KARACHI: Former cricketer and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan defended the performance of his party’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and criticised “a section of the media” for what he described as “misstating and distorting” his interview to BBC Urdu.
Pakistan’s ARY NEWS Channel went as far as naming that channel as Geo News, a television channel categorised as liberal and middle-of-the-road.
Imran’s interview made headlines, as he talked about the four-year performance of the Pervez Khattak-led KP government and conceded that lawmakers belonging to his party were opposing the implementation of the local government system he so badly wanted in his province. He said he thanked the Almighty that he did not get a chance to form his government at the Centre in 2013, as in KP all of his “people” were new to governance and so for about a year could not understand what was going on.
Imran said in a statement the other day that the “KP government, despite lack of experience, has performed incredibly well and has set a stellar example for other parties that have been ruling for years”. He claimed the PTI government in KP had alleviated poverty by 50 per cent, encouraged merit-based government recruitment, had better public schools, reformed health services in government hospitals and introduced health cards for the poor.
Geo Television defended itself and said: “Both statements were reported by Geo News exactly as they were by the BBC Urdu service. The BBC’s interview with Imran Khan may be viewed here, to see what the PTI chairman had in fact said. A comparison of the BBC Urdu story available on its website here also shows without a doubt that Geo News reported the story using the exact words during its news bulletin. No words were twisted or turned or misreported as Geo News continues to maintain its tradition of reporting facts exactly as they are to its audience and will always remain committed to the same.” —NP News
