has not said who it will put forward as prime minister if it is victorious on Feb. 8.
VIRTUAL CAMPAIGN
The restrictions on the party have forced it to prioritize digital campaigning, said PTI’s US-based social media lead Jibran Ilyas, who like the party’s other digital leaders is based abroad. Though only about half of Pakistan’s 240 million people have smartphones and Internet connectivity is patchy, PTI hopes that it can reach enough young people to impact the election. The voting age is 18 and more than two-thirds of the electorate is under 45.
Central to this strategy is reminding people who may have voted for PTI due to its famous founder that it is still Khan’s party.
“We have never had a political rally without Imran Khan so when we were planning the online rally, we wanted to find a way to present him to the people,” Ilyas said.
His team used generative AI software from US startup ElevenLabs to create three clips of the former premier delivering speeches. Khan’s lawyers passed messages between PTI and its founder during jailhouse visits and the party wrote the speeches off his notes.
“We debated the misuse potential and decided to stick with audio AI only,” Ilyas said.




Women supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan hold flags during a rally ahead of the general elections in Lahore, Pakistan January 28, 2024. (REUTERS)

ElevenLabs didn’t immediately return a request for comment. PTI also created an app that allows Facebook and WhatsApp users to find the party’s candidate in their constituency. Many voters had identified PTI with its cricket bat electoral symbol but the electoral commission recently banned PTI from using it on the technical grounds that it did not hold an internal leadership election. The decision means the PTI candidates are running without official party affiliation.
The PTI has also held online rallies in an attempt to recreate jalsas, the massive Urdu-language rallies that take place in parks and major intersections nationwide.
But voters have had trouble accessing the rallies. Since Khan’s first arrest in May, the Netblocks global Internet monitor found six disruptions of access to social media platforms including YouTube, X and Facebook at times when the PTI was holding virtual jalsas.
Information minister Solangi said the national disruptions were due to technical reasons unrelated to PTI’s campaign. Pakistan’s IT ministry and telecommunications authority did not return requests for comment.
POLICE PRESENCE
Despite PTI’s online reach, elections in Pakistan — whose voters live in teeming port cities, vast desert and some of the world’s highest mountains ranges — depend on election workers generating turnout.
Banners and posters for parties such as PML-N are a common sight nationwide, but Reuters reporters in Karachi and Lahore — cumulatively home to more than 30 million people — saw almost no PTI banners.
Lahore-based PTI organizer Naveed Gul said that posters were often taken down by authorities shortly after being put up, an accusation that Punjab police chief Anwar called “malicious.” Reuters could not independently verify that PTI party material was taken down.
The ongoing crackdown boiled over on Jan. 28, when PTI planned to hold nationwide rallies on a cool Sunday morning.
But in Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous city, police and Khan’s backers violently clashed. Law enforcement fired tear gas shells, according to television footage. A police spokesperson said 72 arrests were made in the three days after the clashes.
In Lahore, hundreds of PTI workers and supporters gathered at the home of Khan’s lead lawyer, Salman Akram Raja, who is also a PTI legislative candidate. As he emerged from his house, Reuters reporters saw him met by a large police contingent.
Raja said that he was threatened with detention if he did not cancel the planned rally, and Reuters reporters heard a police official telling him they had “orders from high ups.” Asked about the incident, police chief Anwar said he would hold an inquiry if a formal complaint was made.
After consulting with his aides, Raja told supporters to disperse peacefully. He told Reuters that it was important to be free from detention and able to campaign, even in a limited way, in the immediate run-up to the election.
“Each time we go out to campaign, there is fear hanging over our most candidates,” he said. “Everybody feels that each day of campaign ... is a war.”


