Pakistani defence minister Khwaja Asif fumbled at least seven times during his address at the AI Innovation Dialogue at the UN Security Council.
At the dialogue chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Asif discussed artificial intelligence and the India-Pakistan tensions. However, what drew more attention were the verbal slip-ups and mispronunciations he made during his speech.
At least seven such moments were observed in the compilation video posted on Instagram by news agency ANI.
He was heard saying "breathtaking space" before correcting himself to "breathtaking pace". Asif mispronounced several words, including "risk" as "riks", "development" as "developend", and "first time" as "sirst time". He also slipped while saying "six pillars", as he initially began with "six pip-pillars".
Additionally, the Pakistani minister was heard struggling with complex words like “instability” and “technological disparities”.
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The fumbles once again resulted in Khwaja Asif being trolled on social media. One user commented, "Operation Sindoor shook him."
{{/usCountry}}The fumbles once again resulted in Khwaja Asif being trolled on social media. One user commented, "Operation Sindoor shook him."
{{/usCountry}}"He can't even speak one sentence properly," another quipped.
Another user wrote, "Speaks like their cricket team plays." An Instagram user said, "When the teacher suddenly asks you to read."
"He appears to be unsure of the points he is making," commented another.
On a serious note, a user wrote, "That's why these aged and spent out persons should resign. They are more of a problem than any help to either their own countries and the world as a whole."
This is not the first time that Khwaja Asif's slip-ups and bizarre claims have resulted in him being grilled by netizens.
ALSO READ | Amid flood crisis, Pakistan's minister's bizarre ‘dead bodies in water’ claim against India
Recently, during the massive floods in Pakistan, the defence minister presented the public with a strange solution. He urged people living in low-lying areas to "store" the flood waters in containers, rather than letting it go into drains.
He called on Pakistanis to view the flood water as a "blessing". "People who are protesting against the flood-like situation should take the flood waters home. People should store this water at their homes, in tubs, and containers. We should look at this water in the form of a blessing and hence should store it," Asif reportedly told a Pakistani news channel.
Earlier this year, Khwaja Asif had claimed that Pakistan's "cyber warriors" had switched off the floodlights at a cricket stadium in India during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match.
He claimed in the Pakistani assembly, "India does not understand that all of this is entirely Pakistan's indigenous technology. Our cyber warriors shut off the lights in India and got an IPL match suspended, opened dam waters...all these cyber attacks were done by our kids only."
Netizens on social media grilled Asif. Some commented, "ust so you know -- IPL floodlights don't run on WiFi, they run on secure electrical systems. You can't hack them like a home router."
"I didn't know Cyber has different concepts and syllabus in Pakistan!" wrote another.