In yet another example of how personal wars are being played out in the media at the expense of the corporate and investment sector in Pakistan, Daily Times, an independent newspaper has come up with a report in its edition of December 8, 2013 that another fake report in Business Recorder of October 28, 2013 was carried out against Aqeel Karim Dhedhi (AKD) which is being linked to be another inside job at the behest of Mir Shakil ur Rehman and Jahangir Siddiqui.

 

Aqeel Karim Dhedhi versus Mir Shakil and Jahangir Siddiqui has been ringing bells for the last one and half months. Apparently, in the Business Recorder of October 28, 2013, a report was published credited to Reuters news agency, titled ‘How a tycoon held financial system hostage’ which was placed in position of another news by an insider at Business Recorder. The report depicted AKD in negative light.  The very next day, Business Recorder came up with a corrigendum that  regretted the publication of this news:

 

Apropos a `news’ item “How a `tycoon’ held financial system hostage!’ carried by the newspaper in its yesterday’s issue, it may be clarified with utmost certainty that the publication of the abovementioned item along with an erroneous credit line (Reuters) was the result of a serious computer/technical glitch caused by a profound lack of oversight on the part of newspaper’s Newsroom and its ancillary technical staff. Not only does the newspaper regret the unintended and unwarranted publication of this item, it seeks to offer an apology to all those, including noted broker/corporate leader Aqeel Karim Dhedi (AKD) and others, who have been shown in a negative light in this `news’ item.

 

 

According to Daily Times, “On November 18, Asif A Zuberi, publisher of the Business Recorder, issued a charge sheet to the said sub-editor and informed him, ‘upon checking the log of Reuters news feed, it was discovered that no such story had been sent by the wire service’ on the said date.

However, the sub-editor in his reply to the editor of the newspaper claimed that his colleague offered him bribe for publishing fake and forged stories but he refused to do so. Later on, through mobile conversation, his colleague assured him that he would not contrive such a wrong offer and would not publish such stories in his page. Owing to the assurance, he did not inform his superior/management about this discussion.

The story against AKD was published on October 28 from the dateline of Singapore. According to Reuters’ search, it was not available on Reuters screen on the said date.”

 

While Business Recorder have done the right thing in investigating this matter, the need for a strong regulator of the press cannot be underlined further. How many lives, careers and businesses are being put at stake. One must also see through the kind of personal agenda journalists are having at the behest of their puppet masters. At the end of the day, it is Pakistan and its businesses that are suffering at the expense of these petty interests.

 

We at LUBP hereby demand that Editors of newspapers step up their oversight and ensure editorial control, otherwise, Pakistan’s press will become a disinformation haven!

 

AKD being defamed through fake stories

* Another news report of Business Recorder against AKD proves fake or engineered

Staff Report

KARACHI: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan should take an immediate step to overcome the wrongdoings in the print and electronic media, as the fake reports are hampering foreign investment worth millions of dollars in the stock exchanges and other business sectors of the country.

During the last few months, electronic and the print media broadcasted and published news reports against Aqeel Karim Dhedhied (AKD), a leading stockbroker and real estate developer. One particular group, Jang and The News, carried these stories. Up to 40 fake stories were carried by the said newspapers although AKD had obtained a stay order against publication of malicious, baseless and false stories as most of the news carried out about the investigation reports by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) proved fake and engineered. These news were published by one particular section of media as their business interest was hurt due to the fact that former SECP chairman Muhammad Ali Ghulam filed a criminal case against Jahangir Siddiqui, since he is now a relative of the media group through marriage of their children. After these complaints against Siddqui, soon the Jang and The News started carrying these false and baseless stories.

After publishing these stories locally another attempt was made to damage AKD’s business interest as well as reputation by getting the news item that appeared in Daily Jang and The News on July 09, 2013 was published in Hindustan Times (HT) on September 29, 2013. It was later revealed that Siddiqui himself was in Delhi, India and used influence through RAW to get the said story published in HT. HT on issuance of legal notice later withdrew the news and published a clarification of the news item. Inquiry further revealed that HT news item was published not only to hurt ISI but also Pakistan’s economic interest.

In this connection, another report of ‘The Business Recorder’, October 28, 2013 against AKD proved baseless as the in charge of the pages claimed in his reply to the charge sheet that he did not put this story on the page, but someone had deliberately inserted a fake Reuters’ story in the folder of ‘Romanian farmers choose subsistence over shale gas’.

According to his reply in the charge sheet available with the Daily Times, he made a folder with the name of ‘Romanian farmers choose subsistence over shale gas’ and put the same story in this folder. But on the second day, he was surprised to see that the story with the headline ‘How a tycoon held financial system hostage’ appeared in the place of his marked story.

On November 18, Asif A Zuberi, publisher of the Business Recorder, issued a charge sheet to the said sub-editor and informed him, ‘upon checking the log of Reuters news feed, it was discovered that no such story had been sent by the wire service’ on the said date.

However, the sub-editor in his reply to the editor of the newspaper claimed that his colleague offered him bribe for publishing fake and forged stories but he refused to do so. Later on, through mobile conversation, his colleague assured him that he would not contrive such a wrong offer and would not publish such stories in his page. Owing to the assurance, he did not inform his superior/management about this discussion.

The story against AKD was published on October 28 from the dateline of Singapore. According to Reuters’ search, it was not available on Reuters screen on the said date.

 

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