Five injured in shooting at aid convoy en route to violence-hit Pakistani district

Five injured in shooting at aid convoy en route to violence-hit Pakistani district
Updated 34 min 51 sec ago
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Five injured in shooting at aid convoy en route to violence-hit Pakistani district

Five injured in shooting at aid convoy en route to violence-hit Pakistani district
  • More than 130 people have died in the remote district since Nov. 21 in clashes over land, sectarian disputes
  • The clashes have disconnected Kurram from the provincial capital, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages

ISLAMABAD: Five people, including a top administration official, were injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire on an aid convoy en route to a restive Pakistani district that has been hit by sectarian clashes in recent weeks, officials said on Saturday.
Kurram, a northwestern district of around 600,000 people in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been rocked by tribal and sectarian clashes since Nov. 21 when gunmen attacked a convoy of Shia passengers, killing 52.
The attack sparked further violence and blockade of a main road connecting Kurram’s main town of Parachinar with the provincial capital of Peshawar, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages in the area, as casualties surged to 136.
Saturday’s gun attack occurred near Bagan, a tense locality in the district’s center, as Deputy Commissioner (DC) Javedullah Mehsud and other officials led an aid convoy to Kurram, leaving the top officials and four security men injured.
“The deputy commissioner has been shifted from Alizai Hospital to Tal CMH [Combined Military Hospital],” said Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for the KP provincial government.
“The deputy commissioner’s surgery is ongoing, but his condition is out of danger.”
Kurram police spokesman Riaz Khan told Arab News the attack injured DC Mehsud, his police guard and three members of the Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary force.
“The deputy commissioner suffered gunshot injuries to his legs and shoulder,” the police official said.
Mehsud was leading the convoy of 17 trucks, which were carrying tents, blankets, medical kits, tarpaulins, solar lamps and sleeping bags.
“The convoy has been temporarily stopped,” Saif said. “The clearance process is ongoing, and the convoy will be sent to Kurram soon.”
Provincial authorities have previously air-dropped relief goods and airlifted ailing and injured people from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters.
Saturday’s gun attack comes days after a grand jirga, or council of political and tribal elders formed by the KP provincial government, brokered a peace agreement between the warring Shia and Sunni tribes, following weeks of efforts.
Under the peace agreement signed on Wednesday, both sides had agreed on the demolition of bunkers and the handover of heavy weapons to the authorities within two weeks, but the attack on the aid convoy has once again cast a cloud on peace in the restive district.
“The situation is under control and security is on high alert. The government will restore peace in the region at all costs,” Saif said, urging both Sunni and Shia sides to remain peaceful and not fall prey to the “conspiracy.”
According to the peace agreement, any party that launches an attack after the signing of the deal will be considered a “terrorist” and action will be taken against it. Another point of the agreement says that a fine of Rs10 million ($35,933) will be imposed on those who would violate the terms of the deal by using weapons against each other.
Land disputes in the volatile district will be settled on a priority basis with the cooperation of local tribes and the district administration, according to the peace agreement. Opening of banned outfits’ offices will be prohibited in the district, while social media accounts spreading hate will be discouraged via collective efforts backed by the government.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the shooting incident near Bagan.
“The incident is a deliberate and nefarious but unsuccessful attempt to sabotage peace efforts,” CM Gandapur was quoted as saying by his office.
“The provincial government, with the cooperation of the area elders, will continue its efforts until complete peace is restored in the area.”


Pakistan tops world chart in financial losses due to internet shutdowns in 2024 — monitor

Pakistan tops world chart in financial losses due to internet shutdowns in 2024 — monitor
Updated 04 January 2025
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Pakistan tops world chart in financial losses due to internet shutdowns in 2024 — monitor

Pakistan tops world chart in financial losses due to internet shutdowns in 2024 — monitor
  • Internet disruptions lasted 9,735 hours in Pakistan and impacted 82.9 million users last year
  • The South Asian country of more than 240 million people incurred a total of $1.62 billion losses

