It was uncomfortable viewing. But then, that’s a given when it comes to Waqt News’ Matiullah Jan. The man pulls no punches and has a reputation for being very blunt when it comes to his interviews. Though he is rarely discourteous himself, we usually do see his curt side when those on the other side take offense at the questions he poses. This is a pattern we have seen play out in many of his interviews.
If there is one issue that animates the man, it is the role of the military establishment in statecraft and political engineering. Even if the interview is related to the commerce ministry or the issue of line losses in the power sector, if the interviewee has been in the King’s Party (talking about the Q League here, though many could qualify these days) then we should expect a detour to an unforgiving set of questions within the larger interview.
That is sort of how his special world women’s day interview of Kashmala Tariq, recently appointed the federal ombudsperson on women harassment, started. The man asked her thoughtful questions pertaining to the issue at hand and she, to her credit, answered them with aplomb. The trouble started when he asked her about her political affiliations, in particular her support to a military dictator. He seemed surprised that rather than offer a well-rehearsed defence about her growth as a political worker, she put up a defence of the former army chief. And it wasn’t even a nuance defence, but an unqualified one. The democrat in him piqued, he vectored off into this line of reasoning and it was from here that things got a turn for the worse.
Though he is well within his rights to talk about anything and everything and not restrict himself to the issue at hand, some would still argue that it was not right to keep on questioning her about her political affiliations. But what few would find fault with would be his subsequent questions about her qualification to be the ombudsperson. Apparently, there were some lapses on that front and he couldn’t get a straight answer. Ask those who have appointed me, she said. Which isn’t much of a defence, really.
The tension at this point was thick enough to be cut with a knife. He then went on to ask her about a specific question related to a recent decision by a high court regarding women’s harassment. She said she’d only joined seven days ago. Now this might be interpreted as “Gotcha!” journalism by some but it did seem to be a fair question to ask someone who wanted to be appointed as an ombudsperson for women’s harassment.
It was here where she made the assertion (outlandish, even if one were on her side in this whole incident) that Matiullah’s behaviour could also be classified as harassment.
It was, as mentioned above, an uncomfortable interview. But what made the encounter more newsworthy was what happened after the interview was done. Apparently, the lady wanted the footage not to leave the room. She said that she will not let any of the production crew leave and even briefly detained them in the room. A physical scuffle also ensued between Ms Tariq’s staff and Matiullah Jan.
Holding public office is tough business. If you can’t stand the heat, goes the saying, you have to get out of the kitchen. Even during the worst of interviews, one can simply up and leave. In the behind-the-scenes footage that was leaked on the internet, not only did she refuse the unnecessarily magnanimous offer for her to review the footage for objectionable content, she said no one is going to leave with the footage. She also said, bizarrely, and at no one in particular, to “arrest them!”
