Undisputed King of Fake News: Pakistan FM Ishaq Dar Fact-Checked By Own Media After Quoting AI-Generated UK Newspaper Frontpage Praising Pak Air Force

After the Indian Armed Forces gifted a crushing defeat to Pakistan Army’san Un Marsoos operation that attempted to attack Indian military and civilian infrastructures following India’s Operation Sindoor razing down key Lashkar, Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camps, Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has lampooned himself and his government once again. 

During a Senate address, Dar quoted a fabricated news headline to praise Pakistan Air Force. He proudly claimed that UK-based newspaper The Daily Telegraph had declared the Pakistan Air Force as the ‘Undisputed King of the Skies’. However, within hours, the image was exposed as fake and the irony is that the fact-check was not done by any international media, but by Pakistan’s own leading daily, Dawn.

According to Dawn, their fact-checking team at iVerify Pakistan analysed the viral image being cited by Dar. They found no record of such a front page or article ever published by The Daily Telegraph. Dawn confirmed that the image was AI-generated, entirely fabricated and FAKE which was made viral to create a false narrative about Pakistan military’s success in the time of face-palm.

Netizens and our political leaders were quick to seize the moment. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya shared the viral video of Dar’s speech, calling it ‘web of lies and desperation’. The Press Information Bureau too fact-checked the claim. 

“In a blatant attempt to save face, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar misled the country’s Senate by claiming that The Daily Telegraph had declared the Pakistan Air Force as the “Undisputed King of the Skies.” The claim was so outrageous that even Dawn, Pakistan’s own leading newspaper, felt compelled to fact-check and debunk it,” Malviya wrote on X.

This incident is not an isolated one. There has been a string of attempts by Pakistan to spread misinformation after Indian armed forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ to crush the terror camps within Pakistan territory after the barbaric April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. From AI-generated images, old videos to miscaptioned videos, Pakistan’s attempts to shape a narrative met its end every time. However, this latest blunder exposed from within its own borders has been the most embarrassing.