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan suffered highest financial losses in the world this past year due to Internet outages and shutdown of social media applications, a global Internet monitor said this week.
The South Asian country of more than 240 million people remained the single most affected nation in the world in 2024, incurring a total of $1.62 billion financial losses.
This was higher than the cost in civil war-ravaged countries like Sudan and Myanmar, according to a report released by Top10VPN.com, an independent VPN reviewer, on Jan. 2.
The monitor said Internet disruptions lasted 9,735 hours in Pakistan and impacted 82.9 million users, citing election and protests as major reasons behind these outages in the South Asian country.
“Asia was by far the most-affected region, thanks to the particularly impactful Internet restrictions in Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India,” it said. “These nations were four of the six most-affected countries in 2024.”
In Feb. 2024, Pakistan held its general election that was marred by a mobile Internet shutdown and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations that it was rigged and drawing concern from rights groups and foreign governments. Pakistani election authorities denied the allegations.
Opposition parties, mainly former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, held several protest rallies last year to demand an audit of the election results. Day later, social media website X went down in Pakistan, with the government saying the block was for “security reasons.”
Worldwide, according to Top10VPN.com, Internet shutdowns caused economic losses of $7.69 billion in 2024. These outages lasted 88,788 hours, a 12 percent increase from 2023 and highest to date, and affected 648.4 million people across the globe.
“This kind of deliberate outage is Internet censorship in its most extreme form,” the monitor said. “Not only do they infringe on citizens’ digital rights but they are also catastrophic acts of national economic self-sabotage.”
The calculations were made using the Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST), based on indicators from the World Bank and other global institutions.


Pakistan weekly inflation records slight decrease after rising for three consecutive weeks

Pakistan weekly inflation records slight decrease after rising for three consecutive weeks
Updated 04 January 2025
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Pakistan weekly inflation records slight decrease after rising for three consecutive weeks

Pakistan weekly inflation records slight decrease after rising for three consecutive weeks
  • Major decrease observed in prices of tomatoes, electricity, potatoes, eggs, liquefied petroleum gas and wheat flour
  • Pakistan’s annual consumer inflation eased further to 4.1 percent in Dec. 2024, according to the country’s statistics bureau

ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), has witnessed a slight decrease in Pakistan, the country’s statistics bureau said this week, after increasing for three weeks in a row.
The SPI, which comprises 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is computed on a weekly basis to assess the price movement of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time to review the price situation in the country.
The SPI for the week ending on Jan. 2 decreased 0.26 percent on a week-on-week basis, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Weekly inflation last decreased by 0.34 percent in Pakistan in the week ending on Dec. 5.
“During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 18 (35.29 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased and 23 (45.10 percent) items remained stable,” the PBS said in its report.
Major decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (13.48 percent), electricity charges for Q1 (7.48 percent), potatoes (5.59 percent), eggs (0.23 percent), garlic (0.21 percent), liquefied petroleum gas (0.18 percent) and wheat flour (0.09 percent).
The items whose prices increased during the week included chicken (10.28 percent), onions (4.93 percent), bananas (1.68 percent), diesel (1.18 percent), sugar (0.95 percent), jaggery (0.58 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 Kg (0.53 percent) and petrol (0.21 percent).
Pakistan’s annual consumer inflation eased further to 4.1 percent in Dec. 2024, according to the PBS. Consumer inflation cooled from 4.9 percent in November, a sharp drop from a multi-decade high of nearly 40 percent in May 2023.


Pakistan condemns Israel’s ‘deliberate’ targeting of Gaza hospitals, calls for accountability

Pakistan condemns Israel’s ‘deliberate’ targeting of Gaza hospitals, calls for accountability
Updated 04 January 2025
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Pakistan condemns Israel’s ‘deliberate’ targeting of Gaza hospitals, calls for accountability

Pakistan condemns Israel’s ‘deliberate’ targeting of Gaza hospitals, calls for accountability
  • The statement comes a week after Israeli forces burned Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, forcefully removing patients and staff
  • Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to migrate since Oct. 2023

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has condemned Israel’s “deliberate” targeting of hospitals, patients and wounded people in Gaza, and called for its accountability over attacks on health infrastructure and other crimes.
The statement came a week after Israeli forces burned Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza and forcefully removed patients and medical staff from the facility, hospital officials said.
In its campaign since Oct. 2023 attacks by Hamas, Israel’s military has targeted hospitals, schools and residential neighborhoods in Gaza, killing more than 45,000 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to migrate, according to Palestinian officials.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, Pakistan’s alternate permanent representative to the United Nations, called the destruction of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last operational major facility in northern Gaza, an “atrocity that shocks the conscience of humanity.”
 “The deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, patients and wounded defies every principle of [international] humanitarian law and has no justification whatsoever,” he told a UN Security Council session on the collapse of health services in besieged Gaza.
“Not just condemnation, there must be accountability for these crimes.”
Between Oct. 2023 and Jun. 2024, at least 136 strikes were carried out on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, according to the Pakistani diplomat. More than 500 health care workers lost their lives due to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
He said 22 of Gaza’s 38 hospitals were rendered non-functional by June 2024 that had left the health care system on “the verge of collapse,” calling for a “decisive action” for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to halt bloodshed and destruction in Gaza and lifting of the enclave’s inhumane blockade to ensure the flow of food, medical supplies and humanitarian aid for those in “desperate need.”
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters.”
The South Asian country has dispatched several relief consignments for Gaza, besides establishing the ‘Prime Minister’s Relief Fund’ that aims to collect public donations for the war-affected people.


