Prominent Filmmaker Jamshed Mahmood, known as Jami had claimed in October that he had been raped by a “media tycoon” 13 years ago and had not named his rapist. He tweeted this from his twitter account, jamiazaad, which he says has now been hacked. The twitter thread is still present on the account. He said that “i was brutally raped by a very powerful person in our media world. A Giant actually, and yes, I’m taller than him but I froze…” He did not reveal the name of the media tycoon at that time.
He recently named the alleged rapist as Hameed Haroon, the CEO of Dawn Newspaper. He named him in a tweet from a new twitter account.
Jami had tweeted two days ago and Hameed Haroon has now issued a statement, rejecting the rape allegations.
WATCH: Why was Jami not taken seriously?
Dawn Newspaper has printed Hameed Haroon’s statement. Parts of it are as follows:
“For some three months now, tweets in the social media and some print media, some of which have been authored or prompted by Jami Raza, have alleged that Jami was subjected to rape many years ago but was ‘coming out’ only now because the rapist was an ‘influential and powerful media personality’. Hitherto fore, strangely the alleged rapist was never specifically named, even though hints and innuendos were dropped from time to time that could be taken as suggesting that it was the CEO of Dawn, Hameed Haroon. “But since I had not been specifically named in the tweets, I was advised, that even though I had a fair idea of who was prompting Jami Raza, I should exercise restraint until I was specifically named. On 28th December, Jami Raza specifically named me and it has therefore become necessary to respond”, Haroon says.
Haroon goes on to say how he met Jami when Jami was a freelance photographer and how he worked with him on a photo essay in 2003-04. Haroon denies ever being alone with Jami, saying that he did go to Jami’s house to, “condole on his father’s death but was unable to personally meet him….This was been the sum of my interaction with Jami”.
Haroon adds in his statement that, “The story is simply untrue and intentionally fabricated at the instance of those who wish to silence me and through me, to compel the newspaper that I represent to support their repressive narrative,” and that he will be “initiating legal action to clear my name and reputation.”
Jami has responded to Haroon’s statement, saying that Dawn did not give him a space to voice his side of the story, Dawn should not be detracting from the issue at hand and that this is all about #MeToo.
Jami is a prominent Pakistani filmmaker who directed Moor, Pakistan’s submission for the Oscars in 2015 and popular movie 021. He has also been a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement and after he revealed what happened to him, met with a lot of support from many people including singer Meesha Shafi and actor Osman Khalid Butt.
Dawn has posted that they assure their readers that an inquiry will be made into the allegations.
