Najam Sethi, the TV star who dared take on Pakistan's spy agency

[SamranAli]

but i dont think that people will listen and trust him.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

these types of juicy masala headlines always give me a good laugh

"dare take on"

asma jahangir "dared" for past 3 decades and nothings happened to her; contrary to popular belief, you can write op-eds that are critical of ISI/Pak Mil and then sleep soundly at night with the doors unlocked

its become a habit of sorts anyways, among these ISI enthusiastics


and lol @ these people on eastern border....you indians are the ones to comment!!! the ISI nor Pak Govt imposes Armed forces special powers act or other draconian laws on its subjects

at least we HAVE a semblance of journalistic freedom in our country.....maybe its time you shut your pie holes and do the same

 

[notorious_eagle]

More like the guy who is an American poodle and is most likely on the payroll of the CIA.

 

[Developereo]

Just found this on the net. I have no idea if these ratings are one month old or ten years, but Mr. Sethi is nowhere to be found.

TV anchors (Political Programs) Pakistan | Reviews, Rating, Comments TV anchors (Political Programs) @ Pakistan Herald

 

[xyxmt]

shhhh ISI mere pichey bhi pari huey hay
someone called last night and ask for me by name, and I live in Canada...they must have opened an office here too
must be ISI man who else will ask for me otherwise

shhhh dont tell anyone, i shouldn't even be here

shhh bye

 

[clmeta]

May be ISI is trying different tactics after the badname it earned for killing Saleem Shehzad of Asia times?

Look, ISI does not need to give death threats.
Why would they give death threats only and then let Najam make noise about it and cause more problems.
If the ISI wanted him gone, he'd be gone. period.

Oye. This list contains Deepak Chauriasia????
Wow

LOL

Just found this on the net. I have no idea if these ratings are one month old or ten years, but Mr. Sethi is nowhere to be found.

TV anchors (Political Programs) Pakistan | Reviews, Rating, Comments TV anchors (Political Programs) @ Pakistan Herald

 

[lightoftruth]

wats wrong if he represents his point of view .?

Pakistan which has a vibrant press both print and electronic , why is he targeted ?wat happened to the freedom of speech ?

 

[OrionHunter]

Nobody is listening to this idiot inside Pakistan.

Really? How many have you asked?

 

[Zarvan]

Najam Sethi, the TV star who dared take on Pakistan's spy agency
Death threats force outspoken host of chatshow Aapas Ki Baat to broadcast from converted bedroom to avoid travel into Lahore

Najam Sethi told viewers: 'If anything should happen to me or my family we would hold the military establishment at the highest level responsible'. Photograph: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images
Najam Sethi, the star of one of Pakistan's top rated political chatshows, does not travel far to work. For the three nights a week his programme is on air, Sethi simply opens his bedroom door and walks into a purpose-built studio.

Since January the veteran journalist has been broadcasting from the glossy, little studio because he fears his public criticism in Aapas Ki Baat (Just Between the Two of Us) of one of Pakistan's most powerful institutions could get him killed.

He is not alone. Last month the prominent human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir, who lambasts the military for interfering in civilian politics, claimed there was a plot to kill her hatched "at the highest level of the security apparatus". She has since been given government guards to protect her.

Almost alone among the country's army of TV pundits, Sethi regularly takes on the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), the military spy agency accused of everything from supporting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan to murdering its critics. Few other Pakistani journalists dare make such claims, or even criticise the Pakistani army's long history of interfering in the affairs of the nation.

A staple of Sethi's show is raking over the history of "failed military strategies, lost wars, misadventures and coups" by Pakistan's generals.

Sethi began to feel seriously concerned for his safety after the US raid on Osama bin Laden's compound last May, after he told his audience Pakistan must have been "complicit or incompetent" during the al-Qaida chief's decade-long stay in the country.

The broadcast led to a "stormy" face-to-face confrontation with a very senior ISI official. "He accused me of everything, anti-Pakistan, anti-army, anti-everything," Sethi said.

Weeks later the journalist Saleem Shahzad, who wrote extensively about the Taliban, al-Qaida and the ISI, was found dead in a canal. Sethi told viewers Shahzad had been tortured to death by the ISI.

With the top brass apoplectic, high-level government officials warned Sethi his name had been circulated on a hit list. A kidnapping plot, he was told, had been hatched involving two militant groups with links to the ISI.

Militant groups have pulled off some audacious kidnappings of high-profile people in Lahore, including Shahbaz Taseer, son of the assassinated former governor of Punjab province, who has not been seen since he was hauled out of his car in an upmarket area of Lahore in August.

Sethi and his wife, the journalist Jugnu Mohsin, hoped the danger would die down if they left the country. After four months abroad, Sethi returned to find he was still at risk, despite going public about the threats against him.

"On the first programme I did when I came back, I said I had been facing threats from state and non-state actors," he said. "And I warned that if anything should happen to me or my family we would hold the military establishment at the highest level responsible."

