Pakistan Federal Caretaker Minister of Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi appeared on Nadia Naqi’s show to address the statement that appeared in the BBC story regarding his comments on the accusation against the military general and how poorly Imaan Mazari has been treated.
A supporter of Mazari and a defender of freedom of speech, the Minister was at the receiving end of criticism by civil society and the media alike. Upon being questioned on his statement, Solangi spoke to Nadia Naqi on how his original statement had been quoted out of context by the BBC with his statements preceding and following the quote used discarded by the BBC team in its story.
As a reminder Naqi repeated Solangi’s statement for which he faced the backlash.
“My quote upon which many have commentated, I would like to say I spoke to the BBC correspondent. There was a sentence before the quoted statement and a sentence after that in which I said a lot more [but went unpublished]. I am currently talking to the BBC where I have protested about how they only ran one part of my full quote by discarding my other sentences. I have asked them to share my statement in full. They have acknowledged that they did not run my full statement and only shared one sentence because initially we were doing a news story and later turned it into a feature where your full quote was changed.”
Before joining the current caretaker government, Solangi had extended support and appreciated Imaan Mazari's work repeatedly.
He is waiting for a response from the BBC.