Please Remove this Picture

August 14, 2012

By Saeed Qureshi

Every time the daily Jang blog is opened, a half page photo of Amir Liaquat Hussain pops up. In a similar display at the home page of daily “The News”, his picture is also splashed on the whole page. If GEO television is switched on, his picture covers the whole screen with all the regalia and glamour of expensive dress and elegant attire. In this life size photo, he wears a broad honeyed grin on his face with prying and inquisitive eyes.

He is dressed in a custom-tailored creamy-colored sherwani, wearing sophisticated rimmed glasses and exuding an innocent childlike face as if to view his picture is to view a sage, saint or a holy man. It is the most lavish manner to wish the viewers a happy Ramadan. He could have done it by giving a brief message with a small photograph. His message could have

been conveyed in a modest and less flashy fashion. But even this felicitation message looks phony when seen in the light of his sordid remarks and unguarded filthy private conversation with a group of youngsters, saved by someone in a video.

Now if he is paying a hefty amount to Jang and the News publications and the GEO TV network as the advertisement cost, the question stares right in our face why is this man doing all this brazen publicity. Is it to refurbish his tarnished image? The second question is why on their portals, a magnificent media giant is going out of the way and in an unusual manner to thrust upon the readers and the viewers this disgraced person. Now even if someone clicks “skip this ad” it does not go so soon and hangs on for a while. By doing so the Jang and GEO are rubbing their own nose in the mud.

This is a callous and bizarre joke of The Jang and the News administration with the people who read and view their blogs and channels. After all why is the Jang’s prestigious publication giving so much of publicity to this guy who by his nasty utterances, has watered down, his public image and prestige that he has been having for several years as a preacher of Islamic teachings?

Can his blemished image and his besmirched conduct be restored or rehabilitated by forcibly hammering these gaudy mega sized photos and patently superficial antics upon the people of Pakistan?

This repugnant exercise is going on for several days now. While it has been appearing for many days, a good number of readers have stopped reading the electronic editions of both Jang and the News and also viewing the GEO television.

The eye sore picture of this gentleman strikes a nauseating reaction in the minds of the readers because it is a cheap way to resurrect and restore the honor of a person who has been dishonored and nakedly exposed by his double standards and dual character. Dr. Amir was shown in a video using most foul and filthy language and churning out despicable remarks about some Indian guy by profiling him as a person who was fond of girls and sleeping with them. In the same video he was using dirty and sleazy slangs and expletives that only a most vulgar street urchin can resort to.

He has, therefore, by his own volition, forfeited his right of being a truthful Muslim. He has also proven himself to be an imposter with impious mind who pays only lip service to the Islam but practically behaves otherwise. In his publicly delivered sermons, he exhorts others to imbibe the golden principles of Islam; follow the Sunna of the prophet and to be a good Muslim. In his private life, however, he talks cheap and portrays a hypocritical demeanor by violating the tenets of Islam.

From what he was talking and the detestable jargon he was using, it is irrefutably clear that in media he preaches a sublime Islam and in his private life he contravenes and contradicts that.

And despite this loathsome paradox in his character, the Jang and the News have taken it upon themselves to redeem and anoint this duplicitous person by projecting him with a full page photo that further infuriates and displeases the viewers.

I would even doubt if he is a scholar of Islam or is sincere to this great religion. He has been counseling in his sermons only the ritualistic face of Islam and quoting such Hadiths and sayings of Prophet Muhammad that show his ignorance. Some of these quoted sayings have whipped more controversies than clarifying the dogmatic confusions among the Muslims.

His degrees and testimonials were reported to be counterfeit.  All these aspects establish that he was putting on a false and hollow cloak of divinity, religiosity and knowledge about Islam. In fact he possesses superficial and rudimentary knowledge that even a common man knows.

However, notwithstanding his knowledge, it is the chicanery and hypocrisy of his character and treacherous personality that paint him in lurid colors and demonstrate how slanderous and hollow this man happens to be.