Pakistani morning show hosts are notorious for being controversy chasers and shit stirrers. Propped atop this list is Nida Yasir who is arguably the queen of daytime television in Pakistan. She also happens to be the center of quite a few controversies around her show, and even her personal life.
In one of her shows last week Nida Yasir invited the parents of Marwah, the five year old girl from Karachi who was found after being brutalized
She had invited the bereaved parents, asking them to share gory details of the last days of their daughter. The episode was as uncomfortable as it may appear just reading these few sentences.
#BanNidaYasir
Because of this 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 pic.twitter.com/7y1J8wGkqm— Malik Saboor (@SaboorMalik92) September 16, 2020
Naturally, people called out Nida Yasir for taking advantage of someone’s grief for eyeballs on her show
Okay so here we have Nida Yasir again. I don't even have word to describe her. She is purely Jahil. What on earth made her do this? And her questions to parents? I mean @ARYNEWSOFFICIAL is litterraly out of their mind. @reportpemra #BanNidaYasir pic.twitter.com/sgCI43RYbe
— Fatimah Hussain (@FatymahHussain) September 16, 2020
INHUMAN – There’s collective moral decline of our society, how an experienced anchor person is taking advantage of someone’s misery for TRP. They lost their child secondary to rape and she has audacity to exploit their greed for her show’s rating. @reportpemra #BanNidaYasir
— Naila Tanveer🦋 (@nailatanveer) September 16, 2020
https://twitter.com/RaheelNama/status/1306359728273076230
People are now calling for a ban on Nida Yasir for using the tragedy of one family as some sort of “entertainment” for her show
Can we please stop ignoring the blatant disregard for respect, dignity, and media ethics on mainstream TV? #BanNidaYasir
— Koko (@brerkhargosh) September 16, 2020
Nida Yasir always, always crosses her limits but this time, she's done a crime and the world should know that and speak against it. It's supposed to be an entertainment morning show.The rape and murder of a 5 year old, investigating her parents, is not entertainment #BanNidaYasir
— Rutaba (@chuphojaeinsab) September 16, 2020
Many people in Pakistan are so offended that the demands to ban Nida Yasir are the top trend on Pakistani social media as of the time of publishing this post
Several people are demanding that PEMRA should stir into action, for once, over the right kind of shows that need banning
They’re of the view that PEMRA should exercise its power over such shows that are obviously not contributing anything to a positive discourse, instead of putting arbitrary bans on fiction shows that some random senior official may have found personally offensive to their own moral compass.
https://twitter.com/chupkrokomal/status/1306294320782348288
Call PEMRA at 080073672 and ask for the Morning Show to be banned. If you're not comfortable speaking impromptu, I attached a script that you can use.#JusticeForMarwah #BanNidaYasir@reportpemra @arydigitalasia pic.twitter.com/OAYHjoDqN9 pic.twitter.com/KZyt63C46d
— زمل فاطمه (^‿^✿) (@zii9424) September 16, 2020
Others are pointing out that more than Nida herself it is the channel’s fault for allowing such content on their airwaves
The real issue is not with #NidaYasir as she's an employee and is doing what she's told to..Real culprit is ARY! They should use their small minds to produce useful content for TRPs instead of these cheap tactics!🖐#BanNidaYasir pic.twitter.com/zNp9b5uIdS
— TáJàllÅ🥀🕊 (@itzTajalla) September 16, 2020
https://twitter.com/NajamMalikk/status/1306389843262369792
Alongside these demands to ban Nida Yasir, people are taking this opportunity to drag all morning show hosts
People have called out morning show hosts, past and present, for contributing to the degradation of the quality of entertainment on Pakistani TV channels by providing cheap thrills to their audience.
Basically morning shows are useless, lack of quality ,waste of time and more importent do not fit in our culture values.
#BanNidaYasir pic.twitter.com/CpIevOfJ6R— HamidPk (@AhmeedKe) September 16, 2020
If you’re still interested in watching the complete episode in question, you can check it out here
The fact that morning shows in Pakistan have become stereotyped for being either avenues for wedding recreation or grief porn is a testament to how little effort these really important shows are putting into providing quality entertainment to the people. Mind you, this doesn’t mean doing a boring 90’s style PTV morning show that labels itself “educational”, either. There are several ways of providing quality entertainment that don’t cash in on someone’s personal tragedy.