The hypocrisy of nayadaur. tv andthefridaytimes.com
By Justice Markandey Katju
Of all the shameless journalists in Pakistan who are toeing the line of the Pakistan Establishment, the worst are those who, while professing and posing to be 'liberal' and 'independent', like Raza Rumi and his sidekick Mehr Husayn who run the portals nayadaur.tv and thefridaytimes.com, do the same, though in a subtle, deceptive manner, under a figleaf of neutrality, slurring over the truth.
On seeing the articles posted on their websites one finds conspicuously missing accounts of the fascist reign of terror unleashed by the Pakistan Establishment, with over ten thousand people in Pakistan arrested and jailed on false and frivolous charges, many beaten, tortured, killed, or just 'disappeared'.
One also notes an absence of condemnation of Pakistan's judiciary which has turned a Nelson's eye to these horrors, though having taken an oath to protect the people's rights.
One particularly notes, and this is the most important, no mention in nayadaur.tv or fridaytimes.com of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is bravely leading the democratic forces in Pakistan even from inside Attock jail, with his spirit unbroken and undaunted by all odds
It seems Mehr Husayn, who runs thefridaytimes.com, only cares for her own comforts, and the safety and welfare of her sons Zulfiqar and Kassim, rather than the welfare of the people of Pakistan, who can go to hell as far as she was concerned.
I have already written about Raza Rumi, who masquerades as a journalist and analyst but is a downright sycophant.
Raza praised former PM Benazir Bhutto sky high, but I cannot believe that, being a Pakistani, he did not know about her large scale corruption, of which he deliberately made no mention.
He rushed to congratulate Pakistan's former Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman on being named among the 100 most influential persons of the world in 2023 by Time magazine, though that recognition was really a joke, as in a poor country where food riots have taken place she wears the costliest attire and puts on the costliest cosmetics ( even her lipstick and shampoo are perhaps imported ), which show how much she really cares for the poor and suffering.
Most journalists in Pakistan are sold out, and openly pro-Establishment.
But it is these wolves in sheep clothing, the 'liberal' media, like nayadaur.tv and thefridaytimes.com, which are the worst, as they have the capacity to deceive, by deliberate omission and slurring over the truth, and by diverting attention from the main issues to relatively irrelevant ones.
(The author is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
