The Chastisement of Meher Bokhari

If you had any doubts about what Meher Bokhari, the recently removed host of Samaa's Newsbeat programme, is going through these days, here's an inkling. She turned up, unexpectedly, on Aaj TV's Bolta Pakistan, whose current hosts Orya Maqbool Jan and Salim Bokhari - frequent participants on her programme - probably felt sympathy for her and decided to return her favours to them. Inevitably, there was much discussion of Meher Bokhari's own predicament and, also inevitably, her (and the duo's) barely suppressed bitterness about criticism of them kept creeping out. Have a look.


Part 1: See in particular from 02:12... where Salim Bokhari claims an American plot to divide the media and society by labeling people (as right-wing and liberal), Orya Maqbool moans about Twitter and Facebook being used to defame people unlike in Tunisia, and Meher speaks in general terms about the dangerous polarization of society through labeling, the contradictions and rigidity of "the liberal class" (04:25 on). Then Orya moans about the anti-religiousness of "the secular class" but also to his credit brings up the sensationalism of the media as a factor in the polarization. Meher then leads into a refreshingly subdued assessment of the media's own immaturity and irresponsibility before her upset at her own situation creeps out (till about 09:45). If you have the patience, you can also check out Meher finally bringing out the "liberal fascist" tag (at round 12:30 onwards) and complaining of people saying she has a paet mein daarrhi.





Part 2: See in particular from 08:10 onwards... where Meher Bokhari finally refers to the Salmaan Taseer episode, where Orya Maqbool and Salim Bokhari make fun of her being called "a fundo", Meher whines about "religious" becoming a term of abuse (10:03) and all three speak about the "campaigns" against innocents such as them.





Part 3: A short one... where Meher Bokhari lets us know exactly how she was probably arraigned by Samaa CEO Zafar Siddiqui...after 1:45 Orya Maqbool and Salim Bokhari once again get on their favourite horse of how the US has it in for Muslims worldwide to boost its arms industry.





Well, we do learn one thing above all from this programme: that despite their pretense of ignoring all critique, concerted criticism does, in fact, bite our media personalities. At the very least, their egos - remember that they would like to believe they are loved by all - do take a battering. We also learn that in their quieter moments, they can also reflect on their own roles somewhat critically. Now only if they could leave their egos and bitterness aside and stay in their quieter, reflective moments more often.