On Sunday (September 5), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news courted controversy after its presenter Philippa Thomas deliberately shut down senior academic Christine Fair for exposing the role of Pakistan in harbouring and nurturing terrorists.
In a video clip of the BBC interview shared by journalist Kyle Orton, Christine Fair was heard discussing the role of Pakistan in aggravating the geopolitical crisis in Afghanistan. “What Pakistan wants (in Afghanistan) is an instability it can manage. Also, Pakistan will use the refugee story as part of its usual rent-seeking strategy. You see, Pakistan likes to be thought of as the fire brigade when Pakistan itself is the arsonist. And Pakistan will monetise this (crisis).”
At that point, the BBC presenter Philippa Thomas interjected and claimed that Pakistan would ‘absolutely deny’ the allegations levelled at it by the senior academician. “How do you know?” inquired Christine Fair. Thomas ignored her question and went on to claim that managing an ‘unstable Afghnaistan’ will be a risky affair for Pakistan. Fair responded, “Pakistan has always been accepting of the risk… They have never been risk-averse. Whether you are looking at incredibly outrageous terror attacks in India or the support of the Taliban in the 1990s.”
Quite gross from @BBCNews: our “impartiality” doctrine was used to basically shut down @CChristineFair when she explained #Pakistan‘s jihad policy in #Afghanistan that has brought us all to this catastrophe — an issue on which there is no “balance” or “other side”, factually. pic.twitter.com/FSzXKLMExN
— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) September 4, 2021
The expert of Southeast Asian geopolitical affairs highlighted how Pakistan harbours terrorists in its own country with the hopes that it would attack only its ‘neighbours.’ At that point, an enraged BBC presenter stopped Christine Fair from speaking further on Pakistan under the pretext that there was no diplomatic official available to speak to the news channel for countering the allegations. “Thank God, you don’t (have a Pakistani diplomat)! Else, he would peddle his fiction,” Fair stated.
Philippa Thomas went on claim that Pakistan had denied any role in the creation of the Taliban in Afghanistan and shut down Christine Fair from further speaking on the show. “You are doing their propaganda work,” the senior academic commented before being cut off by the channel. In his tweet, Kyle Orton remarked, “Quite gross from BBCNews: our “impartiality” doctrine was used to basically shut down ChristineFair when she explained Pakistan’s jihad policy in Afghanistan that has brought us all to this catastrophe — an issue on which there is no “balance” or “other side”, factually.”
