Daily Times

The controversy surrounding ‘dismissal’ of Lahore Press Club President Azam Chaudhry from state-run Pakistan Television Corporation refused to subside on Tuesday as the senior journalist confronted Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb’s side of the story, terming it just a ‘half-truth’.

In a tweet, Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the news item published in local media about Azam Chaudhry was ‘false and baseless’. She said that Azam Chaudhry neither is nor has ever been an employee of the PTV, but only a member of an ‘issues-based analyst pool’ for the state-run TV channel. He has not been removed from the pool nor has been asked to leave, she claimed. “Nothing of the sort has been communicated to him and he is part of the PTV Lahore analysts’ pool as she is writing this tweet.”

However, Azam Chaudhry told Daily Times that he has been verbally communicated by a very senior official of the PTV that his services as analyst are no more required. “In May 2022, PTV Islamabad contacted me to seek my consent for hiring my services as an analyst for a programme named ‘Ba Kahabar’. I agreed to their offer and subsequently an approval letter was issued to me,” the LPC president told Daily Times, adding that he used to participate in PTV programmes as an analyst.

“On the day of press conference held by prime minister in Lahore, I had actually gone to the event because I had been invited by the PTV there since our routine programme was also to be recorded at the same venue after PM’s presser,” Azam Ch said. “During the press conference, I asked a very genuine question from the prime minister about growing curbs on freedom of speech in Pakistan. PTV Chairman and regional heads were also present at the press conference,” he continued. “Soon after the press conference, a very senior official of PTV came to me and informed me that my services as analyst have been discontinued. I was not even allowed to participate in the programme which was scheduled to be recorded the same day and for which I had gone to the venue,” he informed Daily Times.

Azam Ch said since that day he has never been invited to any of the PTV programmes as an analyst. “Though I have not been issued any letter in this regard, a well-placed source in PTV told me that my services as analyst have been discontinued,” he added.

In her tweet, Information Minister insisted that the views and opinions of Azam Ch were known to the government at the time and still he was invited to the press conference. “If the government wanted to suppress his voice or questions, he would not have been invited and given an opportunity to ask his questions. The prime minister answered his questions in detail,” she said.

The minister said that she also answered his questions. She said that the PM spent a significant amount of time answering questions from various reporters at Governor’s House that day.

The PTI government used to only allow selected reporters and journalists to PM’s press conferences, she remarked. The present government ensures that PM Shehbaz Sharif’s press conferences are open to all reporters and journalists. The minister further said that the said story in local media was published without taking the government’s point of view which was ‘unprofessional and fell short of journalistic ethics and standards’.