Darwaish
I was watching the dramatic developments regarding Chief Justice of Pakistan’s case on GEO news today and wondering how much more we have to see after seeing police misbehaving with Chief Justice and his family.
Little did I know what was in store for me. During Kamran Khan’s show, Ansaar Abassi – investigative editor of The News, Islamabad – brought viewers attention to a shocking incident which happened during a live Voice of America ( VOA ) radio show interview (Round Table) yesterday (Listen by clicking audio symbol below)
[Audio:http://pakistaniat.com/audio/WasiZafar.mp3]
Not surprisingly, it involves our Law Minister, Mr. Wasi Zafar. We have often read various reports about public displays of misbehaviors by Federal Minister for Law Wasi Zafar. But this is quite unbelievable.
Listen to the abusive language after the 34th minutes in particular. But also listen to the tone of the discussion of the entire interview in general. This, then, is our Federal Law Minister in action. Its worth hearing.
The Federal Minister said all this in response to a story by the investigative editor The News in which he wrote about the Law Minister’s “long arm of law.” Apparently he doesn’t know the difference between long arm and giving “a big hand.”
Listen to the clip and judge for yourself. I am just speechless!
ADDED 14 March: Here is the video clip of the report on this incident on GEO.
(Report on this in The News).
Darwaish, i totally agree with all you have said in your comment. I did not hear the parts where Zafar accussed Ansar Abbasi this way. It is indeed shocking and he should be taken to court for defamation without proof.
And indeed the great irony of the show was Wasi Zafar trying to teach English to the others when in all probability this whole mess came into existence because of his own lack of English comprehension skills.
err excuse me sabahat — but what wasi zafar said was crude and unprintable — i think that is the general consensus — you are the first person i have met (either in cyber space or real life) who think that what the law minister said has been blown out of proportion
There is no doubt some element of mis-reporting in GEO’s coverage of this incident (some namak mirch to be precise) but I think Ansaar Abbasi said these things after Mr Wasi Zafar came live on GEO and called him blackmailer and remarks like kitne paise liye hein and paise le kar likhte hein. This is even more shocking to me. Although I would have loved to see Ansaar Abbasi keeping his cool as Sabahat mentions. Whatever you say about Pakistani media, I think they are becoming mature with time and the coverage of this historical event, in general, has been excellent and very accurate so give credit where its due.
I also wonder if it is legal to call someone a blackmailer and other remarks which our honorable law minister gave during a live show? In most civilized countries, he would have been forced to resign immediately and taken to court for this. Perhaps a lawyer can help us understand or may be its OK in Pakistan?
Btw, the funniest part of the VOA show was when participants were debating the meaning of statement in president’s notification CJ was CALLED BY the president and minister sb asked hosts (nihayat badtrameezi se) to use dictionary and that he needs to teach them English and the meaning of ‘called by’.
God save Pakistan. Ameen.
Sabahat he called him a ‘maskhara’ — btw if the govt and the media were the same sabahat, pray tell us why the latter would be so critical of the former at this particular juncture —
Right, he has said manufacturing fault and also either here or somewhere else genetic defect, thats why i wrote ‘mental patient or something of that sort’, sorry for the rather casual tone employed by me since exact words are of utmost importance here and that is what I am basing my argument upon.
But really my point is not that, my point is that the way ‘The News’ and GEO have reported this incident doesn’t seem entirely accurate to me,
‘started hurling abuse’ and ‘gaaliyaan nikaaleen’ and ‘went on to make crude and unprintable remarks’ sound like more than what actually happened (and i am strictly talking about what was spoken not saying that such behaviour by him was not unethical or in any form acceptable).
I think his translating the Punjabi abuse into English (and thus rendering it unintelligible for most people) dilutes it somewhat and I still think its not ‘hurling abuse’ and ‘gaaliyaan nikaaleen’ and a whole lot of other things ‘The News’ article and Kamran Khan’s diatribe made it out to be.
I repeat it is distasteful, shameful and unbecoming like Omar R Qureshi says of any civilized human being but I would prefer my reporting to be temperate and unpadded.