Basharat replied on Thursday, April 23, 2009 07:37 PM
Taken from
http://www.thenews.com.pk/arc_news.asp?id=2
Senior journalist loses temper, regrets his words
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
By By Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: Senior writer and columnist Nazir Naji, who has been recently allotted a plot in Islamabad by the PPP government, went ballistic and used vulgar language, profanities and abuses against a reporter of The News, when he was called to seek his version of the plot story two days ago.
Reporter Muhammed Ahmad Noorani had called Nazir Naji to confirm whether he had been allotted a plot in Islamabad although he had one in Lahore. Nazir Naji first responded to his questions politely and explained his side, saying it was his right to get a plot in Islamabad as a Punjabi because Islamabad was the federal capital where we all have a right.
But a few hours later Naji rang up Noorani twice from Lahore and started heaping verbal abuses and profanities, using threatening language and questioning the reporter’s right to ask him about his plot saying: “I have 50 years of service in journalism and you just have four years experience. How can you dare to ask me such a question.”
Nazir Naji challenged the reporter to record his conversation and threatened to fix him and his boss in 24 hours because he had dared to ask a personal question. The frightened reporter recorded the telephone talk to ensure that he was not accused of any misbehaviour with a senior journalist.
Earlier in his explanation, Nazir Naji said he had applied for a plot in 2004 and he had a right as the Lahore High Court (LHC) had issued a judgment in favour of some other journalists and he could also benefit from the same judgment.
The profanities continued for over 20 minutes in two calls made by Nazir Naji to The News reporter and ended with threats of fixing him and Ansar Abbasi, who is the Editor Investigations and supervisor of Noorani. Nazir Naji also called both of the journalists “dogs” and blackmailers.
Later, Group Editor of The News Shaheen Sehbai called Nazir Naji about the unfortunate conversation and asked him whether the reporter of The News had misbehaved with him. The group editor later said Nazir Naji confirmed that he had lost his temper because the reporter was asking irrelevant questions.
The next day Nazir Naji expressed his regrets in a call to another journalist of The News, Rauf Klasra. “Nazir Naji made a telephone call to this correspondent from Lahore on Sunday and said he was really sorry that he said something which he should have not said to Noorani in the first place,” Klasra reported.
He told Klasra that he was a blood pressure patient and when he got a call from the reporter, he might have felt provoked and said certain things which he believed now should have not been said at all.
“Nazir Naji did not mean to say what he said to Noorani, as he felt that he should have kept his temper under control while talking to the reporter. The famous columnist said it was an unfortunate thing to happen and for this he was ready to say sorry to Noorani,” Klasra reported. Until Monday night, Nazir Naji had not called Noorani. |
