PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said that following the Pahalgam attack in occupied Kashmir and the brief but intense military escalation with Pakistan last month, India “lost its international credibility due to a lack of transparency and widespread disinformation”.
Earlier this month, Pakistan launched a broad-based engagement campaign to present its perspective on the conflict with India to the world and counter New Delhi’s unproven allegations. As part of its global outreach, a delegation led by Bilawal visited the United States, London and Brussels.
Addressing reporters at the National Press Club in Islamabad, the PPP chairman stressed that through spreading false information, both in the media and through diplomatic channels, India stripped itself of credibility.
“Pakistan gained victory on the narrative front, which is beneficial,” Bilawal said. “The whole world saw what the Indian [and] Pakistani media were doing.
“People all over the world were reading and accepting Pakistani media reports. The entire world knew that [the Indian] government was already lying, and their media had insinuated that they produced credible journalism,” the PPP chairman added.
Addressing reporters, he said, “You showed in these five days that we have an impartial and credible media. Every country has their problems, but the Pakistani media community played the biggest role in the narrative victory during those five days, due to the media community’s credibility.”
Thanking the journalist community for their accuracy and reporting, Bilawal added that he was proud of how Gen Z — the first generation born into the digital age — handled social media during the four-day war.
“For politicians, our word is our weapon; every political party handled the narrative the way they could, not just on local forums but internationally as well,” he stated. “But even more than that, Pakistani media’s role was historic, and their credibility was established on an international level during those five days.”
Speaking further, Bilawal emphasised that India, for the first time, spread disinformation through diplomatic channels, not just through the mass media.
“This is the first time our neighbour was communicating lies on even diplomatic hotlines to different countries,” he lamented. “India didn’t show transparency, which is why its credibility suffered.”
He added that it took India a month to accept their missile “might have been neutralised”, while Pakistan openly confirmed shooting down a number of their aircraft in self-defence.
“India’s war was based on lies; that’s when Pakistan stood with the truth,” Bilawal stated. “When they blamed Pakistan for the Pahalgham attack, we didn’t deny history. If our PM hadn’t asked for an impartial investigation on an international level, then India would have been successful in convincing the world that we were behind the Pahalgham attack.”
Bilawal said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “took the right decision at the right time, which is why we could establish credibility”. The PPP chairman also said that Pakistan’s own “credibility problem” was largely resolved through making the media more transparent.
“We speak not just for the Pakistani people but for the Indian people, too. We don’t want hatred to pass down through generations. The new generation will not accept India’s message of hate.”