Security cameras now cover his house, which he rarely leaves. Soon he will have an armoured vehicle for his occasional forays into the city. Trusted guards from Mohsin's ancestral village have been drafted in to keep an eye on the guards provided by the government.

Sethi's liberal politics show, generally out of step with a society that appears to be turning more conservative, has been a surprise hit on the country's most popular private channel and commands primetime advertising rates, despite going out at 11pm. With a hit on their hands and nightly journeys to the Lahore studios of Geo TV thought to be too dangerous, channel bosses took the unprecedented step of building their star a studio in the couple's old bedroom.

Sethi sits at a glass table in the middle of the blue and yellow set and discusses the day's news with co-host Muneeb Farooq. With Pakistan buffeted by what seems to be at least one scandal, disaster or political upheaval a week, there's always a lot to talk about.

While the programme is slick, the makeshift broadcasting facilities are anything but. The production team run the show from monitors and laptops inside a battered pink and white Toyota Coaster in the driveway. They work in cramped, uncomfortable conditions – even at 11pm when the show begins, temperatures in Lahore are sweltering.

"Logistically it is a nightmare," said Zeeshan Khan, the producer. "If it rains, basically we can't broadcast."

As the show goes out Mohsin sits next door on their bed watching the broadcast, the sound turned down so that it doesn't disturb her husband just a few metres away.

Sethi receives ample abuse on the internet for his efforts, with people accusing him of being a US spy or of being corrupt. Recently his name appeared among a list of journalists allegedly paid off by a billionaire real estate tycoon. He denies the claims and sees it as part of a "fully fledged campaign" by military intelligence to undermine his credibility. He is more concerned about the threats. "In thirty years of English journalism, I got maybe three threats," said Sethi, who still edits The Friday Times. "But in three years in television I get one or two threats every day."

Nadeem Farooq Paracha, a cultural commentator for the Dawn newspaper, said Sethi's value lay in his political predictions, which usually turned out to be correct – and the fact that "he does not follow the usual rightwing, populist narrative of the rest of the Urdu media".

He also challenges the "military establishment's Orwellian distortions of history", that Paracha says airbrushes great fiascos such as the 1971 war that led to the breaking away of East Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh.

"The army have started to realise that with him being on such a mainstream channel with such a huge audience he is starting to influence a lot of people, young minds particularly," Paracha said.

Sethi takes the threats as a sort of backhanded compliment, a sign that he must be doing something right and relishes the clout the show has given him. He said: "I can't go back to newspapers now. I'm not interested."

Yes the famous American funded traitor Star of Pakistani media now facing the reality and now facing the wrath of Patriotic Pakistanis who are fed up of these American Funded touts who only like to bark against Pakistan its Armed Forces and Islam to make their masters happy but now they will face the most brutal response ever

 

[lightoftruth]

if media is controlled by govt. agencies its no longer a media.

 

[Icewolf]

I learned about him just now... Idiots trying to boost their views!!

if media is controlled by govt. agencies its no longer a media.

Media is more free in Pakistan than India... A true regret...

 

[lightoftruth]

Media is more free in Pakistan than India... A true regret...

thats the kind of statements u guys have for self satisfaction.(refrain from bringing India in it ).

 

[ajtr]

and lol @ these people on eastern border....you indians are the ones to comment!!! the ISI nor Pak Govt imposes Armed forces special powers act or other draconian laws on its subjects

at least we HAVE a semblance of journalistic freedom in our country.....maybe its time you shut your pie holes and do the same

I wonder If PA need AFSPA type law when it is law onto itself and when it has power to abrogate the constitution itself and impose dictatorial rule.

Another thing is i wonder if india ever used heavy artillery guns and F-16 and cobra type sophisticated aircraft and gunship to bombard villages and towns that population of the area end up in IDPs.

Only use of Air power i can remember is on Mizo rebels. in 1960s.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

I learned about him just now... Idiots trying to boost their views!!



Media is more free in Pakistan than India... A true regret...

Media is more free in Pakistan than it is elsewhere in the world... even the likes of BBC, CNN, Fox etc are controlled...

NS in this case is only looking to improve his ratings/rantings and that's a famous tactic to get applauded in the west or to get the sympathies of our neighborhood - criticism or malign the image of ISI and Pak Army. But guess what, the more he/they spew their venom, the more people of Pakistan loves their armed forces.

 

[alok mishra]

Any person who wanted to show you truth, you call it CIA payroll, anti-pakistani, RAW agent etc. But you people treat the person like Zaid Hamid like a boss, who always live in dream. Your Economy is in worse ever position after independence but you still spend your maximum money to establish defence structure, how ever you know india is not your real enemy. I saw some show of najam sethi on youtube and i think he not said any thing wrong however it's obvious that you will never like it because it show where your actual position.