After a political rally in Punjab’s city of Kasur on July 12, where the chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman made controversial remarks about military personnel, a video clip began circulating online purportedly showing Fazl’s son saying his father’s mental state was unstable and urging people not to take his statements seriously.
The claim is false. Fazl’s son made no such statement about his father.
Claim
On July 16, a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a 40-second video clip of Asad Mahmood, the son of Fazl, purportedly addressing a press conference.
In the video, Mahmood can be heard apologising for his father’s remarks, while the post’s caption claims he said: “My father’s mental health is not stable; he wanted to become the President of Pakistan, whereas the reality is that he couldn’t even save his own constituency.”
At the time of writing, the video had been viewed 22,500 times, liked 153 times and reshared 87 times.
Identical claims have also been shared here, hereand here.
Fact
Mahmood did not make any such statement about his father’s mental health. The audio in the viral video was generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
A reverse image search conducted by Geo Fact Check found that the viral clip was taken from a media talk delivered by Mahmood in Sahiwal, Punjab, on November 30, 2024.
The viral clip can be seen at the 2:10 timestamp in a video posted on the official X account of JUI-F.
In the original clip, Mahmood discusses Pakistan’s 2024 general elections and allegations of electoral rigging. The footage therefore predates Fazl’s recent remarks and makes no mention of his health.
Additionally, the audio from the viral clip was analysed using Hiya, a deepfake voice detection tool, which assigned it an authenticity score of 2 out of 100, indicating that it is highly likely to have been AI-generated.
Verdict: The audio in the viral video is AI-generated. Mahmood did not apologise on behalf of his father, describe Fazl as mentally unstable, or urge people not to take his statements seriously.
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2026-07-28 19:42:00
