Presenting... the Real Spirit of Aamir Liaquat

Without further ado...



[Update 1: The above video may not play because it has been pulled from Youtube by Geo. In that case you can watch the video here or try the following embed:




Update 2: I fully expect the above videos to be taken down eventually. Please check the comments section for new links that readers may post for the video in case you cannot view them from the given links. If you do come across new working links that are not already known, please do share them with others in the comments section.]

I don't subscribe at all to the sectarian twist this video takes towards the end, which is obviously motivated by other concerns. But the first half should be enough to get an idea of the reality of this televangelist. I'd love to see the face of the numerous people taken in by his faux piety and "gentleness" right about now. Keep in mind that this man is currently the Managing Director of ARY's religion channel QTV.

What is it they say? Har Cheez Meezan Mein Achhi Lagti Hai!


Update 3: Of course, Aamir Liaquat has taken the expected route and claimed that the video is a doctored one, with sophisticated editing and dubbing in of a fake voice used to conspire against him (what other possible recourse could a bald-faced hypocrite painted into a corner have?). Let's just say nobody - especially those with any sense of the technicalities of video editing - are buying it. He has blamed, without naming his former employers, Geo, for releasing the video, ostensibly because his Ramzan programmes on the ARY Network are (according to him) beating Geo's ratings (it's all about the ratings, isn't it?). Some others too have questioned how this video was leaked, comprising as it does, material that only Geo could have been privy to. We don't know how the video material made its way out of Geo (such things are usually traceable to editors or other working in an organization who have access to the footage and who can make copies on the sly) but the very fact that Geo has been pulling out all stops to have the video taken down from various sites points to the fact that the video is very much genuine. The reasons for Geo to want to suppress the video are simple: it reflects rather poorly on their programming and their brand as well, even though Aamir Liaquat may no longer be working for them. What it reveals is the utter hypocrisy of not just Mr Jaahil Online himself but also of those in direct charge of the 'religious' programming and indeed of the overall broadcaster itself. Obviously, while Aamir Liaquat was in Geo's employ, his producers, editors, crew, and channel executives knew full well what a charlatan he was and yet continued to deceive their viewers with a hyped up image of his piety.

But what is even more galling as far as Aamir Liaquat's latest "explanation" is, is how he immediately lays the blame for the "conspiracy" at the feet of those who are "against the finality of the Prophethood" and "against those who love the Prophet." Recall that Aamir Liaquat once condoned on his programme on Geo, a declaration that Ahmadis were wajib-ul-qatl (those whose killing can be justified), which was followed by the subsequent assassinations of two Ahmadis and Aamir Liaquat's live telecasts being suspended by Geo. "The tongue that speaks of the Prophet, Peace be upon him," he says in his most recent programme on ARY, "could never utter obscenities." If that is not the worst form of munafiqat (hypocrisy) in the name of religion, I don't know what is. Has this man no shame at all?

You can see the slimebag squirming here:




As a response, and to make Aamir Liaquat squirm some more, I would have love to have posted here the badchodaboy remix which I saw yesterday (man, these guys are quick) but, unfortunately, it too has disappeared off Youtube. If you find a link for it, let us know.

Thanks to @WarisJunejo, here it is:



Incidentally, do ARY head honchos really think Aamir Liaquat can ride this out?

ARY In Disarray?

The following information has been posted by one Mekaal Hassan on the journalists' mailing group PressPakistan. We cannot verify it but it does seem to have more credible citations than the numerous allegations usually found on the list. Can anyone authenticate or rebut this information?

(On a side note, does anyone actually watch ARY these days?)

"The private Pakistani satellite television channel, ARY Digital is in deep financial trouble. The company behind the brand recently slid into administration, leaving employees (journalists and technical staff) helpless and aghast.

ARY Digital TV, broadcasts 3 Asian satellite television channels using Sky television platform in England, ARY News, QTV, and ARY Digital. The company (ARY Digital UK Limited) commenced trading on 9th April 1999 (company registered number 03749889). By July 2011, it owed over 3,500,000.00 (GBP) to various creditors including some well known industry names.

What appears really odd is that the company, now in administration, terminated arrangements with its employees, but later (unbeknown to them) those same employees were hired by a similarly sounding company: ARY Network Limited.

This new company was incorporated on 1st December 2010 (company registered no. 07456134). Administrators were appointed to deal with the affairs of ARY Digital UK Limited due to the disastrous financial situation the company found itself in. Matters were dealt with at the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, London and the company was placed into administration on the 19th May 2011, (case number No 4172 of 2011).

