Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has praised the country’s air force by quoting a fake page of the United Kingdom-based The Daily Telegraph.
In his address to Pakistan’s Senate on Thursday, Dar said, “Telegraph writes Pakistan Air Force is the undisputed king of the skies.”
The newspaper page quoted by Dar was a fake page viral on social media.
Pakistan newspaper The Dawn’s iVerify Pakistan team investigated the content, found discrepancies in the viral photo, and determined that the information was false.
It analysed through its tools and checked the British Publication ‘The Daily Telegraph’ to see if it had shared any such news story.
Posts from multiple users across social media have been sharing the photo since May 10, allegedly showing the front page of The Daily Telegraph newspaper declaring the Pakistan Air Force the ‘King of the Skies’ amid the recent escalation with India.
However, no such article was published in the newspaper and the screenshot is fake, Dawn reported.
The Dawn, conducted a fact-check to determine the veracity of the claim made in the newspaper due to its virality and keen public interest in the international coverage of the recent tensions between Pakistan and India.
While analysing the viral image, the team found multiple discrepancies, including spelling errors, mistyped and jumped sentences and language inconsistencies.
Words like ‘Fyaw…’ instead of ‘Force’ and ‘preformance’ instead of ‘performance’ are incorrect, ‘Aur Force’ appears instead of ‘Air Force’ and ‘advancemend’ instead of ‘advancement’ is incorrect.
These typographical and spelling mistakes are inconsistent with the editorial standards of a mainstream newspaper, Dawn reported.
The layout of the page was compared to the official version of The Daily Telegraph.
The image of the article is fake and no such article has been published by the UK-based publication.