Claim: DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry warned that anyone obstructing the creation of new provinces would face severe consequences and told detractors not to interfere.
Fact: The video is manipulated. The original clip is from a 31 July 2026 press conference, where Chaudhry said any administrative restructuring should reflect public opinion and proceed through constitutional and legal processes.
On 13 August 2026, the Facebook page Ronaq e Karachi shared a video appearing to show Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry speaking about the creation of new provinces in Pakistan.
The reel’s caption consisted of hashtags including “#provinces”, “#NewProvinces”, “#Sindh” and “#karachi”.
In the video, Chaudhry appears to say:
اب اگر صوبے بننے کے عمل میں کسی نے رکاوٹ ڈالی تو اس کا انجام بہت زیادہ برا ہوگا، چاہے وہ کسی بھی قوم سے ہو۔” Let us do our work. Do not interfere in our matters.”
[Translation: “Now, if anyone creates an obstacle in the process of creating provinces, the consequences for them will be very severe, regardless of which community they belong to. Let us do our work. Do not interfere in our matters.”]
Screenshot : Facebook
Debate over new provinces
The video circulated amid a political debate over the possible creation of new provinces or administrative units in Pakistan.
On 30 July 2026, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Pakistan’s existing governance system had “collapsed” and called for political consensus on creating new administrative units or provinces. He urged political parties to discuss the proposal and reach consensus, according to Dawn.
The following day, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry addressed Naqvi’s remarks during an official ISPR press conference. Chaudhry described the interior minister’s comments as his personal opinion and said the military would not comment on the proposal itself. He added that questions about administrative restructuring should reflect public opinion and be decided through constitutional and legal processes.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check traced the viral clip to Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry’s 31 July 2026 press conference. A comparison of the viral video with this recording shows the same setting, uniform, microphones, backdrop, and camera angle.
Left: A screenshot from the manipulated video shared by Ronaq e Karachi. Right: Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry during the original DG ISPR press conference on 31 July 2026.
Aaj News also published a separate video containing the relevant portion of Chaudhry’s remarks concerning governance, population growth, and the debate over new provinces.
In the original video, at 1:31:14 in the YouTube video, reporters asked Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry about Naqvi’s comments on creating new administrative units. Chaudhry said Naqvi’s remarks represented his personal opinion and declined to comment directly on them. He then spoke more broadly about good governance and Pakistan’s administrative structure, noting that the country’s population had grown substantially while the number of provinces had remained unchanged
Chaudhry said decisions on administrative restructuring should reflect public opinion and take place through constitutional and legal processes. The Express Tribune quoted him as saying, “The will of the people of Pakistan is superior,” and that any administrative reset required for good governance should take place through constitutional methods, legal procedures, and political representatives. DAWN separately reported that he said the opinion of the people should be sought and any decision should be made according to the Constitution.
Soch Fact Check reviewed the full press conference and found no instance in which Chaudhry said:
اب اگر صوبے بننے کے عمل میں کسی نے رکاوٹ ڈالی تو اس کا انجام بہت زیادہ برا ہوگا، چاہے وہ کسی بھی قوم سے ہو۔” Let us do our work. Do not interfere in our matters.”
[Translation: “Now, if anyone creates an obstacle in the process of creating provinces, the consequences for them will be very severe, regardless of which community they belong to. Let us do our work. Do not interfere in our matters.”]
The viral clip therefore attributes words to Chaudhry that do not appear in the original recording. The video retains genuine footage from the 31 July press conference while altering his apparent speech. His mouth movements in the viral version also differ from those in the authentic footage and appear synchronised with the fabricated remarks, indicating that the clip was digitally manipulated.
AI analysis
Soch Fact Check further analysed the viral clip using DetectVideo AI, an AI video-detection platform that examines multiple signals for signs of synthetic or manipulated media. It rated the clip as 90% likely to be AI-generated, with 87% confidence and 100% evidence coverage.
According to DetectVideo AI’s methodology, its system combines multiple detection engines that examine visual, temporal, audio-video, manipulation, compression, metadata, codec, and source signals. The platform cautions that its results are probabilistic and should be assessed alongside source verification and other evidence.
Screenshot : DetectVideoAI
Soch Fact Check also tested the clip using DeepFake-O-Meter, a platform developed by the University at Buffalo’s Media Forensics Lab that combines results from multiple independent deepfake-detection models.
Three of the four models used returned a high probability of manipulation. AVSRDD, which examines audio-visual speech correlations, scored 99.9%; DSP-FWA, which looks for face-warping artefacts, scored 96.7%; and LIPINC, which detects inconsistencies in mouth movements associated with lip-sync manipulation, scored 95.5%. CFM, a broader face-forgery detection model, returned a lower score of 38%, which the platform classified as moderate.
DeepFake-O-Meter’s overall assessment described the clip as “Likely AI-Generated,” with moderate confidence.
Screenshot : DeepFake-O-Meter
The results support the source and visual comparison, particularly because the models designed to detect audio-visual and lip-sync inconsistencies returned high scores. However, Soch Fact Check does not base its conclusion solely on automated detection tools. The primary evidence remains the original 31 July press conference, which establishes that the footage is genuine but the words attributed to Chaudhry do not appear in the original recording.
Taken together, the evidence indicates that the viral footage was digitally manipulated, likely using AI, to make Chaudhry appear to say words he did not say.
Contemporary reporting also contradicts the purported threat. Rather than warning detractors of new provinces that they would face severe consequences, Chaudhry said questions about administrative restructuring should be addressed through political representatives, constitutional procedures, legal processes, and the will of the public.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the manipulated video circulating in at least 11 posts across Facebook and Instagram, including nine Facebook uploads and two Instagram reels.
At the time of writing, one Facebook reel posted by Ronaq e Karachi had accumulated approximately 16,800 reactions, 1,400 comments, and 2,000 shares. Multiple other accounts also shared the same or substantially identical footage across Facebook and Instagram, indicating that the manipulated clip circulated beyond the original upload.
Conclusion: The viral video uses footage from DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry’s 31 July 2026 press conference, but the remarks attributed to him do not appear in the original recording. The altered clip falsely depicts him saying that anyone obstructing the creation of new provinces would face severe consequences, when he in fact stated that any administrative restructuring should take place through constitutional and legal processes.
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