It is surprising that the assets of ARY Digital UK Limited were sold by private treaty to ARY Network Limited on the 31st May 2011. It is noteworthy that two of the directors of the two companies are brothers.

One of the directors of ARY Network Limited, Mr Muhammed Yaqoob Iqbal is the father of Salman Iqbal, a director of ARY Digital UK Limited. It appears that company assets have simply been passed between family members whilst countless creditors and employees are unaware of this private arrangement.

The employees at ARY s media station are completely outraged as they feel they have been cheated and denied basic employment rights as they did not even know of the changes being made by management. Some salaries have not been paid for almost a year.

The dire financial mismanagement came to light a few months ago when the ARY engaged in a costly advertising campaign to launch a weekly newspaper called The Bridge . Despite the allegedly huge costs incurred, no publication was ever released and it appears that the newspaper s editorial team have now been forced from office. No explanation has ever been given.

The company had promised to launch the newspaper in Pakistan and the UK but failed on both attempts. It is unclear what strategy was at work and why one company was forced to incur exorbitant marketing/advertising costs given there has not been a single publication to date.

Reliable sources within the channel have cited unrest and anger among the employees who find themselves now being employed by the new company. According to a senior insider, professional trade unions are now set to step in and a legal battle will ensue by those wanting to protect themselves from the adventures of the owners.

It seems however if the old ARY has been put in to administration and the employees have suddenly found that the label has been changed and a new ARY has taken over (albeit under the control of the brother) the staff may have to ask the authorities to investigate matters further.

When the company was set up, the first directors were Jawaid Pasha, Yasir Pasha and Zain Pasha who (for reasons unknown) all resigned abruptly on 13th October 2000. It was on that date, Mr Muhammed Yaqoob Iqbal and Salman Iqbal were appointed as directors. Even Mr Asif Iqbal (the former cricketer) was a director at one point as was Barbara Kahan although their positions have since been terminated.

Records at Companies House (the government agency for all companies in England and Wales) makes it clear that the principal activity of the company to June 2006 was to produce and broadcast television programmes for the Asian community in the UK and Europe. It cites, the company having suffered material losses whilst carrying out this activity .

Those losses were financed and underwritten by its shareholders as well as loans from sponsors. It goes on to state: Due to heavy trading losses 5 years ago, the company entered into an agreement with one of its (family) associated company s . Therefore, its current activity is that of sales and marketing for 3 satellite television stations for the Asian market in the UK and Europe. " The Company suffered bad debts on a regular basis which created cash flow problems

The papers submitted by the ARY owners, state the company directors felt the company may not be able to trade through the difficult financial period. Rather than risk whatever little assets the company owned and further expose itself to trade creditors they felt the company should be placed in to administration to protect its position and therein its assets."

Storm in ARY's Teacup (Updated)

The journo bulletin boards are abuzz about confusing goings-on within ARY.

According to the reports (among them, this one from JournalismPakistan), the ARY's longtime Lahore Bureau Chief Nasrullah Malik has either resigned or been sacked, along with at least four other staffers. An email letter circulated among staff by CEO ARY Network Salman Iqbal warns them about Mr Malik calling up staffers in other bureaus to urge them to resign in his support and says Mr Malik's claims that he had resigned over delays in salary payments and other work-related issues are not true. The letter calls upon the staff to pay no heed to the attempts to tarnish ARY's reputation. There are unconfirmed reports also of ARY's Director News Mohsin Raza having also submitted his resignation. Earlier rumours of Dr S&M having similarly turned in his papers seem to have been, unfortunately, untrue.

According to unverified sources, Mr Malik was either forced to resign or sacked for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for the needy, particularly the flood-affected, under the umbrella of the ARY-set up Khwaja Ghareeb Nawaz Trust. Mr. Malik apparently denies the (whispered) allegations and has threatened to take ARY management to court. There are also rumours of other staff demanding their pending dues to be cleared immediately and that the current problems are associated with certain recently announced administrative appointments. Whatever the truth of the matter, there seems to be plenty of storm raging in the ARY teacup at the moment.

Anyone know what's really going on?


: : : UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS  : : :

It seems we got some of our information - culled from the bulletin boards - incorrect. Salman Iqbal did, in fact, accuse Nasrullah Malik in writing of embezzlement. We now have access to the actual letters written to and fro, which we are reproducing below without any editing whatsoever. Readers may judge their worth themselves.


