A TV anchor (Sahir Lodhi) during a recent show, invited a girl to deliver speech, during which the speaker highlighted the worst incidents of violence against women and girls in Pakistan and asked Quaid-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. The anchor interrupted the girl and started a tirade against the girl asking her why she blamed Quaid, and in an emotional tone, started citing services of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and turned to the audience asking them why they clapped. One of the judges, the Maulana, went several steps ahead, calling the sentence about Quaid-e-Azam in the girl’s speech poisonous. 

There was nothing repugnant in the speech against the founder of Pakistan whom we all love the most. The girl just requested the Quaid-e-Azam about the sorry state of affairs in Pakistan. 

TV anchors, with rare exceptions, have assumed the role of judges and the jury. Management and owners of TV channels ought to be blamed more than most of the half-baked anchors. The anchor in question was able to stop the girl and insult her and the audience to his heart’s content but the director of the programme did not stop him nor anybody from the audiences dared to interrupt him. 

This is one way through which unbridled freedom of expression is harming the image of Pakistan. 

GULSHER PANWHER,  

Johi, June 2.