Najam Sethi Speaks - Update 1

Uh-oh. I think this is going to get ugly. Now Media Times (the parent company of Daily Times) Chief Financial Officer has responded to Najam Sethi's post on the journalists' mailing list. Of course, he was probably compelled to respond by what Najam said about him in his post...

So here's what Suhail Ahmed-the-CFO says, verbatim:

Hello friends,

I am amazed at this blatant fabrication by Najam Sethi and his claims of heroism for the rights of employees. Here are the facts;

(1) All he ever fought for was his own benefits and rights till 20th October 2009. He was trying to negotiate with the owners for a special deal for "his team" as he called it.

(2) The owners were fed up with his blatant abuse of their generosity, moon lightning at DUNYA TV for Rs. 1.2 million a month, padding expenses, misusing the Daily Times facilities to promote various personal ventures (all of which failed) including his TV channel.

(3) For a long period of time he barely visited the offices of Daily Times under the comic pretext that "his life was in danger".

(4) Sorry Najam you have been exposed many times before: please save us from this bullshit.

Suhail Ahmed.

CFO - Media Times Limited.

Someday I want to do a post about how much journalists are really earning these days. Watch this space for updates.

Najam Sethi Speaks

So, after a lot of speculation and mudslinging about the organizational downslide of The Daily Times and Aaj Kal among staffers and assorted journalists, the big man has himself broken his silence on a journalists' forum.

Here is what Najam Sethi himself wrote today:

Dear Friends,

You should know the facts: I resigned from Daily Times as Editor and from Media Times (which owns Daily Times) as Director on 11 October 2009 after six months of fighting with the management over employee rights, including salaries and increments and downsizing. I was accused by the Chief Financial Officer of taking the side of employees and "bleeding the paper". This is known to the staff. My senior colleagues Khaled Ahmed, Ejaz Haider and Ata Musawwir and Qasim Nauman have also resigned to back up my position. What more can we say?

Najam Sethi

Just so you remember, this is where we first wrote about the resignations. That was October 11, the exact date Najam now admits he resigned.