KARACHI: A
Jang Group spokesman has given the following response to the allegations
leveled by PTI chief Imran Khan in a press conference on Friday.
Allegation
1: GEO rigged the 2013 elections along with Chief Justice, bureaucracy
and the PML-N. GEO announced PML-N as the winner at 11:05pm when only
19% of votes had been cast. GEO influenced the returning officers to
swing the elections in favour of PML-N and showed Nawaz Sharif
announcing himself as the winner at 11:23pm.
GEO’s Response 1:
Rigging
can’t take place during vote count as votes are counted in front of
party representative at each polling station. Rigging takes place before
vote counting during the actual voting process. Voting finished between
5-6pm. There is no way GEO or any media could influence rigging or be
involved in rigging at 11:05pm which was 5 hours after voting had
closed. Kamran Khan and GEO News name shouldn’t be tarnished just
because Kamran Khan showed partial results at 11:05pm.
In
fact, Ayaz Khan of Express News said the following during Express News
election transmission at 10:21 pm. Mey yeh dekh raha hoon ke PML-N
centre mein hukoomat bana sakti hey or Punjab mey unki government banegi
aur Sindh mey PPP government banaey gi or mein yeh dekh raha hoon ke
opposition bhi PPP ki hi hogi.
Nawaz Sharif’s speech was shown by all channels and in fact GEO News was not even the first channel to show the speech.
Regarding
showing partial results, whether based on 19% or 30% polling station
results, a frequent was flashing on screen and being repeated verbally
by our newscaster letting our viewers know that these are non-official
and partial results. All over the world partial results are given in
elections and in our case we were also showing per constituency what %
of the polling station results have come in. This was not a projection
but actual results that we were getting from our correspondents of
11,000 people that day who were getting polling station results directly
from polling stations and returning officers and Election Commission
sources. All channels were airing partial results and the same was done
in 2002 and 2008. The method that was used to announce results was
consulted by Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani (Gallup Pakistan) and Salman Naseer
Danish (PTI) and was statistically safe. This is verified by comparing
the result that GEO had given to other channels and final election
results announced by the Election Commission. The difference between all
channels was less than 10% though GEO was airing the results first due
to its larger network and experience. If GEO had rigged the elections,
were all top 5 news channels also involved as they were airing similar
results? All local and international poll projections had also predicted
similar trend as of the elections, does that mean they were also
involved in rigging the elections with GEO?
Mudassir
Rizvi, CEO FAFEN which was the largest network of voter monitoring and
fraud monitoring, told GEO News on camera yesterday, “Geo News is not
responsible for rigging, we can only hold those responsible that had
position of authority. We had an information sharing agreement with GEO
which aired much of our data regarding rigging.” GEO News also received a
note of appreciation for our contribution for elections 2013
transmission from FAFEN.
Iftikhar Ahmad, Director
Elections at Jang Group and senior anchorperson, has challenged Imran
Khan to an open debate to prove his allegations and provide evidence.
Iftikhar Ahmad also said, “Why these allegations were not part of the
white paper that was released by PTI on elections rigging? Why is GEO
being attacked now? And if Khan wants to improve election reforms then
shouldn’t it be one year before the next elections, why now? I think
Khan needs to be more mature and realise why he actually lost and show
more sportsman sprit.”
However at the same time we do want
to acknowledge that rigging did take place and it is most unfortunate.
GEO would support any positive reforms PTI would like to recommend that
will help stop rigging. In fact, GEO aired hours of footage on rigging
and exposed it from morning of the elections day. At least two hours of
rigging footage that went on air can be provided if required. Hamid Mir,
Iftikhar Ahmad and Sohail Warraich did programmes on rigging the same
night of elections. Hamid Mir did a two hours show of rigging
allegations of Dr Alvi of PTI.
Allegation 2: PTI and
Imran Khan have also falsely accused Jang/GEO group of receiving special
favour by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to acquire rights for the
cricket series against Sri Lanka through its Chairman Mr. Najam Sethi
who also hosts a programme on the Network. Khan said this was done as a
favour for rigging the elections.
