Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM), Dr Shahbaz Gill, alleged that anchorperson Kamran Shahid was asked to spread fake news and misquote facts about the United Kingdom’s (UK) court order to unfreeze Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his family’s bank accounts for lack of evidence of corruption and money laundering. A heated exchange took place between the two on Dunya News‘ programme, ‘On the Front with Kamran Shahid’.
Gill started off by reading a few statements by Kamran Shahid and gave details of the statements, which as per him were fake news and were factually incorrect.
Gill’s comments led to a heated exchange of words between Gill and Kamran.
“Sir, no one can make me misquote statements, not the prime minister or Azhar Javed [UK-based journalist working for Dunya News],” replied Kamran Shahid.
“You cannot say that I misquote my facts. I have been in journalism for the past 15 years. I am not indulging in any personal attacks against you and neither should you. No one can make me say things that are factually incorrect, not PM Imran Khan, not Shehbaz Sharif, no one,” added Shahid.
“You are wrong here, no one has the courage to make me misquote my statements or facts. Refrain from doing this.”
“Let the masses decide about your statements, seems like you are running for an election,” said Gill in response to Shahid’s answer.
“I have the right to judge the prime minister, he is my PM as well. I supported him long before your [Shahbaz Gill] career as a politician started in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI),” said Shahid.
“You have a fascist regime, your party is monitoring everything, you all do one-sided reporting on Pakistan Television Network (PTV), there is no mention of the Opposition in their reporting. If you so highly support journalism why haven’t you made media independent from the information ministry,” said Shahid.
Shahid added, “PM promised in my show that he will raise the standard of PTV like that of the BBC, now should I say the PM lied?”
