Azma Bokhari opens up about deepfake video controversy

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has said deepfake videos are being used to malign women in Pakistan.

Deepfakes — which manipulate genuine audio, photos or video of people into false likenesses — are becoming increasingly convincing and easier to make as artificial intelligence (AI) enters the mainstream.

Bokhari, who is haunted by an objectionable deepfake video published to discredit her role as one of the nation’s few female leaders in an interview with AFP voiced the importance of the matter.

“I was shattered when it came into my knowledge,” said 48-year-old Bokhari and added it was very difficult and she was depressed.

“My daughter, she hugged me and said: ‘Mama, you have to fight it out’.”

“When I go to the court, I have to remind people again and again that I have a fake video,” she said and urged for awareness about the deepfake videos in Pakistan.

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said the judiciary and the system of police need to be modernised to counter such issues as deepfake videos are frequently used to discredit women in Pakistan, she claimed.

Earlier, Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that the government would catch each and every culprit behind Azma Bokhari leaked deepfake video.

Addressing a press conference alongside the Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Romina Khurshid Alam, Shaista Pervaiz Malik, and other Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) women leaders, she said that the original video and related information had been obtained.

She expressed gratitude to social media platforms for removing the video and assured that the government would pursue the case with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) effectively and forcefully. She said that every person involved in this crime would be traced and given exemplary punishment.