GEO Response 2: We have
already in writing told Imran Khan that the whole process was conducted
in open and transparent manner and was witnessed by both bidders (GEO
Super and Ten Sports) and a bid committee comprised of Ehsan Mani as
chairman legal department of PCB, retired judge, member of BOG, COO, CFO
of PCB and independent international auditors (Price Waterhouse and
Coopers). In fact Ehsan Mani is also board member of Shaukat Khanum and a
friend of Khan. We had requested please consult with Ehsan Mani if he
agrees with your allegation or meet the auditors?
Ten
Sports won the South Africa series rights through the bidding process
and GEO Super won the Sri Lanka series rights due to higher bid amounts.
Ten Sports is a 100 percent Indian owned company and yet no one raised
an eyebrow against them or wrote articles one after the other. Due to
interim appointments, the Supreme Court, at that time, did not allow the
PCB to enter into any long-term sale of rights that is why the bidding
for the matches was for two series only and not 5 years. Also Khan has
alluded that we had rigged the elections and in return we got one 14 day
match rights? GEO and Jang Group have lost over 600 crores for
supporting the lawyers movement fighting a military dictator. Jang Group
had also been shut down by Nawaz Sharif in 1998-99 and was boycotted by
PPP as well in previous government who had banned all advertising to
the largest media group. If GEO didn’t sell out then why would it do
now, and that too for Pakistan vs Sir Lanka rights?
Allegation
3: Zara Sochiye of Geo had received sponsorship of 20 million pounds,
and Aman Ki Asha was sponsored by Indians through Doordarshan. This was
in the Supreme Court Media Commission report.
GEO
Response 3: Yes this was in the Media Commission report but it was not
part of the main report but as part of minutes with PEMRA, which GEO had
been suing because of its partiality. In fact Supreme Court had asked
the government to confirm these allegations and after receiving a
response asked chairman PEMRA to prove these allegations after which
chairman PEMRA denied the charges and also apologised in writing. It is
interesting to note that all these allegations have been raised in past
and categorically denied with evidence and a clarification. Aman Ki Asha
has been praised by Imran Khan in Parliament. Regarding Indian funding,
why would RAW want Pakistan to want peace with India? Jang Group would
also like to put on record that Aman Ki Asha and Zara Sochiye (education
effort) was started after consultation and feedback of senior most
members of the Armed Forces. Aman Ki Asha is an independent project
conceived by Jang Group to promote peace with India while respecting our
core interests.
Zara Sochieye education campaign has been
declared openly and its sources of funding (majority of which is funded
by Jang Group related companies) have also been shared and its accounts
audited by Price Waterhouse Coopers. The campaign to promote education
reform was appreciated by all political parties and education related
NGOs including scores of PTI representatives. All editorial control and
project conception was done by MKRF, local NGO affiliated with founder
of Jang Group. Zara Sochieye campaign was aired on PTV, and four
regional channels and 4 radio stations apart from GEO channels.
Imran
Khan seems to be alluding to foreign funding as an evil. One can ask
him if PTI government itself in KP accepts 100s of millions of dollars’
worth of aid from US and UK governments. Recent polio campaign was also
funded from international sources and PTI itself is funded in part by
US, UK, Indian citizens. Most of these funds are used for good purposes
and have done a lot of social good. Imran Khan also in previous
interview suggested GEO has taken foreign funding and in return maybe
doing campaigning against peace negotiations with the Taliban and
Government of Pakistan. Imran Khan should note that GEO has done several
transmission called Aman Kay Liye Kardalo where Jang Group and GEO have
openly been supporting negotiation to operation as a policy.
Allegation 4: Group aired Voice of America from a fund for supporting democracy.
GEO Response 4: Again Khan seems to be alluding to American influence.
