New Delhi: An X thread is offering a crash course on Pakistani journalism. A user named Sher Khan has drawn up a list of 24 journalists from across Pakistan’s media industry, with a unique label for each. Listed in no particular order, the apparent deep-dive into the country’s leading media personalities kicks off with Sabir Shakir — effortlessly labelled the “dumbest.”
More than the choice of journalists on the list, it’s the user’s description for them that’s drawing attention — and all-round applause. The adjectives range from ‘“the angry bird (for Matiullah Jan)”, “the evil genius” (Najam Sethi), “the biggest con artist” (Mazhar Abbas of Geo News) to “the cringiest” (Siddique Jan, a YouTuber).
Pakistani citizens are wholeheartedly enjoying the roast.
The majority of them are in complete agreement with the list as well as with the nomenclature used for each journalist. “100% accurate” is the frequently used caption under the thread that continues to be liked and reshared. Political analyst Ayesha Siddiqa replied to the thread, calling it “quite accurate”.
“This thread seems to reflect the personal opinion of a politically engaged Twitter user, likely a late Millennial or Gen-Z individual, who has been following Pakistani journalism for a long time,” Ebad Ahmed, a Karachi-based media researcher, told ThePrint. “The captions suggest the user’s clear alignment with liberal, democratic values, and from that scope they have been seeing Pakistani journalism. However, whether this opinion represents the majority of Pakistan’s population is highly debatable.”
For several journalists, the user avoided English words, preferring Urdu instead: “Shughali” or the fun one (for Mubashir Zaidi, the Executive Producer at TRT World), “most aukha” or difficult (for Zarrar Khuhro, a Dawn columnist). There is also a “Nana Patekar” lookalike — Haroon Natamam, who runs a YouTube channel.
A few users on X don’t agree with the list. Some are busy debating the identity of the thread maker—whether he is a PTI or a PMLN supporter. Others are surprised to learn that these journalists even exist.
From the cutest to the cringiest
Sabir Shakir, labelled ‘the dumbest’, became popular in India during Operation Sindoor — the retaliatory precision strikes launched by India after the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack. Shakir had shared a picture from the 2023 attack on Gaza as visuals from India’s attack on Bahawalpur.
Rizwan Razi, a journalist with the state-run PTV, has been called ‘the filthiest’. Also known as ‘Razi Dada,’ the journalist has come under scrutiny for allegedly spreading fake news and misinformation. On Tuesday, he was suspended from PTV for calling the people of Sindh “offspring of monkeys”. In 2019, he was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for “obnoxious and defamatory” comments on the judiciary, government, and the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence wing.
Next up on the list is prominent GeoTV anchor Hamid Mir, who has been labelled an ‘opportunist’. Mir is most famous for interviewing Osama bin Laden in 1997. During Operation Sindoor, he had shared a video of a fire incident in Rajasthan as “attacks on Udhampur air base”.
Other names on the list include Mooed Pirzada (“the most shameless”), Syed Talat Hussain (“the most arrogant”), Imran Riaz Khan (“the most evil”), Orya Maqbool Jan (“the a*****e”), Aftab Iqbal (“the clown”), Murtaza Solangi (“the caretaker”), Raza Rumi (“the cutest”), Waseem Badami (“andhon me kaana raja”), Javed Chaudhry (“The whatsApp uncle”), Hassan Nisar (“the evil boomer”), Rauf Klasra (“the accountant”), Mansoor Ali Khan (“the balanced one”), and Wajahat Khan (“the discarded tub”).
X user Munawar Khan called it a “well defined” thread. Another user, S Noorwala, agreed: “All marks. 100 % accuracy rate.” Meanwhile, journalist Saddia Mazhari had other concerns: “Why does the list not feature a single woman?”
Researcher Ahmed noted that the list underscores the unfortunate state of partisanship in Pakistan.
He mentioned how those labelled “shameless” or “dumb” have huge following on YouTube and are often regarded by their supporters as “champions of press freedom enduring the state’s wrath.” This shows that “political bias often trumps factual accuracy,” he said.
(Edited by Prashant)