“I came to know that I shared a fake election schedule after the news aired on the news channel,” he said in an interview with Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath which was aired on Geo News on Friday. “I apologise for sharing fake election schedule.”

Dar in his interview refrained from taking the name of the person who sent him the election schedule. The former finance minister was confident that the purported schedule was issued from polls overseer. He thought it was “genuine” and “copy and pasted” it on the X, erstwhile Twitter.

It merits here to mention that the ECP was also quick to reject the schedule shared by Dar, saying that it was fake and no such document was issued by the body.

The polls overseer rebuffed the reports on social media and added that the schedule would be issued in a while.

But he claimed to have deleted it after the news ran on the TV channels. Dar lamented that fake news was so common in the country.

This happened at a time when a three-member Supreme Court bench suspended the Lahore High Court’s order against appointment of returning officers from bureaucracy across the country. The court ordered the ECP to issue the election schedule.

Moments later, the country’s top electoral authority has issued the schedule for 2024’s general elections. The schedule confirmed that the elections would take place on February 8.

When asked about the name of the former senator and its source, Dar said that he has not contacted the person. But he lamented that fake news were being shared on social media.

“I felt sorry. I should not have forwarded it,” Dar said.