ISLAMABAD: The PPP government’s chief spokesman and federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira’s repeated statements, made both within the Parliament and outside, claiming that 99 per cent of stories by Group Editor of The News Shaheen Sehbai had bounced and were wrong, are miles away from reality and are simply not supported by the facts.
To prove that the minister and the government spokesman are making generalised politically self-serving accusations without facts, maligning their critics, this correspondent has compiled the exact data of how many reports, comments, news analysis, viewpoints and situationers were written by Shaheen Sehbai and published in The News (some also in Daily Jang) since February 2008 and whether 99 per cent of these reports had bounced, as the minister had claimed.
Contrary to what the information minister had said, Mr Sehbai filed a total of 86 write-ups since Feb 2008, which included only 29 news reports while the rest 57 were news analysis, comments, viewpoints or situationers.
Only one out of the 29 news stories was clarified by the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. The rest were never denied by the government but a spate of pro-government articles and analysis were written to rebut and counter the views, analysis and comments of Mr Sehbai. All of these were published by The News.
The news story, which was clarified, pertained to hiring of US lobbyists in Washington and Shaheen Sehbai had in his rejoinder stated that the embassy had sidetracked the main issues highlighted in his report. “Basically, the embassy is trying to deny the data posted at the US government official websites about lobbyists and firms hired by Pakistani organisations, including the embassy of Pakistan. The clarification generally says it has hired and terminated companies but gives no specifics while the US data used in my report had all the names and details. Which data is wrong should be explained by the embassy and if it is wrongly posted on the US government websites, the embassy should take up the matter with the US authorities,” he stated. There was no response to his rejoinder.
This would belie Mr Kaira’s claim made in a recent television show of anchor Kashif Abbasi where he had challenged Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigations The News that 99 per cent of the “stories” of Mr Sehbai had bounced. Mr Abbasi, who was invited as guest in the program along with the Information Minister, insisted that Mr Sehbai had mostly written news analysis, situationers, viewpoints and comments, which contained his personal assessments and opinions and any one can differ with these opinions.
Kaira vehemently rejected Abbasi’s view and challenged him to prove that he was right. He also gave a reference to the last article of Mr Sehbai to denounce him. However, when the host of the programme Kashif Abbasi during the live program called for a copy of The News and Daily Jang, which had published Sehbai’s latest article that day, the information minister was proved wrong there and then as the article was clearly identified as “Viewpoint”.
Kaira then tried to divert the argument saying any title can be given to any write-up and that does not matter. He argued that on the subject of ‘history’ if the headline of ‘Mathematics’ was given, it could not become Maths. In journalism, he probably forgot, that these titles are critically important as they define the contents of any material published. Opinion and comments are treated differently than news stories.
The analysis, comments or viewpoints always reflect the opinion and understanding of the writer on any particular issue. Others have the right to differ with such views. However, unlike most of the other newspapers, The News has always welcomed opposite views. For the information of the information minister, The News has even been publishing government-sponsored opinionated articles rebutting the viewpoints, analysis etc of even Group Editor of The News. The ratio of such rebuttals is almost 2:1, as on average two government versions have been published to counter one analysis or comment. An exact figure of these government rebuttals will also be given out soon.
Some of the reports of Mr Sehbai have been earth shaking and greatly jolted the government. On September 27, 2009 he first pointed out that before the passage of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, none of the Pakistani stakeholders, the Army, the intelligence agencies, the people of Pakistan, had been taken into confidence, or even told before hand, that such conditions were being imposed. This gave a wake-up call to Pakistani nation causing a storm.
On October 08, 2009 he reported that differences between the civilian government and the Army high command had surfaced over the Kerry-Lugar Bill and the Pakistan Army officially through ISPR confirmed that it was not on board. This shook the government into face-saving damage control action and jolted the Americans to launch a flurry of diplomatic activity. Foreign minister had to travel to Washington and President Obama delayed signing of the KLB. Some cosmetics face saving steps were taken to pacify Pakistan but KLB remained the same.
On October 23, 2009, under the headline: “NRO creates deep waves in political scene; Zardari ready to give up 17th Amendment powers” he wrote, before the Supreme Court NRO judgment had been given: “Informed presidential sources say President Zardari is now ready to give up all his powers under the 17th Amendment, including the powers to appoint the Army Chief but whether it is too late and too little for Mian Sharif to accept this bait is not yet clear. What is clear is that Mr Sharif has been bitten twice or thrice by the same snake hole and he may not like to poke his finger in that hole again.”
On November 04, 2009 he wrote: “President Asif Ali Zardari will have to either step down with dignity, hand over his presidential powers to the PM through a fast-track constitutional amendments process, or become a figure head and stay within his bunker for as long as he does not create any nuisance. So my analysis is that he will fight back.” He did not step down but has done the rest.
His reports and analysis that the Friends of Pakistan was almost a fraud and political gimmick has turned out to be correct to the dot as after more than two years no dollars have come, though figures of five to 10 billion dollars was being floated.
The news stories filed by Shaheen Sehbai can be judged with the yardstick of whether they had bounced or were proved correct. The following stories were published without any denial or clarification:
1. February 27, 2008: Zardari or Nawaz can be next president.
2. March 19, 2008: Deposed CJ not to storm the court
3. March 31, 2008: Zardari is not apologetic
4. July 24, 2008: US overcomes Musharraf phobia to support new set-up
5. July 28, 2008: Failed coup against ISI was to appease US
6. August 15, 2008: Ex-general can earn $30,000 from a lecture in US
7. November 8, 2008: Nawaz, Zardari meet today to erase feeling of betrayal
8. March 3, 2009: Nato troops will not enter Pakistan: Scheffer
9. March 5, 2009: Nato commander asks Islamabad to do more
10. March 6, 2009: Nato helpless as alternate supply routes remain shut
11. March 10, 2009: Breaking promises will damage Zardari: Altaf
12. June 28, 2009: Lobbying dollars flowing out at super speed (This story was clarified by Pakistan Embassy)
13. September 4, 2009: The return of the Daylight Jackals
14. September 13, 2009: US says no direct money to PPP government
15. September 26, 2009: FoDP dumps expected billions into World Bank basket
16. September 27, 2009: KLB: Are all stakeholders on board?
17. September 30, 2009: As Kerry Lugar boils, new lobbyist hired in DC
18. October 8, 2009 Political equation rocked by Kerry-Lugar fiasco
19. October 9, 2009: Mystery of Kerry-Lugar conditions almost solved.
20. October 19, 2009: Government now takes credit of KLB fiasco
21. December 1, 2009: Obama admin fears Zardari collapse
22. December 14, 2009 Zardari on his own after US pulls support
23. December 22, 2009: The CEC, which had no say, but Sanam Bhutto may have
24. January 2, 2010: Karachi loot and plunder threatens PPP-MQM ties
25. February 27, 2010: Breed of new millionaires joins Zardari
26. March 01, 2010: Only MQM explains assets, others don’t care
27. March 03, 2010: Zardari, Altaf fail to meet; Malik shunned
28. March 26, 2010: The grand gala, feel better show called a dialogue
29. April 13, 2010: Obama says Gilani has raised his stature
It is impractical to present here all what Shaheen Sehbai has written, observed and predicted, which turned out to be true.
There are many such comments, analysis and views which today have been proved to be right. The list is long. A complete list with text of all his articles will soon be published as an E-Book and would be available on the Internet for readers to judge for themselves whether the government is right or wrong. The few examples quoted above show the overwhelming trend.
Source: The News
Date:5/27/2010
