Pakistan Deputy PM Ishaq Dar quoted a fake Daily Telegraph headline in Senate, claiming PAF's air dominance, later debunked by Dawn News.
In an embarrassing development that has sparked widespread ridicule and concern over misinformation, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar quoted a fake and edited headline from a British newspaper during a Senate address — falsely claiming that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) was hailed as the “Undisputed King of the Skies” by The Daily Telegraph.
Addressing Pakistan’s Senate on Thursday, Dar proudly declared: "Telegraph writes Pakistan Air Force is the undisputed king of the skies." He also added: "Pakistan downed 6 IAF fighter jets, which India couldn't stomach. The Telegraph said 'Pakistan Air Force is the undisputed King of the skies'".
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The newspaper page quoted by Dar was later confirmed to be fabricated and has been debunked by Dawn News, one of Pakistan's leading publications. The Dawn iVerify Pakistan team analysed the viral image, checked with the original Daily Telegraph sources, and concluded that no such article or headline was ever published.
Fact-Check Reveals Multiple Errors in Fake Article
According to Dawn, the team conducted the fact-check after the image went viral across social media on May 10, amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan following India's Operation Sindoor. The image, allegedly showing the front page of The Daily Telegraph, was found to be fake.
While examining the content, the fact-checkers identified multiple typographical and grammatical errors, inconsistent with the editorial standards of a reputed UK publication. Mistakes included words such as “Fyaw...” instead of “Force”, “preformance” instead of “performance”, “Aur Force” in place of “Air Force”, and “advancemend” instead of “advancement”.
The layout of the page also did not match any official version of The Daily Telegraph. Dawn categorically stated: "The image of the article is fake and no such article has been published by the UK-based publication."
Pakistani Journalists Call Out Misinformation
Several Pakistani journalists and social media users also stepped forward to highlight the blunder. Imran Mukhtar, a journalist with The Nation, posted: "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."
Another X (formerly Twitter) user, Abdul Wasey Naik, noted: "Many credible journalists in Pakistan shared and quoted this image throughout the day, claiming it to be the front page of The Daily Telegraph with the headline 'Pakistan Air Force: The Undisputed King of the Skies.' This picture is AI-generated."
The incident sheds light on how Pakistan’s information machinery has increasingly relied on disinformation tactics in response to India's military operation codenamed ‘Operation Sindoor’. The operation, which led to the destruction of nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and several key airbases in the neighbouring nation, was launched in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
