Recently, Aleema Khanum appeared on Sky News to talk about her imprisoned brother and former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Shortly after the interview aired, a clip began circulating in which a netizen accused Khanum of calling him an “asset of the West” who also wants to “befriend” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling party.
The statement is false. Khanum made no such comments.
Claim
A user on X (formerly Twitter) posted a one-minute clip of Aleema Khanum from her interview with Sky News on December 2. The video was captioned: “Now this is insane! What is Aleema Khanum sabhiba doing? She is talking like she is a BJP leader!”
In the alleged footage, Yalda Hakim, the interviewer, asks Khanum why Pakistan went to war with India in May. Khan’s sister can then be heard criticizing the army and responding: “Imran Khan is a pure liberal. So, whenever Imran Khan comes to power, you will see that he always tries to make friends with India and even the BJP… I keep saying that Imran Khan is an asset and the West must step up its efforts to free Imran.”
At the time of writing, the post has been viewed over 18,500 times, reposted 148 times, and liked 343 times.
Similar claims had also been shared here and here.
Do
Aleema Khanum did not make such remarks about Imran Khan in the News from the sky interview. Independent verification confirms that the clip circulating online was created using artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
Geography Fact Check reviewed the entire interview available on the official website News from the sky YouTube channel, broadcast on December 2, as well as the live broadcast of that day.
The host, Yalda Hakim, also doesn’t ask the question about India, and Aleema Khanum also doesn’t give the answer shown in the viral clip.
The full interview can be viewed here:
Separately, Hiya, a deepfake voice detector, gave the audio an authenticity score of 1 out of 100, meaning it is deepfake audio.
Geography Fact Check also contacted journalist Yalda Hakim, who confirmed via messages that Khanum had not made such remarks.
“She absolutely did not make these statements,” Hakim wrote.
It should also be noted that in the clip online, Hakim’s voice has been slowed down, which is another indicator that the clip was manipulated.
Verdict: The viral video is manipulated. Aleema Khanum did not describe Imran Khan as “an asset of the West”, nor did she say he wanted to “befriend the BJP”. The statements circulating online were created using AI-generated audio and do not appear anywhere on its site. News from the sky interview.
