From our morning shows to our Ramadan transmissions. What is up with our live television industry? Aamir Liaquat, the host of a popular Ramadan transmission series, once again makes national headlines by attempting to entertain the masses with his ‘snake dance’. But this time the controversy reaches far than what anyone might have anticipated.
Image credits: DAWN https://images.dawn.com/news/1187047/the-enigmatic-case-of-aamir-liaquats-ramazan-transmissions
As the Islamic calendar welcomes Ramadan as a month of religious importance and blessings, the Pakistani masses brace themselves to welcome the incoming chaotic mess that is Ramadan transmissions. From performance artists such as Fahad Mustafa to religious scholars such as Aamir Liaquat, no Ramadan transmission show host has left any stones unturned in their pursuit of higher ratings.
The content Pakistani Ramadan transmissions produce during this holy month of prayers and blessings is top-notch be it in its levels of cringe, comedy, or controversy. Masses flick through the channels to find Ulema sliding their ways to the finish line, animals being abused on live television, or cameras zooming in on people’s misery for views. What have we come to?
With the many benefits and blessings, this peaceful month brings with it come along top-tier memes as well. And once again, Religious scholar Dr. Aamir Liaquat did not disappoint. Recently, PTI’s valuable asset, Dr. Aamir Liaquat Hussain again ruled the trending page as he entertained the masses on his Ramadan transmission by dancing to the infamous Bollywood song ‘Naagin’ and racing and slipping his way to the finish line for views.
Pakistanis took to Twitter to express their reactions which were filled with a range of different emotions such as humor, disappointment, anger but there was no element of surprise, for this is not the first time the scholar has been under hot water for his questionable shenanigans. In fact, a Ramadan transmission show doesn’t seem to make it in the market in Pakistan unless and until it has had its spot once every year on the trending page. Apparently, rating levels are directly proportionate to chaos levels when it comes to these shows, which makes them keep ongoing.
‘Aam Khayega?”
In Ramadan of 2016, Actress Maya Khan hosted a Ramadan special live game show, Jeet Plus on channel A Plus, alongside the then “Living on the edge” host Waqar Zaka. Famous for his daring personality on and off camera, Zaka put his unique and bold twist to the show and invited a middle-aged woman on stage to participate in a classic “What is in the box” game. Except what was in the box were living animals and the woman herself was blindfolded-yes, a perfect recipe to a chaotic mess. Unsurprisingly, the unsuspecting woman was shocked every time she touched one of the animals which included snakes and lizards as well. The set erupted into laughter with every squeal of fear she would make, resulting in our timelines flooding with memes and mixed reactions from the public.
Image credit: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1122278/badass-aunty-maya-khans-ramazan-transmission-total-boss
Aside from the major second-hand embarrassment projected onto us through these Ramadan gameshows, the day-long transmissions too, are stepping up to the competition as we see hosts like Saher Lodhi going off on a woman assuming that she attempted to taunt Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in her speech during the show’s debate segment (Ishq Ramzan, 2017). Lodhi stopped her mid-speech and lost his cool as he burst into an outrage without really listening to what the candidate’s point was.
Image credit: https://dunyanews.tv/en/Entertainment/390551-Sahir-Lodhi-lambastes-quiz-participant-over-Quaid
Here’s the link to the video: https://youtu.be/hSEv-roxlQQ
However, the most recent incident to occur in a Ramadan transmission that reigned all over our trending page was Dr. Aamir Liaquat Hussain slithering his way into criticism by the public. Literally.
The masses and politicians alike took to Twitter to express their reactions as the religious scholar trended all over our feeds.
Earlier this month, the show invited Pakistani Track and Field athlete Naseem Hameed who was challenged to a race with Liaquat and well… you can imagine.
Ramadan transmissions have boiled down to this: entertainment, cringe and, controversy. The imperative need to secure a good rating has led these shows to spiral out of control to the point where the segments actually concerned with enlightening and educating the masses are barely there. What is the point of these transmissions to be conducted just in Ramadan if it is going to distract from the purpose of the holy month by dancing to “Naagin” on set?
To find out more about these shows’ viewership, Ajab Afsanay conducted a survey in the HU community to gain insight into the audience’s reactions to these transmissions, in general, to assess whether they are even serving any purpose at this point besides serving cringe-worthy content for memes.
When asked whether they are a regular viewer of Ramadan transmissions, 54% of the participants responded with ‘rarely’ while 27% responded ‘no’.
Mango-enthusiast Dr. Aamir Liaquat takes the lead with the most cringe-worthy content and his recent antics just speak for themselves.
When asked why the participants watch these shows, the majority of the responses (70%) chose to watch the shows to pass time or just out of boredom.
Analyzing the responses, it is evident that these shows do not have much popularity within the HU community. While most of the people never or rarely ever tune in, they do so out of boredom and even in that state of boredom, they find Dr. Aamir Liaquat, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, to be the most cringe-worthy while shows such as those of Waseem Badami and Iqrar-ul-Hasan, that have continued to maintain a respect for the holy month through their engaging and enlightening segments such as a quiz show, Quranic recitation segment, were able to secure an ‘okay’ from the respondents.
While it is true that these memes put the Ajab Factor in our Ramadan annually, we cannot ignore the fact that they originate from situations that sometimes ridicule people and disrespect the purpose of the holy month. It is high time we question the purpose of these transmissions and reconsider whether one should be identified as an Aalim, politician, and an influential Muslim if this is the level of content they produce and project out into the world.
Comments