Babar Hashmi at NASDAQ Closing Bell

A few days ago some Pakistani TV channels had reported that Babar Hashmi, the Consulate General of Pakistan at New York wasted a golden opportunity to raise funds for Pakistani flood victims. According to the TV channel, NASDAQ had offered 60 minutes of free time on the big screen at Times square to show video clips of flood victims.
It was pretty upsetting news at first but when I did some research of my own, I found the allegations to baseless. It appears that the story was twisted by the media for some reason and I just wanted to get the record straight.
Above is the actual video of the NASDAQ closing bell on August 25th 2010. According to Marketwatch.com (see link below) this event was just an invitation for the closing bell of NASDAQ markets and had nothing to do with 60 minutes free time for Pakistani flood victims. The total time of the event was 10-15 minutes 3: 45PM to 4:00 PM. Mr. Hashmi, the chief guest and vice chairman of the NASDAQ were to speak briefly which they did. Consulate General had offered a 3 minutes video of floods in Pakistan but it was declined on technical grounds. Mr. Hashmi did manage to get the message across though during the 2 minutes of his allowed time.
The purpose of this post is to remind the media outlets of their responsibility. As it is Pakistan is facing many problems on all fronts, stories like these make matters worst. It portrays a very negative image of Pakistan. Untrue stories like these have been hurting the efforts to raise funds for the flood victims. Pakistanis residing overseas want to help but because of such stories, many have been holding off on the donations.

NASDAQ Official Video
http://mktvideo.nasdaq.com/MarketSiteOpenCloseVideos/201008/mc_082510.wmv
CBS Market watch
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consul-general-of-pakistan-to-ring-the-nasda...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Pakistan
• Floods
• Babar
• Hashmi

[iqbaldisouza1]

media should understand what there duties are & should stop beating around the bush.