Pakistani TV host banned for campaign to discredit activists

Lawyer alleges Liaquat’s actions put lives at risk

ISLAMABAD // Pakistan’s TV regulator banned a talk- show host for hate speech yesterday, after he hosted shows accusing liberal activists and others of blasphemy, an inflammatory allegation that could put their lives at risk.

Blasphemy is a criminal offence in Pakistan that can result in the death penalty. Even being accused of blasphemy can provoke targeted acts of violence by religious right-wing vigilantes. Aamir Liaquat Hussain, the host of Bol TV, had been at the forefront of a campaign to discredit liberal activists who went missing this month, as well as those defending them.

In a document sent to Bol TV, the Pakistan electronic media regulatory authority said Liaquat’s show “wilfully and repeatedly made statements and allegations which are tantamount to hate speech, derogatory remarks, incitement to violence against citizens and casting accusations of being anti-state and anti-Islam”. Liaquat had blamed several prominent Pakistanis for an anti- state agenda and being either sympathetic to, or directly involved in, blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed.

In 2011, the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by one of his bodyguards after he called for reform of the country’s blasphemy laws.

Taseer’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri, was executed but not before becoming a hero in the eyes of the religious right.

At least 65 others have been murdered over blasphemy allegations since 1990, figures from the Centre for Research and Security Studies and media show.

Liaquat, famous for combining religion and game shows, has of- ten courted controversy. He once gave away abandoned babies during a broadcast, and caused uproar by airing vitriolic hate speech against the Ahmedi minority.

One of the targets of his show was activist lawyer Jibran Nasir, who filed a police complaint under Pakistan’s antiterrorism act yesterday, charging him with “running a defamatory and life-threatening campaign”. Classical dancer Sheema Kirmani received death threats after Liaquat targeted her on his January 19 broadcast.

Classical dance was associated with obscenity and banned under military dictator Zia Ul Haq, who pushed for greater “Islamisation” of Pakistan in the 1980s.

The situation is potentially worse now, Kirmani said.

“Previously the government could close the auditorium, or arrest you, but now anyone sitting in the audience can decide ‘I am not going to allow this’.”