Geo
is a part of the Jang Group of Publications, Pakistan’s media
powerhouse with a proud history. Geo has no connection with the USA,
either financial or political. Geo had sold air time to the Voice of
America under a transparent commercial contract which total value was
less than 3%-5% of its revenue at any given time. GEO made sure that the
VOA logo is on screen throughout its broadcast. A disclaimer stipulates
that the views expressed in the broadcast are not GEO’s. There was no
attempt to camouflage the VOA broadcast and its contract was given to
PEMRA also. GEO’s senior management also asked General Musharraf and
General Shuja Pasha if they had any problem with us airing the programme
and they both said no at the time. However GEO decided on its own to
stop airing the programme when drone attacks frequency increased in
Pakistan and has not aired the programme for over 3 years. VOA programme
had aired on PTV, Express and Aaj TV but surprisingly Imran Khan has
not suspected them of any wrongdoing.
It should be noted
that GEO has aired (Fahrenheit 9/11, bush’s Brain, Loose Change,
Cartoons about Bush, Obama, and frequently makes fun of American
presidents and leadership in Hum Sub Umeed Se Hein. At the same time it
has also educated viewers about the strengths of the US democratic
traditions by covering the US elections, dubbing in Urdu the
presidential debates and confirmation hearings. This is in line with our
policy of learning from best practices.
Geo has been
critical of the drone attacks, questioned US policies in Iraq and
Afghanistan and exposed excesses like those taking place in Guantanamo
and Abu Gharaib. In Khuda Ke Liye, released by GEO Films, American
torture techniques and atrocities were openly shown and debated in a
dramatic fashion. Late Ambassador Holbrooke, who was known for his
abrasive side, in his stiff unemotional tone scolded the GEO reporter
once on his trip to Pakistan. After telling the reporters how much USA
is doing for Pakistan, Holbrooke looked towards GEO reporter and said,
“US has given half of the support pledged by (the world). Please make
sure that GEO reports that! GEO has reported a lot of anti-US stuff. Now
you should tell the truth to the people of Pakistan that US is on your
side”. In Wikileaks it was revealed that US Embassy has written a cable
to Washington saying GEO is working against the interests of the USA. It
complained that Hamid Mir had done a programme exposing that Blackwater
was in Islamabad among other things.
We would like to
ask Imran Khan why he doesn’t ask owners of a channel that aired in
India, which earns a lot of money. It is pertinent to mention that when
no Pakistani TV channel is allowed to be aired in India, then how come
that particular group manages to run its transmissions there. The
particular TV channel and its anchorperson also tried to label us
traitors by terming a genuine investigative story on Ajmal Kasab as
propaganda. We stand by our story and believe that the truth, no matter
how bitter, is more patriotic than a lie, no matter how sweet.
Another
competitor who was in smoking business makes most of its money from
business partnerships which are with American and Indian companies.
Similarly they have an agreement with an American media outlet, whereby
they provide a foreign newspaper along with their daily newspaper, which
is owned by Jews, with their own local newspaper. Will Khan ask why
Shireen Mazari will never ask them any questions? Will she tell Khan
that three mainstream news channels bureaus in Washington DC were paid
by US State Department funds and GEO News is the only one that funds its
own bureau in Washington DC, NY and London.
We would
like to clarify here that we are not against any such business
partnerships as long as they are legal and transparent but are
mentioning this only to underline double standards. We request our
viewers and readers to ask why is that you will not see a single
conspiracy theory about these other media groups in social media but
only bashing of one media group? What has GEO and Jang Group been doing
that it gets punished for? Zara Sochieye.
Lastly and sadly
we had approached Imran Khan through Asad Umar and Jehangir Tareen in
writing to please arrange a meeting with Imran Khan. After this couldn’t
be done and Khan was still attacking GEO we gave the following offer on
20th February 2014-
“Kindly please form a committee that
will investigate the accusations against us, please give it a 30 days
deadline, and let the committee review all the contents and they can ask
us any questions or hear our point of view as well and then if it feels
we are guiltily we will give you an hour of our prime in which PTI can
make its findings shard with our audiences.
Our request
would be that that committee contains only neutral people and not people
have a known biased against us.You need to know that these allegations
are serious and personal for us.”
But instead of
confronting us with questions and evidence Shireen Mazari has convinced
Imran Khan to attack us through press conferences and certain sections
of the media with competing interests.
