Posts from multiple users on social media platform X on Monday shared a video of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir speaking to a delegation of United States congressmen. However, the video was dubbed over with an audio of the army chief from a visit to China in April 2023.

On Sunday, General Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi separately met with a delegation of US congressmen to emphasise Pakistan’s commitment to regional security, defence cooperation and counterterrorism.

The delegation included Congressmen Jack Bergman, Tom Suozzi, and Jonathan Jackson, along with acting US Ambassador Natalie Baker. The agenda of the meeting included discussions about an upcoming high-level Pakistani delegation visit to the US aimed at promoting trade relations and addressing a recent 29 per cent tariff imposed on Pakistani exports.

On Monday, a user on X — who appears to be a PTI supporter based on their past posts — shared a clip of the army chief interacting with and speaking to a member of the US congressional delegation in English.

The 30-second clip showed brief moments of the meeting between the army chief and the US delegation.

The caption of the post read: “Asim Munir is going to face the same fate, remember? When Mohsin Naqvi met Joe Wilson … ever since then, Joe Wilson has been venting his anger.”

The army chief could be allegedly heard saying in the clip: “It gives me immense pleasure that after the pandemic, that I am the first army chief of any of the friendly countries of China, who is visiting China now after the pandemic.”

The post garnered 31,800 views.

The same video was shared by other users on X — also appearing to be PTI supporters — in the same derisive manner mocking the army chief’s style of speaking as can be seen here and here, garnering 33,900 and 20,500 views respectively.

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen interest in the details of the meeting between the army chief and the US congressional delegation.

Analysing the video through multiple tools to detect evidence of tampering or use of artificial intelligence showed that Attestiv.ai assigned a 42 per cent suspicion rating to the video, Hive Moderation determined that the video was not likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content with 6.3pc certainty while Deepware found no evidence of tampering.

A reverse image search led to an Instagram post from the official Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) account, showing the same video but with no audio.

The ISPR said the discussions between the two sides had focused on regional security and defence cooperation, with both emphasising long-term engagement based on shared values and strategic interests. However, it did not say what their exact talks were in the parts of the discussion included in the video.

A keyword search using the statement from the clip led to an X post by an account providing updates on the military since 2023.

The post shared a clip of the army chief speaking in a meeting with Wang Yi, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on April 27, 2023.

In the clip, COAS Munir said, “It gives me immense pleasure that after the pandemic, that I am the first army chief of any of the friendly countries of China, who is visiting China now after the pandemic.”

The same clip of the army chief was shared by Indian media outlets such as Hindustan Times and Times Now, which reported that the clip elicited mixed reactions and criticism over the military official’s style of speaking.

The army chief’s audio from the Chinese meeting was taken and imposed over the silent ISPR video of the meeting with US lawmakers.

Therefore, the fact-check determined that the claim that a video shows the army chief speaking to US lawmakers is misleading. While the video itself was untampered, it was dubbed over with audio from a meeting between COAS Munir and the Chinese foreign minister in April 2023 whereas the original video released by the ISPR contained no audio.

This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.