From ARY Network CEO and MD Salman Iqbal:

From: Salman Iqbal

Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:45:40 +0000

Subject: Nasrullah

Dear All

With a very heavy heart I am writting this email to all of you. I would have never writted this email, and this issue would have gone to the grave with me. But after what all has happened I have no choice but to write this email to all off you.

As you all know that nasrullah malik has resigned, and with him he made 4 other reporters resign. Not only that but he has been calling all the reporters in all the bureaus to resign to show his strength, not only that but he has also made phone calls to Dr shahid and many others saying that I salman Iqbal has fired Dr shahid. Let me reiterate with the strongest heart that this is not true. I have neither fired dr shahid not intend to, and nor have I made any list to fire any other reporter or people on the desk. These are all rumors spread by one person to make our organization week.

I am really proud of the boys who did not listen to nasrullah and worked with all there spirit and good heartdness as always.I thank them once again The actual fact why nasrullah resigned is because he was asked to do so. Nasrullah has worked for over 8 years in our organization and was an integral part of it. Nasrullah was actually a face of ARY news in punjab. Half of the province actually thought he was the owner or a shareholder of ary. You all would thinking why was he asked to resign. I with a very heavy heart now have to disclose the truth.

He was asked to resign cause he had stolen money in the name of charity of KhwAja ghareeb nawaz trust. He was confronted by me personally on the phone and he accepted it. Thru ammad I had asked him to come to karachi last to last friday when I was there. And he said he would come. When I spoke to him on the phone he accepted his crime and promised it will never happen again. To which I didn\'t agree. I told him to quietly resign and leave and nothing will happen to him nor will this ever come out.

Resign he did, which I accepted with a big heart. This story would have never come , but what he did after his resignation is not accpetable and neither is professional. He is telling everybody that he resigned due to non payment of salaries and other issues. Which is not true. He was aksed to leave cause even previously I use to get many calls from people that he use to take bribes for his work. Although his brother was convicted for a murder in punjab I tried my level best to get him released from jail, and we got successful in doing that. When I use to hear such things I never believed it and always use to write it off. But when I actually got proof os him stealing money in the name of charity and using it for his personal gain, that was it.

The sad part here is that I had forgiven him for his sins, but he instead of departing quietly started creating panic in our organization, in every level possible. From top level status of dr shahid, to even sweepers in ARY lahore. Which was very heart breaking and that\'s why I had no option but to tell the whole organization of his sins.

I really sorry that I had to disclose the truth to all of you, cause I had no other option. Today is a sad day at ARY, and it is very sad for me in 3 counts. One I had to let go of my very close person nasrullah, and the second cause he stole from us and third he tried to break us in two.

I am grateful that I have a strong team that\'s why nasrullah failed to break us in to 2. People who have left under nasrullah\'s influence are week and dependent on him, and they have no standing of there own. And they were scared that without nasrullah there weakness would have been seen by everyone. I love my team and I know all of you are loyal people. And all of you tried really hard to get nasrullah back into ARY. You all should now know that\'s the reason why nasrullah shut his phone for 5 days and even though being in dxb did not have the courage to meet me or even call me when a lot of his colleagues asked him too. You all must have gotten your answer, cause he had confronted to me for his theft, and he had no words to talk to me.

Let\'s put our head down, and work really hard to bring this organization back to no 1. Let\'s stand together and fight these rumors off. And I am really grate to dr shahid for his strength that he has shown in this whole turmoil, by standing besides me and helping me thru all this.

Thank you all

Yours

Salman iqbal

CEO and managing director.

ARY Network.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

 Reply from Nasrullah Malik, former Lahore Bureau Chief ARY News:

From: Nasrullah Malik

Date: Mon 20 Dec 2010

Mr. Salman Iqbal

Keeping in view our long relation and personal association I wanted to quit my job in a dignified manner so I resigned on December 14, 2010. You Know it well how you and your cronies beg me to withdrew my resign and return to my job. Everyone Knows inside and outside ARY the way my team and I served the organization even with our blood wherever required. Being owner of a channel network it is your prerogative to hire and fire people. But in the same way it is a right of an employee to decide if he wants to continue or quit his Job. Obviously you can not own people. It is always mutual trust that works both ways. With salaries delayed and working environment deteriorating it was impossible for an honest journalist to continue job in such a channel.

However, it was beyond my imagination that you could slip down so much to come up with such a pack of lies against me. Unfortunately my approach about you was wrong because the family in which I groomed I am taught to trust friends and reciprocally individual like you having love for money alone and no regards for any moral value or manners have shown your true face.

