Daily Times

TV anchor Sahir Lodhi during a recent show invited a girl to deliver speech and the speaker highlighted the incidents of violence against women and girls in Pakistan through a poem and asked Quid-e-Azam to ‘come and see what is happening in the country founded by him’.

The audiences in hundreds responded to the speech by huge applause, but the anchor interrupted the speaker and started scolding her by saying why do you blame the Quaid. It showed that he completely missed the point of the speech, which was against the violent incidents against women. In an insulting tone, he rejected what the girl said by citing services of Quid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and turned to the audiences and said the speech did not deserve an applause. One of judges in the show went a step ahead, terming the sentence about the Quaid-e-Azam in the girl’s speech as ‘poisonous’.

There was nothing repugnant against founder of Pakistan whom we all love the most. The girl was only referring to the sorry state of affairs in Pakistan.

The TV anchors, with rare exception have assumed the role judges and jury. Management and owners of TV channels are blamed more than most of the half baked anchors. The anchor in question was able to stop the girl and insult her and audiences on his heart’s content but the director of the program did not stop him nor did anybody from the audiences dare to interrupt him. This one way unbridled freedom of expression is harming the image of Pakistan.

GUKSHER PANWER

Johi