‘Detractors of peace’ campaigning against Pakistan, says Tarar

ISLAMABAD: Infor­m­ation Minister Attaullah Tarar on Thursday lashed out at “coordinated negative information campaign… initiated from outside Pakistan” that was trying to discredit Pakistan’s role for sustainable peace in the region. In a post on his X handle, the minister said that “detractors of peace, who are unable to come to terms with Pakistan’s role for peace in the region” were running a malicious campaign to discredit Pakistan, adding that facts and verification by credible domestic media sources as well as multiple fact check forums have already called out the propaganda. “We understand quite clearly that behind such stories are certain elements,” he said, adding that Pakistan and its responsible media will continue to expose the nefarious designs of those behind this coordinated campaign. While the information minister did not specifically mention any particular reports, he was ostensibly referring to reports such as the one recently carried by US network CBS News, falsely claiming that Pakistan had allowed Iranian jets to be parked at Nur Khan airbase during hostilities with the US and Israel. The Foreign Office had roundly rejected the report, which was also debunked by a number of foreign journalists who visited Pakistan to cover the US-Iran talks last month. “The Iranian aircraft currently parked in Pakistan arrived during the ceasefire period and bears no connection whatsoever to any military contingency or preservation arrangement,” the FO had said at the time. Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2026