The Jang Group and Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman – how low the standards would fall? – By Yousuf Nazar
I am getting quite fed up with the planted, biased, illiterate, and highly unprofessional so-called reporting by the The News International. Its current owner Mir Shakil ur Rehman was not above cheating in the exams. More about this in a moment.
At one point of time, I was very negative about Asif Zardari, and still am, [read my article of Sep. 04, 2008] but whatever he is or his past, he is at least a known commodity. And to be honest, what the PPP government under President Zardari has achieved in political terms in just two years, Zia and Musharraf could not achieve in the twenty two years, these murderers and traitors ruled the country. Zia killed ZAB and Musharraf killed Akbar Bugti. Whatever ZAB and Bugti’s wrongs might have been, every one deserves a fair trial. Both Zia and Musharraf violated the constitution and the law of the land with impunity and contempt. So it is not out of line to accuse them of murder and treason.
Now about the Jang Group. On Saturday, April 10, 2010, the News published a report by Ahmad Noorani that claimed, “a highly controversial clause regarding the judges’ appointment in the 18 Amendment bill has changed the whole scenario of lawyers’ politics with the government trying to gain their loyalties. According to the Law Ministry sources, sensing the lawyers’ reaction on the passage of the controversial clause of judges’ appointment, the law ministry has decided to launch a full-fledged campaign against the country’s independent judiciary. Credible sources confided to The News that senior officials of the ministry had been deputed for this purpose and they had been assigned to give cases to certain lawyers so that they feel obliged and sympathise with the government at an appropriate time.”
What kind of nonsense, unprofessional, planted and inspired reporting is this or for that matter reporting at all. Law Ministry sources, credible sources, reliable sources.. and so on! Another one was “lawyers plan to challenge the 18th amendment” without naming a single lawyer. This is not reporting. Name the sources or have the guts to say that it is your opinion. But then put it on opinion pages and stop publishing one-sided and inspired material as front page news items.
First of all, to term the clause regarding the judges’ appointment in the 18 Amendment bill as highly controversial is ludicrous, dishonest, and factually incorrect. The Amendment won an overwhelming majority and this particular clause was passed without any opposition, whatsoever, by the National Assembly. Would any one who is a journalist worth his salt and has any professional caliber, term this as “highly controversial” unless he is either very biased or is working on some agenda.
Such journalists should join politics and then they would be free and entitled to say whatever they fancy but as long as they profess to be journalists, they should learn to observe some professional standards. Or is that too much to expect. Maybe it is.
Jang Group’s TV channel has promoted people with dubious credentials like Aamir Liaqat Hussain who have fake degrees. GEO, on its website, prides itself as the CNN of Pakistan, totally oblivious of the reality that in most countries outside the United States, CNN is considered to be a biased mouth piece of American establishment and is not exactly known for objectivity or independent reporting. GEO TV colloborates with the Voice of America, which is an official news arm of the government of the United States. Yet, it claims to be indpendent and objective.
Observing this lowly and sleazy standard of journalism, I have been reflecting on an evening in the distant past. I was preparing for my final exams for the B.Com in 1976 in Karachi. One evening, when I was studying, my door bell rang. When I went out, it was my friend Zain Ghazali, son of Commander Ghazali, a former manager of Pakistan’s cricket team. He asked me to come and sit in the car parked outside my house. As I got into the volkswagen, I saw a nice looking boy on the wheels. It was Mir Shakil ur Rehman. He was very excited as he had managed to get the Accounting paper “OUT”. So I asked what then was the problem? “I don’t know how to solve it”, was the answer. I hope the readers get a picture.
I believe, Shakil has now moved to Dubai with his family and does not even live in Pakistan. I wonder if such people, who did not have the ability to even cheat in an exam and do not even live in Pakistan despite making so much money here, would have even bothered to provide some elementary training in journalism and its basic standards to the members of their staff. It seem not.
Jung group is cheap Group, some time i think that , its nt pakistani group its Indian or israeli Group. every time they creat propaganda and shows paksitans negative image regularly, they never show the pretty image of this country, i think all workers and Journalist who work for this groups are cheap and the son of Dollars, they work for money, they dont have zameer,
What a cheat. Lol. Thanks for sharing this amazing (but not surprizing) story about one of pakistan’s leading media tycoons whose news group is running an anti-ppp campaign on the issue of corruption. Hahahaha. What irony.
