BAKU, Azerbaijan: Pakistan is pushing for a joint Developing-8 (D-8) fact-checking and fake-news platform to counter misinformation across member states, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Friday, on the sidelines of the D-8 Media Forum in Baku.
The event brings together officials and media stakeholders from the eight Muslim-majority developing economies — Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Türkiye — to enhance cooperation in information strategy, digital governance and communication standards.
As Pakistan prepares to assume the D-8 secretary-generalship in January 2026, Pakistani Information Minister Tarar urged member countries to adopt a unified approach and roadmap to enhance their collective resilience in an evolving global information landscape.
“Countering fake information, false information is very important,” he said, commending Arab News for promoting regional issues on the sidelines of the Baku event.
“We have come up with a system where I have proposed that we need to have a social media handle or an account of joint D-8 countries in which we can call out fake news.”
This year’s forum in Baku was focused on capacity building for journalists, improving media ethics and preparing newsrooms across the eight countries to deal with the fast-changing information landscape.
The Pakistani information minister proposed the creation of D-8 social media handles to showcase economic development, counter extremism and jointly address Islamophobia, saying Pakistan’s own recent reforms, including in tax administration, demonstrated how digital governance could strengthen public confidence.
Asked about concerns of Pakistani media community about censorship and regulatory overreach, Tarar defended the country’s media freedoms.
“Pakistan has a very vibrant, very free media,” he said. “Everyone is free to say what they want. But you know as a Pakistani I believe that when it comes to the safety and security of the country, when it comes to state institutions, when it comes to the defense of the country, this is something on which there should be total unanimity.”
He said his government welcomes political criticism, but the country also has a system with defamation laws.
“[There] are regulations which one has to adhere to. But, having said that, I think there is a lot of room in Pakistan to say whatever one wants,” Tarar added.
IMF REPORT IS ‘ADVISORY’
Asked about an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on corruption in Pakistani institutions, the minister the criticism by some quarters was “misplaced” because the report was requested by the government itself.
“It was a report commissioned by the government for its own good, an advisory report which has pointed out the areas which need improvement,” he said, noting the incumbent present government has taken a lot of steps to reduce corruption.
“I’ve mentioned the faceless appraisement system. So, for import and export, for customs clearance, the person who is importing or exporting goods, his identity is not disclosed and hence, nobody can approach him for any speed money and it’s a transparent system,” he said.
“And same with the introduction of technology within the FBR [Federal Board of Revenue] and the merit-based transfers and postings.”
Tarar said the report was meant to help improve transparency and efficiency and the upcoming global corruption rankings by Transparency International could show improvement, if the present reforms continued.
