PTV chairman 'approach' stuns PPP leaders

KARACHI - The newly-appointed Chairman of PTV, Dr Shahid Masood, has adopted anti-PPP approach that has stunned the party leaders, sources told The Nation.
They said Dr Shahid has directed the senior PTV officials, including the directors, anchorpersons and resource persons, in a meeting that he had been appointed with clear mandate therefore not answerable to any high ups in the Information Ministry.
According to sources, the PTV Chairman has told the PTV officials that Benazir Bhutto is now part of the past and she should be treated as such.
Dr Shahid has also said in his first meeting with the PTV officials that the state-run television was not the spokesman of the PPP, said sources, adding the PTV Chairman has also suspended special ‘Taranas’ that were being aired to pay tribute to the Shaheed leader of the party.
Sources further said the chairman has ordered to stop Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed’s photo exhibition put up for display in Islamabad on her recent birth anniversary.
Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman had directed the PTV to air all the programmes relating to the birth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto till June 30 but Dr Shahid opposed it and said that one-day coverage was sufficient to cover the event and PTV should not waste energy and resources on it.
On the complaint of anchorpersons, he said the live programmes would be the top priority of the PTV and the television should not give live coverage to Governors, Chief Ministers and other ministers that has shocked the PPP leaders and the workers.