Pakistan's Deputy PM Quotes Fake Article To Hail PAF Over Indian Air Force

Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in a speech quoted a fake article to claim that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had been declared "undisputed king of the skies" against India.

BOOM found that Dar, who is also the foreign minister, quoted a fake falsely viral as the front page of the Daily Telegraph. We were able to confirm that The Telegraph did not publish any such report with the same headline, praising the PAF.

The image, is designed to look like a May 10, 2025 front page article by a newspaper "The Daily Telegraph" with the headline, "Pakistan Air Force: The Undisputed King Of The Skies." Several Pakistani accounts have shared the image on X using the same text as in the headline.

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In his May 15, 2025, address in the Upper House of Pakistan's parliament, Dar while praising the PAF, is heard quoting the same headline and saying, "I am not saying this, The Telegraph has written...'Pakistan airforce is the undisputed king of the skies".

Dar's speech was broadcast live on May 15 via the YouTube channel of PTV Parliament.

Fact Check: Viral Article Is Fake

BOOM first compared the viral image with the May 10, 2025, edition of The Daily Telegraph, the same date as on the fake article. We found that the articles and pictures used in the May 10 front page of the newspaper did not match the viral image.

We compared the picture with the original May 10 edition of The Daily Telegraph, and the differences can be seen below.

We also noticed that the fake article mentions the news outlet's website as, 'telegraph.cuk' instead of 'telegraph.co.uk' with the words Telegraph, combat, advancements, conflict all misspelt and many sentences filled with gibberish.

We also tested the image using the AI-image detection tool Undetectable AI, which found that the picture was AI-generated.