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As Imran Khan languishes in a Pakistani prison, the former prime minister’s embattled party is using artificial intelligence and TikTok to mobilize its millions of fervent supporters ahead of next week’s general elections. They are turning to unconventional methods such as public gatherings.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party uses AI voice generation to deliver speeches from notes given to lawyers. PTI is hosting digital rallies on TikTok, and Khan’s Facebook page has a chatbot providing information about local candidates for the February 8 polls. And his supporters are using Khan’s prison ID, prisoner number 804, as a rallying cry to protest the military’s censorship of posters featuring him.
“If you all come out in droves, there’s no way we can lose,” the 71-year-old former cricketer, who was sentenced to 10 and 14 years in prison in separate courts this week, said in a recent speech. He assured his supporters. Delivered via AI. “Fear no one.”
AI’s speech is part of an anti-government campaign by the PTI, which was favorite to win the election until it was devastated by arrests, media blackouts and restrictions on public gatherings amid a rift with Pakistan’s powerful military.
Mr Khan’s supporters say the future of democracy in the 240 million nuclear-armed nation is at stake as he fights against the political and military regime that has ruled Pakistan for years.
“Imran’s voice and Imran’s image in general have been the biggest mobilizing force for the PTI,” said Azeema Cheema, director of Verso Consulting, an Islamabad-based research group. “They are using every tool possible to replicate [it] in public. ”
“Mr Imran remains very, very popular” and many people “are ready to vote”, she added.
Nevertheless, the PTI and Mr. Khan are unlikely to be eligible to run due to separate convictions in corruption cases last year.
Khan denies all the allegations and claims they are an excuse to stop running for office. Zulfikar Bukhari, a senior PTI official, said the conviction was “just done to dent the hopes of the people before the elections”. “This will only encourage people to come to the polls on February 8th and vote more, because those who are sitting on the fence are going to have even more resentment. ”
In taking control of the 336-seat lower house, the PTI will face off against political veterans believed to be running with military support.
They include Nawaz Sharif, a veteran former prime minister who returned from exile last year after being found guilty of corruption in 2018, but said the deal was described by analysts as a “backroom deal”. In that case, the Supreme Court removed the legal impediment to his candidacy.
Murtaza Solangi, information minister in Pakistan’s current caretaker government, dismissed allegations that he was stopping the PTI’s mobilization as “propaganda”. “There is no truth to these charges,” he said, insisting that police “acted in accordance with the law.”
PTI, founded in 1996 by World Cup-winning cricketer Khan, won the most seats in the 2018 elections with tacit support from the military, which controls many political decisions from behind the scenes. did.
But relations soured during Khan’s tenure, and he was removed from office in a no-confidence vote in 2022. He has continued to fiercely criticize the military, even blaming intelligence officials for an assassination attempt that year.
Tensions culminated in the middle of last year with mass arrests of PTI supporters and leaders, many of whom subsequently defected from the party under pressure.
Since then, the PTI has been largely denied formal permission to hold campaign events, and police arrested dozens of Mr. Khan’s supporters at an election rally in Karachi last week. In December, the Election Commission blocked PTI from using the well-known election symbol of a cricket bat. The symbol is a vital tool in a country where many illiterate voters rely on such symbols to identify candidates on their ballots.
Unable to carry out traditional campaigns, PTI is relying on novel tactics. “We have never held a political rally, whether physical or virtual, without Imran Khan,” said Jibran Ilyas, a US-based volunteer who heads PTI’s social media strategy. Told. “All innovation is a necessity.”
The party broadcast Khan’s first AI speech in December, using voice generation tools from US-based startup Eleven Labs to recreate his signature baritone. It also held its first TikTok rally last month and will release its election manifesto online this week.
“Our campaign is currently continuing only on social media. But what surprised us is that so many people are following us,” said PTI senator Zarqa Suharwardi. Taimur said. “That’s where we have an advantage.”
But there are signs that the party is struggling to maintain unity without Mr. Khan’s physical presence. Multiple candidates in many constituencies have claimed the former prime minister’s representation, which political analysts said risks polarizing the PTI vote.
But Sher Khan, a 30-year-old rickshaw driver who had a poster with prisoner number 804 on the back of his car, said there was little question where residents’ loyalties lay. “The government is trying to prevent Imran Khan from being elected,” he said. “There is an atmosphere of support for PTI on the streets.”