Protesters block key Pakistan-China trade route over power outages in Gilgit-Baltistan

Protesters block key Pakistan-China trade route over power outages in Gilgit-Baltistan
Updated 04 January 2025
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Protesters block key Pakistan-China trade route over power outages in Gilgit-Baltistan

Protesters block key Pakistan-China trade route over power outages in Gilgit-Baltistan
  • Residents report facing 20-hour outages despite the construction of several power stations
  • Officials say the region relies on hydropower, which is disrupted in winter due to freezing rivers

KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: A key land route connecting Pakistan and China was blocked indefinitely by angry protesters in northern Gilgit-Baltistan on Friday, as hundreds of them staged sit-ins against prolonged power outages in the region.
The Karakoram Highway (KKH), a vital trade route between the two countries, was obstructed at Ali Abad, a significant point in the Hunza Valley. The area has witnessed a gradual increase in trade activity following an agreement between Pakistan and China to keep the Khunjerab Pass open year-round to facilitate economic exchanges.
Last month, Pakistan’s National Logistics Corporation conducted its first international cargo transportation via the border, moving goods from China to the United Arab Emirates.
“Hunza is experiencing severe power outages,” Zahoor Ilahi, a protest leader from the Awami Workers Party, told Arab News over the phone. “That’s why we have blocked the Karakoram Highway.”
“The highway has been blocked for all kinds of traffic at Ali Abad since afternoon, and we will not end the sit-in until our demands are met,” he added. “The government is not running the thermal station generators, and all parts of Hunza are facing over 20 hours of power crisis.”
Protests were also held in other parts of Hunza, including Sost and Gulmit, with shutter-down strikes observed against the prolonged power crisis.
“There has been no progress in the power sector for the last three to four years in Hunza,” Rehan Shah, a local resident of the area, told Arab News. “The speed of work on the power projects is very slow, and all residents want an uninterrupted supply of electricity.”
Shah said the protests were jointly organized by various political parties and trade associations in the region.
Meanwhile, protests were also observed in other parts of Gilgit-Baltistan, including Danyor in Gilgit city.
Speaking to Arab News, Advocate Ehsan Ali, president of the Awami Action Committee, said that most districts in the region were facing prolonged power cuts.
“The duration of the power crisis in Gilgit city is about 20 hours,” he said. “Skardu is facing 21 to 22 hours of power cuts, and Hunza is also experiencing the same. Similarly, districts like Ghizer and Chilas are also dealing with the worst kind of power outages.”
“Millions of rupees have been spent on power projects, but unfortunately, none are producing enough electricity,” he said. “In the 21st century, electricity is still unavailable here.”
Hamid Hussain, an engineer at the Gilgit-Baltistan Water and Power Department, acknowledged the issue but attributed it to technical reasons, saying the region heavily relied on hydropower, which often faced disruption in winter due to the freezing of rivers and lakes.
“There are 137 power stations in Gilgit-Baltistan,” he told Arab News. “The installed capacity of these power stations is 190 megawatts. However, power generation is 140 megawatts during the summer while 76 megawatts during the winter due to the low flow of water.”
“The residents of Hunza are demanding thermal generators,” he added. “But we can’t run them due to financial reasons. There are many thermal generators in Gilgit, but we can’t fulfill people’s demand due to the high fuel cost.”
Hussain said his department would run the thermal generators to reduce the power crisis if the government decided to release funds.