A video of an actor impersonating Imran Khan is being misrepresented online as a real clip of Pakistan’s former leader – who has been in prison since May 2023 – visiting farmers in a wheat field during his term in office. Critics of the ruling coalition government shared the video with the false claim after changes in wheat procurement policies sparked protests in the central province of Punjab.
“There was a time when the prime minister of the country himself would inspect the farmers’ crops and the farmers would get the fruits of their labor.”, read an Urdu-language post on Facebook on May 4, 2024.
The 24-second clip – viewed more than 5,000 times – shows a man resembling Khan walking through wheat fields.
The video was also shared alongside a similar false claim on Facebook and social media site.
The reports emerged following protests by farmers in Punjab – the South Asian country’s most populous province – after the government reduced the quantities of wheat it bought locally.
They were shared by supporters of Khan’s political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf who turned out portray him as an advocate of the farmers’ interests.
“There was also a time when the Prime Minister himself went to the farmers and visited the wheat,” one social media wrote in response to a post.
“Mashallah, my God, keep him under his protection,” said another.
Khan’s party has been the target of a sweeping crackdown since nationwide protests erupted over his arrest on May 9, 2023, with unprecedented anger directed at the military.
Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were both convicted of corruption and violating Islamic marriage laws ahead of February’s general election, which brought military-backed parties to power.
Khan – who was also jailed for leaking state secrets – has said the cases were intended to prevent him from contesting.
Khan impersonator
A reverse image search on Google using a keyframe from the video, followed by keyword searches, found the same clip posted to TikTok on May 2 (archived link).
It was shared by “@naeemullah74ik” – an account owned by professional Imran Khan impersonator Naeemullah (archived link).
Naeemullah has been impersonating Khan since 2012 and regularly posts similar videos imitating Khan on his TikTok profile (archived link).
On April 28, he posted a similar video of himself dressed as Khan – this time walking in a rock-covered lawn, as seen in the screenshot below:
Naeemullah told AFP that the circulating video was filmed in the village of Adina in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“I appreciate that people believed the video was actually of Imran Khan,” he told AFP.
He also shared with AFP a screenshot of analysis of the video from his TikTok profile, as shown in the screenshot below:
