Daily Times

Amir Liaquat Hussain is back in the limelight with his allegations on the missing social activist regarding the black law, but that’s not it; he blames India for banning his show and accuses PEMRA of giving India a gift on its Republic Day. The self-proclaimed star, scholar and entertainer, Amir Liaquat also claims that he is the true voice of Pakistan and no one can stop him. So let’s take a moment and review the journey of the ‘voice’ of Pakistan.

Amir was born on July 5, 1971 in Karachi to politician Sheikh Liaquat Hussain and columnist Mahmooda Sultana. Both of his parents were renowned figures, his mother was the first woman columnist in the history of Pakistan and his father was member of the national Assembly. However, Amir claims that his parents never cushioned his journey and he had to earn all the success he has today.

Coming from a lineage of journalists, it was obvious that Amir would try his hand in media. He started with writing columns for newspapers and gained some popularity. Later, he moved to Dubai in 1997 and worked for Radio Asia’s Pakistan Chapter as a news reader. After that he came back to Pakistan and joined government-run radio channel FM 101’s marketing company Clarity Communications. He did some shows there which became popular; most of them were game shows.

After doing radio for some time, Amir wanted to broaden his horizons and move to TV, having a background of hosting and debating he thought he would find some success there. He joined PTV, but was fired shortly after for unknown reasons, which landed him in an upcoming news channel GEO. In 2002, when Geo was in its initial stages, Amir joined them as a news reader.

During this time he became politically active and joined MQM, taking part in the general elections. He was elected as the Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan NA-249 Karachi-XI constituency and was appointed as the minister of state for religious affairs and Zakat and Ushar division in 2004. Along with this, he started his show ‘Aalim Online’ which made him a household name. In another one of his shows, Amir criticised the Ahmadi Community founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadyani. A guest scholars in his show declared anyone associated with Ahmadi group deserving of murder due to blasphemy. This led to a lot of controversy and criticism against him.

Amir was the minister of state for Religious Affairs until July 2007, when his party asked him to resign from his position as Minister of State for Religious Affairs and from his seat as a member of the National Assembly.According to an official statement, the party was unhappy with the statements made by Hussain against Salman Rushdie in which he mocked his work, made fun of his name and asked him to die.

While running a hit TV show, Amir became a part of another debate, in which his credentials were challenged. He claimed that he received his Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) degree in Islamic Studies in 1995, and Doctor of Philosophy (Phd) in Islamic Studies in 2002 from Trinity College and University (based in Spain but incorporated in Dover, Delaware). He also claimed to hold a degree of Master of Arts in Islamic Studies in 2002 from the Trinity College and University. However, all his degrees were declared fake and later it was proven that he bought the degrees from a local company, on whose channel he is working on, so he could qualify to contest in the elections.

Following this, its mind blowing to see that someone with such low credibility calls himself the ‘voice’ of Pakistan. His game shows are entertaining and he should stick to it, but raising his voice on serious issues that could create turmoil in the country is something educated and responsible people should deal with. I personally don’t approve of this that someone who thinks that ‘green shoes’ were the reason Pakistan team lost, should be my ‘voice’. I loved his game show Inaam Ghar and I think he should contain himself to that; and being a Pakistani I would like to say that no one voted for him to be our voice. Freedom of speech is important for empowerment, but with great power comes great responsibility and I think Amir Liaquat should understand that.