Imran Khan impersonator's video passed off as jailed ex-leader 'inspecting crops'

"There was time when the country's Prime Minister would go himself to inspect the farmers' crops and the farmers would get the fruits of their labour," 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.

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A screenshot of the false Facebook post.

The video was also shared alongside a similar false claim on Facebook and social media site X.

The posts surfaced following protests by farmers in Punjab --  the South Asian country's most populous province -- after the government reduced the quantities of wheat it purchased locally.

They were shared by supporters of Khan's political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf who appeared to portray him as an advocate of farmer's interests.

"There was also a time when the Prime Minister himself used to go to the farmers and visit the wheat," wrote one social media in response to one post.

"Mashallah my God keep him under his protection," said another.

Khan's party has been targeted with a sweeping crackdown since nationwide protests erupted over his arrest on May 9, 2023 which saw unprecedented anger directed at the military.

Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were both convicted of corruption and breaking Islamic marriage laws in the lead-up to February's general election, which saw military-backed parties come to power.

Khan -- who was also jailed for leaking state secrets -- has said the cases were designed to keep 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 on 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 frequently 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 grassy area as shown in the screenshot below: 

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A screenshot of a video shared by Naeemullah on his TikTok profile on April 28.

Naeemullah told AFP that the circulating video was filmed in Adina village in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"I appreciate that people believed that the video was actually of Imran Khan," he told AFP. 

He also shared a screenshot with AFP of analytics of the video from his TikTok profile as shown in the screenshot below:

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A screenshot of the video''s analytics that Naeemullah shared with AFP.