PTI leaders slam Dawn for 'false' headline

JournalismPakistan.com | Published 3 years ago

ISLAMABAD—Two PTI leaders Monday accused the daily Dawn of twisting the statement of former Prime Minister Imran Khan to show as if he had taken a U-turn on the issue of a foreign conspiracy to topple his government in April this year.

Dawn's main headline Monday ran: PTI chairman no longer blames US for his ouster.

PTI's Shireen Mazari (pictured) maintained that Dawn deliberately gave a false headline. In her tweet, she said: "What Ik said was he has put US conspiracy behind him. But look at Dawn headline claiming IK "no longer blames US…." Such brazen dishonesty as can be seen btwn what IK actually said & Dawn's delib false spin. Pathetic."

Later, Hammad Azhar accused the paper of taking headline twisting and angling to extreme forms. "Domestic arm-twisting, strong editorial prejudices and international aid flows to media outlets in Pakistan combine to create ridiculous headlines."

In an interview with Financial Times, the former prime minister said: "As far as I'm concerned it's over, it's behind me," while answering a question regarding his claim that the PTI government was brought down by a US-backed conspiracy. The US has denied the claim.