The people of Thar have placed their confidence in the PPP. Nothing shall deter us from continuing to serve them
KARACHI: This esteemed newspaper, while excelling in the negative reporting on the Thar situation, has chosen to completely ignore my press conference on the same issue held on November 2, 2014. I do feel that as the general secretary of the accused and condemned party and overall in charge of the relief operations in Thar, the most up-to-date facts presented by me also deserve a small corner in your newspaper.
Unfortunately, the famine of facts continues unabated. The allergy to truth has become endemic. On November 4, your newspaper carried the headline, “Death stalks Thar’s children as healthcare remains elusive”. The story that follows does not at any point refer to the elusiveness of healthcare.
I had pointed out in April this year that in Thar, we were facing a “media-made disaster”. Unfortunately, the recent attitude of your esteemed newspaper cannot lead to any other conclusion.
A day earlier, in the November 3 issue, your paper had published an article by Kamal Siddiqi headlined, “The great survivor” against Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, informing your readers that the leadership had decided to remove him. It even taunted him on having “upright children”. On the back page of the same issue, a story with the headline, “PPP quashes talk of replacing Sindh CM” was printed and quoted the party spokesperson, Senator Farhatullah Babar, as well as PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto in this regard. Do you honestly think, Mr Editor, that just by adding, within inverted commas “in principle” or “I am told” in your article, one gets justified in misinforming readers?
The people of Thar have placed their confidence in the PPP. Nothing shall deter us from continuing to serve them. Also, no amount of negative propaganda shall succeed in diminishing their trust in the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Taj Haider
General Secretary
Pakistan Peoples Party, Sindh
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2014.
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