Please, don’t you all understand the Cardinal Principle here: There are different standards and different laws for different people. The Jang group CEO has supported dubious causes, dictators, looters and murderers; he and his team are heroes for Pakistan’s civil society. Conversely, the PPP and its current leaders are devils for trying to evolve a democratic process.
The vicious gang of Ansar Abbasi, Ahmed Noorani, Saleh Zaafir, Tariq Butt and Shakeel Anjum (The News team, jointly operated and funded by the Hizbut-Tahrir and the ISI):
The illicit relationship between Ansar Abbasi and Ahmed Noorani has been exposed by the Media Guru:
‘MuhammadAhmed Noorani aka Chappan Churi has been hiding his reported criminal past under the carpet of the same noble cause.
Ahmed Noorani is an Islamabad-based correspondent of The News, working under journalist-turned-taliban-spokesperson Ansar Abbasi aka Omro Ayyar. While because of his journalistic clout Omro Ayyar has not been charged so far for promoting extremism, his prodigy Chappan Churi however is allegedly a proclaimed offender for spreading sectarianism. Allah ne milaee jordi.
In April 2000, Bahawalpur’s Civil Lines Police registered a case against AhmedNoorani for violating section 144 CrPC, which was imposed to refrain miscreants from provoking sectarian sentiments in the area known as a hotbed of sectarian militancy.Noorani had plastered the walls of Islamia University of Bahawalpur with posters carrying objectionable slogans against some sects (see the police report).
Interestingly, the posters according to the police belonged to Noorani Institute of Scientific Education, run by none other than Ahmed Noorani when his age would not be more than 20 years. While his roohani baap Omro Ayyar is a dangerous person with his half knowledge, Chappan Churi was spreading sectarianism in the name of scientific education. Pardon us but we will have to say again “Allah ne milaee jordi“.
Chappan Churi was put behind the bars and later on bailed out. He, however, did not turn up to face the court of law and was consequently declared a proclaimed offender, a title he still holds. But, how one can touch him now when like Jeera Blade he is also taking refuge of a noble cause.
Although, spreading sectarian hatred has serious implications on a society at large but homicide is the most heinous crime in the eyes of law. Chappan Churi had reportedly also been involved in this crime.
In October 2001, Ahmed Noorani’s cousin Yousaf Noorani and his two initially unidentified accomplices shot and killed over a trivial matter a fellow Islamia University student Rasheed Ahmed at the doorsteps of Abu Bakar Hostel (see the FIR). Deceased’s brother Abdul Sattar was said to be an eyewitness who later identified the other two ‘culprits’, and one of them was Ahmed Noorani.
Abdul Sattar left no stone unturned to get included Ahmed Noorani’s name as one of the murderers, but all his efforts were defeated by Noorani’s chacha (paternal uncle) the infamous journalist Rehmat Ali raazi, who at that time was wielding ruthless powers as the provincial bureaucracy’s tout, courtesy the column he used to write for daily Jang. (It may be pertinent to mention here that the Jang Group’s management had to get rid of Raazi when was presented with volumes of his corruption).
Ahmed Noorani got away of the murder case scot free while his cousin YousafNoorani was handed down death sentence, which was later commuted to life imprisonment, again thanks to chacha Raazi.
But, the haunting ghost of deceased Rasheed Ahmed has made a person with criminal history to rub shoulders with the who is who in the country’s judicial system under the pretext of espousing a noble cause. The hidden agenda however is to remain scot free even while Chacha Raazi has lost his teeth and nails since being expelled from the powerful Jang Group.
The media in Pakistan is just like the genie out of the bottle. While it has played a powerful role in exposing the flaws of our society, its obsession to scandalize everything and anything has more often than not made it cross all ethical and professional limits , some anchors like Dr. Shahid Masood, Kamran Khan, Mosharraf Zaidi and writers as well could be well included in the list. Although we all commend the media for taking nearly every big shot to task, we also must condemn the media for causing immense damage to national interests due to their inability to verify and portray the truth. The reason behind this irresponsible behaviour is twofold: first of all, it is the desire for many of the investors in this industry to act as media moguls and, second, it is the relative immaturity of the media industry itself. Media plays a very powerful role in the development of any society and we have seen the positive impact it has had in creating the right awareness and direction in the masses. However, if it lacks the discipline to draw a line between what is fact and what is fiction, what is true and what is false, what is responsible freedom and what is reckless wildness, it needs to be harnessed through policies and regulation to prevent it from becoming another mafia which becomes a victim of its own mad pursuit of power rather than playing its true role of empowering the powerless.