Claim: During his recent press conference, DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said, “A man sitting in jail has driven all of us mentally insane,” in reference to Imran Khan.
Fact: The two videos circulating online seem manipulated. A review of the original footage revealed that Lt Gen Chaudhry referred to Imran Khan as a “mental patient”, but he did not say that a man sitting in jail had driven everyone mentally insane.
A video shows Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry at a press conference, where he appears to say, “Jail mein baithay ek shaks ne hum sab ko zehni mareez bana diya hai.”
[Translation: A man sitting in jail has driven us all mentally insane.]
He can then be seen breaking down at the podium.
Another version shows Lt Gen Chaudhry repeating the same statement and adding, “Khuda ke liye, mein sukoon ke saath is mulk ko khokla karnay do–”
[Translation: For God’s sake, let me calmly hollow out this country–]
DG ISPR’s press conference following PTI’s accusations
On 5 December 2025, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry held a press conference following a series of statements and social media posts by incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan and PTI members that accused the army and its leadership of political interference.
While he spoke about various matters during the presser, Lt Gen Chaudhry maintained a focus on the PTI and Imran Khan. He referred to a “creeping national security threat” that he said had made it necessary for the military to speak out. “That threat emanates from a delusional mindset of a delusional person who has become captive to his own ego, thinking that his wishes are bigger than those of the state of Pakistan,” Lt Gen Chaudhry said, in an apparent reference to Khan, according to Dawn.
He added that the narrative being pushed was “no more about politics now but has become a matter of national security.” According to the DG ISPR, it was therefore “very important” for the military’s media wing to clarify matters, remove ambiguities, and respond publicly. He further alleged that the narrative was being spread through coordinated online campaigns and was “working in deep collusion with external actors.”
The press conference thus appeared to be in response to Khan’s posts on X and PTI members’ statements targeting the army and its leadership. Lt Gen Chaudhry warned that attacks on the armed forces or its leadership would not be tolerated.
The viral clips being fact-checked appear to be manipulated versions of this press conference.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found the two videos to be dubious for several reasons. For instance,the two clips show an entirely different reaction to the same statement by the DG ISPR.
Additionally, had the DG ISPR passed such remarks even in any other press conference, it would have been reported by at least some credible news outlets. While DG ISPR’s remark describing Khan as a mentally ill patient was widely reported, a keyword search using the statement from the viral video did not produce any relevant results.
Soch Fact Check then reviewed the complete footage from DG ISPR Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary’s press conference held on 5 December. During the press conference, he referred to Imran Khan as a “zehni mareez” (mentally ill patient) multiple times. At approximately 11:53, while discussing Imran Khan’s posts on X, he said: “Yeh jo do din pehle is ne tweet ki hai, is zehni mareez ne. Us zehni mareez ki tweet ko dekhein, kaise unhon ne treat kiya hai.”
[Translation: This tweet that this mentally ill person posted two days ago, look at how they treat it.]
Although the DG ISPR did refer to Imran Khan as a “mental patient” multiple times during the press conference, he did not make the statement attributed to him in the viral videos at any point. Therefore, it seems that the clips are manipulated versions of the original press conference footage.
Evidently, both videos display signs of digital manipulation. For instance, Lt Gen Chaudhary’s lip and mouth movements appear unnatural and inconsistent with normal human speech. His face appears unnaturally smooth and airbrushed, while his eyes are heavily wrinkled. This is a common inconsistency in deepfake videos where different facial regions are incongruent. Additionally, other unrealistic features are evident for example, when he cries in the first clip, his eyes remain closed and his upper teeth do not show when he speaks.
Overall his movements appear stiff and robotic, suggesting that the video is fake. Particularly in the second clip, the latter part of his statement becomes unintelligible. This distortion was not observed at any point in the original footage.
Soch Fact Check ran the two videos through DeepFake-O-Meter, which analysed them using multiple AI-based detection models. The results for the two videos are as follows:
DeepFake-O-Meter results for Video 1
DeepFake-O-Meter results for Video 2
We first used the TALL (2023) model. It tests whether a model can still understand a video’s content and motion even when some details are missing, and the video is compressed into a thumbnail-like format. This model was used because it focuses on checking online videos, which are often compressed or altered in ways that hide fine details. By testing whether the video remains coherent after details are removed, TALL helps reveal manipulation that may not be obvious to the eye. It rated the probability of the two videos being fake at 99.5% and 100%, respectively, indicating that the videos are most likely manipulated.
Next, the video was analysed through the WAV2LIP-STA (2022) detection model, which is designed to catch lip-sync based deepfakes, where the mouth movements don’t quite match the speech. It rated the clips at 75.8% and 93.2%, respectively, indicating a high likelihood of manipulation.
The video was also analysed using LSDA (2024), a deepfake-detection model designed to assess whether a video or image is fully or partially synthesised using AI. The model evaluates visual and temporal cues, such as facial movements, lip synchronisation, and texture consistency, to estimate the likelihood of synthetic manipulation.
It rated the two clips at 52.5% and 49.1%,respectively, indicating the model’s confidence that the clips contain AI-generated or manipulated elements.
We also analysed the two videos using Hive Moderation and Deepware Scanner, but the tools did not provide conclusive results.
However, a review of the original footage, visual inconsistencies in the clips, and results from DeepFake-o-Meter’s, strongly suggest the videos are digitally manipulated.
Virality
The first video was shared here (archive) on Facebook.
The second video was shared here (archive) on Facebook.
Conclusion: Viral clips of the DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary saying “one person sitting in a jail has driven us all mentally insane” seem manipulated. Although Lt Gen Chaudhary used the term“mental patient” against Imran Khan multiple times during his recent press conference, he did not make the specific statement attributed to him in the claim.
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Background image in cover photo: ISPR/File
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