Crying Senator Says He’s Being Blackmailed With a Secretly Filmed Video of Him and His Wife

Azam Khan Swati, a 74-year-old Pakistani senator, broke down at a press conference on Saturday saying that a secretly filmed explicit video of him and his wife was sent to his wife’s WhatsApp account from an “unknown number” to embarrass and silence him.

Swati is an ally of former prime minister Imran Khan and a member of his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). For months, Pakistan has been gripped by a tug-of-war with Khan’s party on one side, and the country’s current ruling coalition and the military on the other. 

In the presser, the senator mentioned a conversation between him and his daughter, who saw the video on her mother’s phone and told him between cries, “Daddy it isn’t a video of someone else, it’s you and my Mama together.”

Visibly distressed, the senator explained he believed the video was filmed secretly while he and his wife were staying at a government lodge in Quetta city during a trip.

The senator lamented that his distraught wife, who maintained a private life, left the country with her granddaughters. VICE World News was unable to reach Swati for comment. But members from his party confirmed that Swati believes the video has not been leaked to the public, and that no one besides his family and the people who shot the video have seen it. Several memes and fake explicit videos purportedly of Swati have been circulating online since the press conference. Party sources confirmed those are not the videos that Swati’s wife claimed to have received on her phone.

Swati has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks. In October, he was taken into custody by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) during a pre-dawn raid of his residence in the capital Islamabad, over a tweet that led to him being charged with sedition. 

In the tweet, Swati insinuated that the country’s powerful military chief had pushed for the acquittal of Hamza Shehbaz, the son of current prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a multi-billion-rupee money laundering case. He later told reporters that he was stripped and tortured on his genitals, and that a military general with Pakistan’s secretive spy agency ordered his torture. Swati is currently out on bail.

Following the allegations, Pakistani authorities accused Swati of trying to create a rift within the country’s military forces and “harm the state of Pakistan,” the Associated Press reported. 

On Saturday, Khan said that what happened to Swati – from his arrest, torture, and now the alleged explicit video – was a “blatant violation” of the law at the hands of the Pakistani state and institutions.

Khan also tweeted an apology addressed to the senator’s wife on behalf of the country. A member of the current ruling party and a Khan rival, Miftah Ismail, also condemned the incident.

The FIA, which Swati blamed for his arrest and torture, claims to have seen the explicit video and dismissed it as a fabrication. 

“Prima facie, it is a fake video, edited with deep fake tools to create misunderstanding and defame the senator,” FIA wrote on Twitter.

“Further analysis revealed that faces have been swapped in the images using Photoshop. The press conference by the honourable senator, in which he has showed his concerns, warrant a proper investigation,” FIA continued. “Mr. Azam Khan Swati is requested to lodge a complaint with FIA and share his concerns about the reason [for] thinking [the video is] authentic.”

Speaking outside the Supreme Court, which is independently investigating the video, Swati said it was preposterous to suggest the video his wife received was fake. He believes the video was secretly shot and released to embarrass him and his family into silence.

Swati is the third of Khan’s allies to be arrested by Pakistani authorities in the last few months over sedition charges. A well-known Khan supporter and top journalist was recently killed under mysterious circumstances too.

Khan was ousted as prime minister in April through a no-confidence vote by members of parliament. He initially alleged the U.S. was involved in a conspiracy to topple his government. Washington denied the allegations. He’s since also accused the military of playing a role in his removal.

Khan remains Pakistan’s most popular politician especially among young urban voters. He was shot and injured at a political rally last week, along with a dozen other party loyalists. One man was killed in the incident. Khan has claimed the attempt on his life was orchestrated by the same military general that Swati accused of torture. He also accused Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, and Rana Sanaullah, the interior minister, of “hatching a conspiracy to kill him.” The government and the military have rejected the charges as “baseless and irresponsible” and “absolutely unacceptable.”

Follow Kaukab Shairani on Twitter.