By the grace of Allah Almighty, I am confident that people who know both of us having courage to give honest opinion will stand by my side on all your false accusations against me. I challenge you and anybody else who is of your opinion to prove even the smallest of false charge you leveled against me in my whole professional career. Further, I am ready to declare all my assets at any forum and I challenge you to come forward and do the same.

After reading those lines you wrote about me, I have doubts about your mental health. For instance, you blamed me of embezzling money from Kh. Ghareeb Nawaz Trust which is solely owned and operated by your family. Those who know your family can be witness to what I have said. I suppose after earth quake of 2005 and recent flood it is high time that you and your family made accountable to give the details of single penny that was donated by people from allover the world.

As for as the matter of my taking bribe or favors is concerned, it is not in my blood. Further, I belong to that group of thought who earn and take to their homes all what is Halal. I do not come from your family and I do not have NAB References against me. I have not committed any fraud with individuals, banks and companies in UAE. It is not my nature to stab friends in the back the way you did. People know that I am in Lahore where I have been living for over two decades but your family has absconded from Dubai after embezzling money and dishonoring of cheques. Allah knows well who is honest and who cheated even his family.

Those four journalists you try to label as vermin, actually served ARY over the years with their utmost dedication and best of abilities. Most experienced and reputed among them is Mr. Suhail Shahryar son of a noble family. In his over twenty years of journalistic experience before joining ARY he also served as Bureau Chief of Online Int. News Network in Lahore for seven years.

Similarly, Mian Mohammad Aslam is also a seasoned journalist known for his accurate and exclusive reporting among the journalist community in Lahore. He served in three major national dailies before joining ARY. He has remained a major contributor of exclusive stories to the channel. Two young stars of journalist community in Lahore are Asad Sohaib and Zulqarnain Sheikh whom you blamed for being parasites.

I am really ashamed that you wrote that you supported me in false murder case against my brothers. The fact is that you haven’t done any thing for me in that case and the government of that time witnessed me fighting it all alone without any favor from any body. I believe on merit and it was my conviction that Allah helps those who are on the right path. People know how you are trying to settle your nab and fraud cases with the help of media and official support.

I will now show your true face to whole of Pakistan, especially people in the media. On the false allegations you leveled against me Allah will make you answerable. At the same time I am approaching independent judiciary in the country to make you accountable for baseless charges against me and I am going to file a liable suit against you in the court.

Nasrullah Malik

20th of December 2010

Lahore.

As a superfluous aside, please note the following two missives from Dr S&M sent immediately after Salman Iqbal's letter to the staff:

First email from Dr S&M, President ARY Network:

From: Dr Shahid Masood

Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:42:28 +0000

Subject: My status/position

Dear All,

We in organisation are all aware of a situation which emerged after some of our colleagues resigned from lahore. It was followed by another unpleasant incident in islamabad office.

During last one hour I received calls from media industry including one very important one (about which I informed salman sb immediately). I was involving my own status. Although salman sb categorically denied and we both are on same page in all decisions taken during last few days/months. Even then I" offer" my resignation if it can be helpful in resolving the issues.

I request all the team members to avoid creating/listening to rumours.

Best wishes.

Dr Shahid Masood

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Second email from Dr S&M, President ARY Network:
 

From: Dr Shahid Masood

Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:16:59 +0000

Subject: Re: My status/position

Dear All,

Just to clarify the resignation word in my previous email. Its just an"offer",as I haven\'t resigned. The purpose was to convey a message that no one is above the organisation,including myself. As Winston Churchill said"let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning".

Regards.

Dr Shahid Masood.

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The Shaam Coup

The media thunderbolt out of the blue came late in the evening even as most people were tuned in to the one-day cricket match between England and Pakistan. Mahmood Shaam, the editor of Pakistan's largest Urdu daily Jang since 1994 and associated with the Jang Group on and off for almost 45 years, had jumped ship and joined the ARY Media Group. Even more intriguingly, he had signed up to become the Chief Editor of a new Urdu newspaper, set to be launched by the ARY Group from three cities.

