Lahore, November 20: Leaders of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party have accused two TV anchors of running a vilification campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari at the behest of “anti-democratic” forces.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, a close aide of PPP chief Zardari, said: “Two anchors of a popular private channel are running a malicious campaign against the President but they will not succeed in their designs.”
Though Kaira did not name the two anchors, other PPP leaders said they are Hamid Mir and Shahid Masood of Geo News channel. “It seems that there are no other issues in the country but the President for this TV channel,” Kaira said.
However, he made it clear the government has no intention to impose curbs on the anchors or on their channel.
In private meetings, PPP leaders have accused the Geo media group of working on an agenda to topple their government at the centre. They have suggested to the party leadership that the government should either ban anti-Zardari programmes or boycott the Geo group.
However, these suggestions have not been heeded by the leadership.
A PPP insider said to a news agency that Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, the owner of the Geo media group, had conveyed a party leader that there is “no place for Mr Zardari in the presidency” and his group would create such hype that he would have to quit “within three months”.
“This is outrageous. Something will have to be done to check this media militancy,” the PPP leader said.
Besides Geo News channel, the group owns the popular Urdu daily Jang and the English daily The News.
–PTI