During almost 33 years of journalistic journey, most of our time was spent in institutions that were bound by professional boundaries. But there are two institutions with which the experience has been very bitter from a professional point of view. One of these newspapers is based in Karachi while the other is based in Lahore. The late editor-in-chief of the Karachi-based newspaper was completely convinced that Aristotle was superior to him simply because he was born two and a half thousand years after Aristotle. But the situation of professionalism was such that one day the executive editor called and said
“The anniversary of the newspaper is coming on such and such a date. Sir is saying that you have to write a column on the services and anniversary of the newspaper on this day.”
Obviously, this was a request for praise from the newspaper. So I refused by saying that it is not even professionally correct and nor I’m in the mood to make the owners happy.” Later, It was said:
“This is your company. How can you refuse to participate in its birthday?”
I replied..
“This is not ours, Khan Sahib’s company, we are only employees here. Does the company intend to give any bonus to our employees in celebration of this anniversary?”
The phone was hung up after hearing the demand of a bonus. Now, look at the professionalism of the newspaper in Lahore. When I was appointed there, it was by saying that Sajjad Mir, Abdullah Tariq Sohail and you were kept as pro-Non-League columnists so that the balance of the editorial page would not be disturbed. The need to say this may have been felt because the owners of the newspaper were more loyal than PTI’s Imran Khan to Rana Sanaullah’s malice. You can see that the chief of the newspaper, the editor, the magazine editor, the news editors and the pages in charge were all young. But when I started writing, the ground started heating up under the feet of all of them. Every month two to three columns started getting rejected while the columns that were published were edited so badly that the column became a joke.
The limit was reached when one day my column was increased by our side. There, our same columns were saved by the page in charge who was non-political. They thought that I would leave on my own after getting fed up. But as a result, a young friend of ours on the editorial board started sympathetically exhorting us over the phone that we should shun political topics and write columns on other social issues. I would have expelled his good advice from the ear from which we heard it. So the day came when in the name of downsizing, I and Abdullah Tariq Sohail were promised to be removed from the columnists’ job.
It is noteworthy that from the owners of this newspaper to the junior reporters, no one was a regular part of PTI i.e. officials. Like Sabir Shakir and Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain, they were more loyal to the Shah from outside than the Shah.
But now you see our experience which I have been going through for almost two years. Two days ago, PTI’s candidate Mahmood Moulvi won the NA-245 by-election from Karachi. Do you know who is Mehmood Maulvi? He is a big businessman and provincial official of PTI Sindh. And this column you are reading on the website belongs to him. His daughter Mehwish Moulvi is running this website. Two years ago, when I was offered a job here, I thought that these people might not know that I’m a critic of PTI. So instead of accepting the offer, I warned them that you guys might not know that I’m among the fiercest critics of PTI. But there was no end to my surprise when I told from the front
“So what happened? This is not PTI’s website, it’s our personal website. Write whatever you want, we won’t reject or edit it.”
Almost 50% of the columns I have written here for the past two years were written against PTI, but God knows that neither my column was ever rejected nor edited, nor I was advised to write on other social issues by cursing political topics, nor from us to celebrate the anniversary of the website to put smile on the owners’ faces. Such is the level of professionalism that just two days before the NA-245 by-election, it was revealed to us that the PTI candidate from this constituency is Mehmood Moulvi. I was never told to write a column in his favor. In other words, the election of Sahib had nothing to do with us. God knows that under normal circumstances I would not have written this column but I wanted to show a mirror to these so-called journalism professionals who have no organizational connection with PTI but cannot tolerate a single word against their beloved party. Mahmood Moulvi, despite being a provincial official of PTI, gives us the open field, why do these so-called professionals die? On our way, we are congratulating Mahmood Maulvi on his victory with all my heart and soul, and praying that God will give the so-called big journalists and newspaper owners the opportunity to learn something from Mahmood Moulvi. Ameen
