Pak Dy PM falls for fake news praising air force, gets fact-checked by own media

In yet another embarrassing moment, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, was fact-checked by his own country’s press after he quoted a piece of fake news during his address to the Senate.

During a Senate speech on May 15, Dar cited a fabricated headline from The Daily Telegraph, a UK-based newspaper, proclaiming the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) as the “undisputed king of the skies”.

The image he referenced — a digitally altered front page — was widely circulated by social media handles in Pakistan since May 10 following heightened military tensions with India.

Also Read: As missiles roar across border, fake news flies thick and fast on social media

Fake front page

Dar was referring to a photoshopped front page of The Daily Telegraph, the headline of which read, "Pakistan Air Force: The undisputed king of the skies", with a photo of a JF-17 fighter jet of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), dated May 10.

However, the actual front page for that day made no mention of Pakistan or its air force. Instead, it featured a story on the headline — Navy chief quits 'over affair with junior'.

Pakistan’s disinformation campaign, led by its military’s media wing ISPR and its chief Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, shared this AI-generated image through official-sounding but fake handles.

Also Read: Govt debunks fake news; attacks on army brigade in Rajouri, Hazira port false

Fact-checked by Dawn

What turned the episode into an even greater embarrassment was that Dar was fact-checked not by foreign media but by his own.

Pakistani newspaper The Dawn, through its iVerify Pakistan team, investigated the claim and found it to be fake, according to reports by ANI. The Dawn confirmed that no such article was ever published by the British newspaper.

On analysing the image, the newspaper’s fact check unit — spelling mistakes, jumbled sentences, and inconsistent language — clearly exposing it as fake.

“How fake news overshadows the truth: Earlier today, Deputy PM & Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar cited this false news, during his speech on the floor of the Senate, to support claims of PAF’s dominance over India. No doubt, the PAF did dominate — but the image in question is fake," a Pakistani journalist posted on X.

Also Read: India pans Global Times for misreporting Op Sindoor, gives Chinese media a factcheck

India responds

India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) also also called out the image and said the photograph had been altered or edited with AI (Artificial Intelligence).

“By endorsing a completely fabricated image and headline, Pakistan intentionally lent official weight to a piece of digital deception,” PIB posted on X along with a video of Ishaq Dar making the remark in the senate.

Dar's gaffe has been pounced upon by the BJP's Amit Malviya, who called his statement a "blatant attempt to save face".

On the Pak Air Force claim, Malviya said, "The claim was so outrageous that even Dawn, Pakistan's own leading newspaper, felt compelled to fact-check and debunk it."

The BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a former Union Minister and now the party's Kerala unit chief, was even more scathing in his critique, calling Dar's comments "head-scratchingly stupid".

Operation Sindoor fallout

This incident follows Operation Sindoor, India’s retaliatory strike on May 7 after a deadly terror attack in Pahalgam killed 26 tourists. India targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,

In retaliation, Pakistan military launched a wave of cross-border military and propaganda actions from Islamabad, prompting India to launch coordinated strikes on Pakistani radar infrastructure, communication centers, and airfields. Both nations have now reached a ceasefire understanding.