Reham Khan claims reporters deliberately didn't cover her talk at YDA camp

Claims reporters received 'mysterious' phone call after which they left, ignores fact she arrived 45 minutes late

PESHAWAR: TV presenter Reham Khan has claimed that reporters left without covering her talk after they received a "mysterious" phone call, supposedly from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, when she visited the camp set up by protesting doctors in Peshawar on Friday to support them.

She tweeted:

I arrive on the scene of the protest of young KP protest in Peshawar. Media gets mysterious call & they leave without taking presser!

— Reham Khan (@RehamKhan1) June 16, 2017

Reporters were informed that Reham would visit the Young Doctors Association (YDA) camp at 2:30pm and meet the doctors, who have been protesting for over 20 days and set up a hunger strike camp.

Media personnel reached there on time and were asking about Reham, who did not show up until 3:15pm.



At around 3:30pm, Reham arrived there but remained inside her car as Awami National Party (ANP) leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain was inside the camp.

“You have been protesting since Sunday right?” Khan asked YDA President Dr Gulab Noor Afridi, clearly suggesting that Khan did not know when the doctors had launched their protest. “No, we have been protesting since May 24,” Afridi replied.

Reporters started leaving and despite repeated requests by the doctors and Reham's team, nobody stayed as they had other events to cover, especially as Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is also in the city.

Reham then took to Twitter to claim that media personnel were pressured by the provincial government through a mysterious call to cover her talk.



Khan also claimed that the authorities had shifted the doctors injured in their clash with the law-enforcement agencies from the neurology ward at Lady Reading Hospital when she went there so that she could not see them.

Injured young doctors are removed from Neurology Ward so I cannot see them. KP Gov using dirty tactics for keeping tgeir dirty secrets.

— Reham Khan (@RehamKhan1) June 16, 2017

However, a picture on social media showed Reham meeting Dr Ghaffar Shah, who was injured at the Hayatabad Medical Complex when police were baton-charging the doctors.

Reham Khan at the Lady Reading Hospital visiting the doctors baton-charged by policemen. PHOTO: Twitter

The YDA members have been protesting against the government for nearly a month, demanding compensation for their deceased friends, restoration of the Post Graduate Medical Institution, endowment funds for trainee medical officers and house officers, implementation of security for doctors, time scale promotions, and accommodation for doctors.