Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif found himself at the centre of a social media storm after he reportedly responded to a Marilyn Monroe picture puzzle on X, correctly spotting a modern smartwatch in a scene set in 1956. What began as a harmless late-night reply quickly turned into a flood of mockery, with critics questioning the minister’s priorities even after reports emerged that he had deleted the post.
Pakistan’s 77-year-old Defence Minister, Khawaja Asif, reposted it at 11:04 PM with a single word and an emoji: “Watch”. In August, the ministry said the clip’s audio had been generated using artificial intelligence and that the defence minister had made no such statement, according to Dawn. Reports say he later deleted the post after facing severe backlash, though screenshots continue to circulate. The response became a target for jokes about how senior politicians use social media. Several users questioned why Pakistan’s defence minister was engaging with a light-hearted puzzle at a time when the country was facing political unrest, economic difficulties and security concerns. The episode comes less than two months after Pakistan’s Information Ministry rejected a separate viral video that appeared to show Asif making remarks comparing Pakistan’s progress with India’s. That incident was different, as it involved a fabricated claim attributed to Asif, whereas the Monroe puzzle was an apparently synthetic image to which he reportedly chose to respond. In the latest case, the controversy concerned the minister’s own alleged social media activity rather than a statement falsely attributed to him.
