Populist fulmination mustbe grounded in fact to not mislead readers and propagate stereotypes of elected leaders.
GUJRANWALA: Your editorial "Security and the CM" (September 15) is factually incorrect. Security measures put in place for the Punjab chief minister's visit to Children's Hospital did not prevent a man from taking his child to the doctors. CCTV footage released within hours of the incident shows that the father, holding his newborn twins, entered the hospital more than half an hour before the chief minister's arrival. The footage shows the father inside the hospital while the seven-weeks' premature and severely underweight (1.2kg each) newborns were admitted, taken to emergency, and treated by doctors before the chief minister's arrival.
Your editorial failed to mention another pertinent fact: the other twin survived due to timely treatment at the same hospital and has since been shifted to Gujranwala where the best possible care is being provided.
Righteous indignation against VIP culture is routine in editorials. Populist fulmination must, however, be grounded in fact in order not to mislead readers and propagate stereotypes of elected leaders. This is the very least your esteemed newspaper can do to show that it cares for the truth.
Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan
Member National Assembly
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2010.