The banner of www.mahmoodshaam.com

Now, those who follow Pakistani media in general and Urdu publications specifically, will realize how big a coup (at least in perceptual terms) this is for ARY and how big a blow it is for the Jang Group, whose CEO Mir Shakilur Rahman (MSR) and Group Managing Director, Shahrukh Hassan, are both currently out of the country. Shaam has been in journalism for almost 50 years and is known as an author and poet and in certain circles as a progressive intellectual as well. He was considered close at one time to Pakistan Peoples Party leaders, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, and was also jailed briefly during the martial law of General Ziaul Haq and saw his own weekly Mayaar (Standard) banned for some time under martial law regulations.

Adding to the feeling of the coup is the fact that most in the Jang Group had no inkling about what was about to happen and only learnt about it once ARY began to crow about signing up Shaam, first as breaking news on its television news channel and subsequently as a detailed report during its news bulletins. ARY actually ran footage of its management bigwigs sitting with Shaam as he signed (apparently) his new employment contract and continued to run tickers of congratulatory messages from its CEO Salman Iqbal - the nephew of owner Haji Abdul Razzaq of ARY Gold fame - and other management figures to Shaam. It almost seemed as if ARY were desperate to ensure that Shaam had no second thoughts and to ward off any possibility of MSR attempting to persuade him against going through with this change of loyalties.

Pouring salt into Jang's wounds, however, ARY has also nabbed the Resident Editor of Jang Rawalpindi, Rana Tahir Mehmood, who will be the Group Editor of the about-to-be-launched newspaper. It is expected that a number of other Shaam loyalists may also depart. Keep in mind that Jang will have to contend not only with the departure of some of its biggest names, but also eventual competition from the announced newspaper. (Incidentally, the announcement also shows that ARY - currently languishing near the bottom of the media market - felt it needed a print presence to combat the Jang / Geo media juggernaut and even the daily Express / Express TV combine. Jang had earlier lost a number of its most well known columnists to Express which had thrown oodles of money to wean them away.)

Shaam: change of ships

But was Mahmood Shaam's departure as out-of-the-blue as most believe?

Those who know Shaam had been saying for a while that he seemed deeply unhappy at Jang of late. Part of the reason had been the synergy promoted by MSR between Jang and sister concerns such as The News and Geo. In the last one year, The News' exclusive investigative reports and some op-ed writers had been made an automatic staple of Jang as well and some of Geo's anchors were given their own columns in Jang. Obviously, regardless of the business and editorial sense of this sharing, it had led to Shaam losing a lot of control over his own paper. But he had also been resentful of what he often saw as an agenda-driven hard line taken by the Jang Group against the government, and imposed as a fait accompli on the staid Jang. He was also said to be not particularly happy about the suddenly increased interference from MSR in the day-to-day workings of the paper.

A final nail in the coffin may have been his quiet demotion from Group Editor (overall editor of all Jang editions) to Editor of the Karachi edition at some point over the last year, which went by almost unremarked. When this actually happened, I am not entirely sure, but the print-line that used to run his designation as 'Group Editor' was quietly reworked to name him simply as the 'Editor' (one source claims he was initially designated 'Executive Editor' after the 'demotion' as well). It should be pointed out that this may reflect simply a change of nomenclature at Jang, but certainly a change that was never explained.

But it wasn't as if Mahmood Shaam himself had been simply a passive observer in the drama unfolding around him. We have it from unimpeachable sources that as far back as 2007, he and Rana Tahir Mehmood (the resident editor of Jang 'Pindi who has now left for ARY with Shaam) had attempted to purchase controlling stakes in a floundering television channel. The then owner of the channel initially believed them to be working as front-men for MSR but alleges that investigations revealed that they were actually fronting for former Punjab chief minister and PML(Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. Whether the allegations of who was behind the buying attempt are true or not, keep in mind that this happened while both gentlemen were working for the Jang Group.

Insiders at the Jang Group, in fact, even though they claim they were unaware of the ARY developments before they became public, say they knew that trouble was brewing on the Shaam front, but believed he was in negotiations with Dunya TV. According to them, they were caught unawares by the ARY news simply because their focus was on Dunya. Dunya, as you may recall, is owned by Mian Aamir Mahmood, a PML(Q) politico considered close to Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

There were other unproven rumours that swirled around Shaam, which centred on the contracts his son's media consultancy company bagged from the military, as well as some wealthy Jang op-ed writers whose columns were alleged to be ghost-written by him.

Whatever the rumours may have been, however, obviously the Jang Group did not consider them to have merit enough to have problems with Shaam. But his high profile defection, and its yet-to-come fallout, has certainly left Jang on the back foot. It will be interesting to see how MSR reacts and whether ARY can ever pose a serious challenge to the current leaders of the media market.

Watch this space for updates.