Lahore: Leaders of the ruling Pakistan
People`s Party have accused two TV anchors of running a
vilification campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari at
the behest of "anti-democratic" forces.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, a close aide
of PPP chief Zardari, said: "Two anchors of a popular private
channel are running a malicious campaign against the President
but they will not succeed in their designs."
Though Kaira did not name the two anchors, other PPP
leaders said they are Hamid Mir and Shahid Masood of Geo News
channel. "It seems that there are no other issues in the
country but the President for this TV channel," Kaira said.
However, he made it clear the government has no
intention to impose curbs on the anchors or on their channel.
In private meetings, PPP leaders have accused the Geo
media group of working on an agenda to topple their government
at the centre. They have suggested to the party leadership
that the government should either ban anti-Zardari programmes
or boycott the Geo group.
However, these suggestions have not been heeded by the
leadership.
A PPP insider said to a news agency that Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, the
owner of the Geo media group, had conveyed a party leader that
there is "no place for Mr Zardari in the presidency" and his
group would create such hype that he would have to quit
"within three months".
"This is outrageous. Something will have to be done to
check this media militancy," the PPP leader said.
Besides Geo News channel, the group owns the popular
Urdu daily Jang and the English daily The News.
PTI
