Fact-check: Did Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari say Imran Khan's life is in danger?

A video circulating on social media purportedly shows politician Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari telling an audience at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai that Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan’s life is under threat during his imprisonment.

The claim is misleading and her words have been presented out of context.

Claim

On December 1, a TikTok user shared a 22-second clip of Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, a politician from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), speaking to Al Arabiya English at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai.

The user captioned the video with the claim that when Aseefa was asked about the safety of Imran Khan, she said: “Right now, Imran Khan’s life is in serious danger.”

In the video clip, the host asks Aseefa how credible the claims are that former prime minister Khan’s life is under threat. In response, Aseefa can be heard saying: “If anyone says their life is in danger, it should be taken seriously.”

At the time of writing, this post had been viewed over 20,000 times, liked more than 2,200 times, and shared 42 times.

Similar claims were also shared on other platforms, such as here, here, and here.

Fact

Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari’s response has been misinterpreted online and edited to give the wrong impression. In the interview, she did not state that Imran Khan’s life was in danger.

On November 28, Al Arabiya English interviewed Aseefa at the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai. Below is the exact exchange between the host and Aseefa:

Host: “Right now Imran Khan says he is under threat for his life. How credible in your mind are these threats?”

Aseefa: “I think anyone who says that their life is in danger is a threat that we need to take seriously. But it is heartening to see that all the avenues are open to him [Imran Khan]. For example, all the courts are there for him to fight his cases. All his needs in jail, whether it be for newspapers or gym equipment, are being met. I would not wish anyone in Pakistan to face great difficulties. I hope he will go through the avenues of the court and the courts will have their verdict.”

This interview was uploaded to the Al Arabiya English YouTube channel, with the relevant conversation available at the 4:30 timestamp. Watch it here.

Thus, the video circulating on social media has been taken out of context. Aseefa did not state that Khan’s life is “in serious danger.”

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