The head of news programming at ARY Ammad Yousaf has been arrested in Karachi on charges of spreading propaganda and hateful remarks against state institutions.
Yousaf was arrested from his residence in Karachi on the night between August 9 and 10, allegedly without a search warrant. Just an hour before his arrest, an FIR was registered against ARY CEO Salman Iqbal, Arshad Sharif, Khawar Ghuman, and Adeel Raja at Karachi’s Memon Goth police station on the complaint of SHO
Salman Iqbal took to Twitter to express condemnation towards Yousaf’s arrest.
We are journalists! Remember today it’s @ARYNEWSOFFICIAL tom it can be other channels.If we don’t stand up to this than we should be silent forever! We have given everyone a platform to talk. I beg the judiciary and the armed forces of pakistan to take action.
— Salman Iqbal ARY (@Salman_ARY) August 9, 2022
Other senior journalists have revealed that Ammad Yousaf had no journalistic background or experience, and was previously the manager of a cooking show. They revealed that he was also looking after Salman Iqbal’s personal affairs regarding his business, family and social matters. Ammad was also close to former ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) ministers and leaders, and would openly plan PTI media coverage.
Senior journalist Mohsin Raza Khan responded to Salman Iqbal’s tweet and said that as a founding member of the organization, he had objections to journalist Owais Tohid being removed as the News Director, and Ammad Yousaf being appointed Head of News in his place, despite not being remotely linked to news.
He asked who was involved in the game of getting Ammad Yousaf to instigate the armed forces.
ادارے کے بانی کارکن کے طور ہر میری چند گزارشات ہیں کہ اویس توحید کے بعد ڈائریکٹر نیوز کا عہدہ ختم کرکے ایکُ ایسے شخص کو ھیڈ آف نیوز بنایا گیا جس کا نیوز سے دور دور تک کا تعلق نہئں تھا کیونکہ وہ شریف آدمی آپ کا کٹھ پتلی تھا عماد یوسف کی فوج کو اکسانے کے کھیل میں کون شامل تھا https://t.co/crB0PGrRkD
— Mohsin Raza KHAN (@mohsinrz) August 10, 2022
He further questioned who allowed Yousaf to only run news pertaining to one party, in an apparent reference to PTI, stating the the ‘drama’ surrounding PTI leader Shahbaz Gill’s arrest must have been orchestrated by them.
@mohsinrz عماد یوسف کو کس نے اختیار دیا تھا کہ وہ سوائے ایک جماعت کے کسی دوسری جماعت کی خبر نہ چلائے شہباز گل والا ڈرامہ آپ کی مرضی سے سٹیج ہوا ہوگا پہلے آپ کا موقف تھا ک سٹریٹیجک سیل کی ہماری جولائی کی خبر کی تصدیق ہوئی کل آپ نے ٹویٹ کیا تھا https://t.co/Y8mx11QXGA
— Mohsin Raza KHAN (@mohsinrz) August 10, 2022
He further said that by making a ‘non-professional’ the head of news, Iqbal had made the channel ‘non-professional’, because of which ARY UK found itself in 13 different defamation suits, which led to the deportation of ARY UK’s president.
Non professional کو آپ نے head of news بنا کر اپنے چینل کو خود ہی non professional بنایا جس پر برطانیہ میں آپ پر defamation کے 13 مقدمات ہوئے جس کے نتیجہ میں ARY UK کے صدر کو دیس نکالا ہوا اور ایک مقدمہ آپ کراچی میں ہار گئے ہیں https://t.co/8cJ1qH91CF
— Mohsin Raza KHAN (@mohsinrz) August 10, 2022
