Anchor Gharida Farooqi at the centre of controversy for raising fingers on Murad Saeed character — PEMRA springs into action

Anchor Gharida Farooqi at the centre of controversy for raising fingers on Murad Saeed character -- PEMRA springs into action

By Irum Saleem

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has sprung into action against ‘News One’ TV channel for showing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s favourite federal minister for communications Murad Saeed into a “questionable lights” with serious underlying meanings.

     The centre of this controversy is none else but a pro PMLN anchor Gharida Farooqi.

   The PEMRA issued show-cause notice to ‘News One’ on Farooqi’s program in which “derogatory/demeaning remarks” about Murad were used suggestive something very serious and notorious.

    Murad Saeed was singled out for particular praise by Prime Minister Imran Khan for the performance of his Ministry of Communications which ranked first in a ceremony to celebrate the top 10 best performing federal ministries but taking the top position was questioned both in and outside the PTI.

  PEMRA notice says: “In G for Gharidah, on Thursday at 10:05pm the anchor and panelists had questioned the decision to award Murad Saeed the top honour and made several critical and disparaging remarks about him insinuating ‘other factors’ behind the award than his ministry’s performance. The unprofessional/demeaning remarks were aired without any editorial control or time delay mechanism in place. Airing such remarks “raises serious concerns on the performance of [the] channel’s editorial policy and gatekeeping tools being adopted/practiced.”

  In the program, Gharida Farooqui questioned her panelists on what was the “[real] reason” for Murad Saeed’s ministry ranking first, panelist, journalist Mohsin Baig, responded that he didn’t know but the reason was “written in Reham Khan’s book”.

    Another panelist, senior pro PMLN journalist Iftikhar Ahmed, said: “Who is unaware of the performance and the allegations against this man at the top.” Aanalyst Tariq Mehmood said that some things were “self-explanatory” and asked the anchor to not prod over it since Pemra was watching.”A book has been mentioned as well. There is nothing hidden about this.

     Poor Murad has been under severe criticism within and outside his party since his ministry topped in the eyes of Imran Khan.

    The poor soul is finding it hard as how to deal with this notorious level of criticism as media persons like Gharida and others are raising fingers at his character.

    In it’s official reaction to Gharida’s insinuation, the PTI says on Twitter “Extremely shameful on Ghareeda Farooqi’s part to lead a program with such derogatory language. This is probably the reason why people have been calling this program #GForGhatya today! We hope to see an apology for such irresponsible journalism.”

“‏مرادسعید کی جس کارکردگی پر پہلانمبر ملا ہے وہ ریحام کی کتاب میں ہے؛ محسن بیگ

مرادسعید نےکارکردگی میں سب کو پیچھےچھوڑدیا مزید نہ پوچھیں پیمرا موجود ہے؛طارق محمود

مرادسعید کی کارکردگی کےالزامات سب کےسامنےموجود ہیں؛افتخاراحمد

میں مرادسعید کی کارکردگی بارے اتفاق کرتاہوں؛ جنرل امجد “

Gharida said this on her tweet. PAK DESTINY

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