Why senior journalist and anchorperson Iftikhar Ahmad resigned from Dunya News television?
Lahore, Pakistan: Senior journalist and anchorperson Iftikhar Ahmad who resigned from Dunya Television last evening has refused to comment and share reasons why he had resigned from Dunya Television channel abruptly.
He was hosting his TV show titled ‘Badal Dou’ since August 1, 2015 on Saturday and Sunday nights at 10 pm on Dunya News.
When contacted by the Dispatch News Desk (DND), Iftikhar Ahmad said he would not comment right now about reasons of his resignation. When asked about his possible joining of any other channels, he just commented “follow my twitter”.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggested that Dunya News top men were putting pressure on him to announced fabricated results about NA-122 contest while he took a stances that he would only announce figures of votes those were coming from reporters instead of engineering a high figure of difference between two major candidates. According to sources, Ahmad was of the view that manipulation of difference between two major contestants before original results come was unprofessional and unethical.
Iftikhar Ahmad is known in Pakistan for his upright position about freedom of speech and democracy, his professional credibility and outspoken personality and he is considered as extreme Pro-democratic journalist in Pakistan. He had been in jailed several times in past for his pro-democratic stance.
He joined Dunya Television after leaving Bol Media group when allegations of fraud and degree scams came on surface against the owner of Bol Media group. While leaving Bol Media group, Iftikhar Ahmad said that he could not align himself with any media group whose sources of income were dubious and not justified.
Iftikhar Ahmad started his journalistic career in 1980. He got international popularity from his hard hitting political interviews show “Jawab Deyh”.
Since 1967, Ahmad has been a political activist and participated in the movement against military dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan and was jailed by martial law rulers. His political philosophy is influenced by former prime minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was hanged by army rulers in 1979.
In 1973, Ahmad wrote his thesis supporting Bhutto’s socialist economics policies and advocating for the need of socialism in the country. Ahmad served multiple jail terms under the martial law governments for various violations of LFO. He was even jailed by Bhutto when Iftikhar criticised certain policies of Bhutto in early 1977. He was sent to the Sibbi Central Jail, Shahpur Central Jail, Camp Jail Lahore and the Lahore Fort detention center. His political philosophy indicates that real political divide is always between the poor and the rich. He argues that Pakistan may never see a leader better than Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and a slogan better than “Roti, Kapra aur Makan”.
Ahmad, through his program, Jawabdeh has questioned several key power players of the coup d’état staged by General Zia-ul-Haq and the subsequent hanging of the then elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (see Operation Fair Play).
In these interviews, he invited people who closely worked with General Zia-ul-Haq and they spilled the beans about General Zia’s real political intentions. In his programme, former Justice Naseem Hassan Shah, who was a member of the bench of Pakistan Supreme Court which upheld Bhutto’s death sentence, admitted that he should have voted against the hanging and felt bad for not doing so. Justice Shah also admitted that there was not enough evidence to put Bhutto on death row.
