Hyderabad: Well-known political scientist and author of several books Carol Christine Fair was snapped by BBC on Sunday after she talked about how Pakistan has harboured and nurtured terrorists. BBC presenter Philippa Thomas deliberately shut down Christine Fair for exposing Pakistan's role in aggravating the geopolitical crisis in Afghanistan.
In a video clip of the BBC interview shared by West Asia analyst and journalist Kyle Orton, Christine Fair was heard saying, "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 claiming that Pakistan would ‘absolutely deny’ the allegations levelled at it. “How do you know?” inquired Christine Fair. Thomas ignored her question and went on to claim that managing an ‘unstable Afghanistan’ will be a risky affair for Pakistan. To which 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.”
Understandably, the BBC has come under fire after the network shot down Christine Fair for speaking about Pakistan's jihad policy in Afghanistan during a programme.
Fair highlighted how Pakistan harbours terrorists in its own country with the hopes that it would attack its 'neighbours.' At that point, an enraged BBC presenter stopped 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.
The BBC presenter went on claim that Pakistan had denied any role in the creation of the Taliban 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, journalist 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.”
