Sethi serves Talat legal notice

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 8 June 2012 |  ZB Saigol

Najam Sethi has issued a legal notice to Talat Hussain following damaging accusations made by Hussain on his show. The incident has sparked significant attention in the media industry.

Summary

KARACHI: DawnNews’ senior anchor Talat Hussain apparently has been unable to keep his frustration to himself and the repercussions of venting it has come home to roost in the worst possible way. Earlier today, Geo TV anchor and prominent analyst/columnist Najam Sethi served a legal notice on Talat for leveling false and damaging accusations against him.Talat was not available for comment.

Although the crux of the matter seemed to be Talat’s uncharacteristic outburst on his program ‘News Night with Talat’ in which he openly accused Sethi of being party to favor seeking from well-known property tycoon Malik Riaz, it is reckoned professional jealousy also precipitated the fall out; Talat’s show lags behind Sethi’s in the ratings and this apparently irked him enough to have a go at Sethi.

From the very outset of the show viewers and followers of Talat’s program were taken aback by his openly hostile demeanor towards Sethi. He directly accused Sethi of taking favors from Malik and said it was from here that he got information on what was happening within the corridors of power. He called Malik Riaz Sethi’s ‘chiria’… the sparrow that supplied him information.

Showing his disdain Talat lumped Sethi with some ‘other’ anchors and journalists he said, if left to their own device, would try to absolve Malik Riaz of all wrong doings as they had all taken favors from him at one time or the other.

Riaz caused uproar recently when he said he had documentary evidence against the alleged corruption of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s son Dr Arsalan Iftikhar. Raiz has now admitted to the media that he has no evidence against Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry being corrupt.

In his own program, Aapas ki Baat, Sethi rebutted Talat’s allegations and accused him of being jealous and said it was but an attention-getting gimmick on Talat’s part. Then Sethi went on to insinuate that Talat was a CIA agent. Sethi didn’t stop there either. His ire suddenly turned to Dunya TV’s Mubashir Lucman who hosts the hard-hitting Khari Baat.

Sethi called Lucman a liar for alleging he (Sethi) had dual nationality. He said he had also sent a legal notice to Mubashir Lucman resulting in the High Court directing Lucman to avoid false allegations on him. Newsrooms were buzzing with the ongoing spat amongst the top TV anchors with many voicing the opinion that it was but a “drama’ to bring attention to their programs and thereby bump up the rating.

Either way, the industry is keenly waiting what will happen next. Will Talat back down or will he stick to his guns and will Lucman sit down like a good boy or also have a few words to say?