Stop Press

Sex, politics, lies … the story had all the ingredients the news media salivates over, and yet no one touched the story. Rape of an underage girl, blamed on a sitting MNA, in an FIR registered on court orders, should have made screaming headlines; it didn’t even screech.

Because the politician is also a senior journalist, and like other disgraced senior journalists before him, doesn’t deserve to be treated like subject of any other story. All media big shots enjoy immunity to adverse media – even bitter rivals do not make exceptions to this rule. Recently, three girls were killed and five seriously injured in a stampede at Al Hamra where Atif Aslam was performing exclusively for the students of a Lahore college. It was tragic, and was a news item that couldn’t be killed. But if you remember following this story, do you or did you wonder why wasn’t anyone mentioning the name of the institution? Or why was there no follow-up after the initial report?

Because the name is The Punjab College of Commerce, and is owned by Mian Amer Mahmood, who also happens to be the chief executive of Dunya TV. It wasn’t his fault, he wasn’t going to go to jail for this accident, but no media outlet – big or small – felt ashamed of hiding a vital piece of information while reporting the unfortunate incident. The politician cum journalist did even better: he killed the news at the source.

First, the facts: Tahira (not her real name) – a 15 year old girl from a village near Chakwal is married to a cousin, Jamshed Ali, who already has a wife. There were prior plans to use the bride as a prostitute and the sister-in-law starts taking her out soon after the wedding. Meanwhile, the first wife files a complaint with police that Tahira’s marriage should be annulled because she is under age. In a bid to have Tahira’s date of birth officially altered to make her an adult, the sister-in-law takes her to the local MNA, Ayaz Amir, who she knows well as an occasional client. Ayaz promises to help, and takes the girl into his bedroom.

This is what Tahira and her family has to say: (Video courtesy a local journalist)

It was the summer of last year. The event was commonplace, for both the parties. And probably both forgot about it in the weeks to come. Now Tahira’s in-laws are really getting greedy. They have now started inviting the clients to their home. One day, she leaves a client in her bedroom and runs out of her home bare foot. She ends up at the local police station and tells them she is being sexually abused by her in-laws. She also mentions a few names. One of them clicks. The police refuses to register a case against the MNA.

Enter a group of local lawyers who are close to the political opponents of Ayaz Amir, and therefore friends of his enemies. They take the girl to a court which accepts Tahira’s complaint and orders the police station to register a case against Ayaz Amir and five other men named by Tahira. There is a lot that I’m skipping. A string of cases and counter cases, that even a lawyer would find hard to remember in chronological order. What’s clear is, it is now a news story for national media. Except for a few small regional papers, no media outlet touches it. Those that report, make it look like a filler and that too without naming the MNA. The immunity is invoked.

Fauzia Behram is an MPA (PPP) and an old neighbour and tormentor of Ayaz Amir. She can’t miss the opportunity. She takes the girl to Islamabad, books a news conference at the National Press Club, and in the presence of 18 TV cameras, the MPA and the girl narrate the story to mainstream media. None of the TV channels uses the story. National newspapers, ditto. The following is representative of what little coverage the event got:

The reports merely mention Ayaz Amir and the rape as something ‘alleged by Fauzia Behram’ but Ayaz Amir anticipates it well in his column, published on the same day as the above report. He happily claims kinship with Strauss-Kahn and Berlusconi but feels insulted to be blamed of ‘an appalling and unforgivable lack of taste’. He saw a picture of her, and he puts up the unattractive face on that picture, as evidence of his innocence. The girl is a common prostitute, her lawyers are the dogs unleashed by my political opponents, and Fauzia Behram is the kind of phuphi who can’t keep her finger in her own nostrils, are the other alibis mentioned in detail, and not without passion, about an alleged crime his readers have no information about. He argues in favour of his innocence against allegations that were never made public.

The courts have since dismissed the case against Ayaz Amir and he is a free man. Without blemish, he is not. If you are interested, there is a candid assessment of the case by his own student Nabeel Minhas in his blog. What’s more relevant here is how the senior journalist Ayaz Amir used his political muscles to stop journalists from doing journalism.

The local media in Chakwal consists of one group of newspapers versus all the rest. The group publishes a daily newspaper and periodicals, and represents several media outlets in terms of both editorial coverage, and circulation and marketing. Ayaz Amir refers to it as ‘a small group of ultra loyalists to my Q-League opponents’. The group is headed by Khawaja Babar, who is the current chairman of Chakwal Press Club and correspondent for Jang Group. The rest are owners of titles that do not publish with any regularity. This is the group that, again in Mr. Amir’s words: ‘knowing what is what and having a fair idea of Tahira’s background, observes restraint’.

Mr. Amir publicly threatens the offending journalists and vows to evict them from the press club. On 2nd October a group of men attacks the press club, throws out members and employees, and takes charge. They hold a news conference that is addressed by Ayaz Amir who announces that local journalists have revolted against the chairman and the new administration will run the press club from now on.

Khawaja Babar goes to court and manages to get an order of eviction against the occupiers in 40 days, though he is slapped with more court cases after he physically takes possession of the building. His papers and web site (dailychakwalnama.com) continue to hound Ayaz Amir for his ‘high handed-ness’ but the mainstream media, including the titles Khawaja and his press club colleagues work for, never carry a story with an unsavoury mention of the MNA cum senior journalist.