News anchors carry public trust built over years, so when Waseem Badami, Tabish Hashmi, and others endorse housing societies for money, it raises hard questions about ethics, accountability, and where journalism ends and advertising begins.
Opinion by Imran Malik | MediaBites.com.pk
Opinion by Imran Malik | MediaBites.com.pk
There is a difference between an actor, a model, and a news anchor. It is a difference that should be obvious, yet increasingly, it is being blurred for money.
The Job of Trust
A news anchor’s job is not merely to read a bulletin. It is to be the face the public turns to for facts, verified information, and honest reporting, especially in moments of crisis. That trust is built slowly, over years of consistent, credible reporting. It is also, unfortunately, easy to spend.
There is a reasonable exception. When a news anchor records a public service message, encouraging polio vaccination, road safety, or civic responsibility, that use of trust serves the public good. It borrows credibility to protect people, not to extract money from them.
Commercial endorsement of a private business is a different matter entirely.
Fahad Mustafa and the Al-Jalil Garden Warning
Actor and host Fahad Mustafa became the face of Al-Jalil Garden’s advertising campaign, one of the most visible housing society endorsements in recent Pakistani television history. The project has since become the subject of documented regulatory action. According to Dawn, the affected people of Al-Jalil Garden were among those who lodged formal complaints during an open court held by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore, with the NAB Director General ordering disciplinary action against the society’s administration based on complaints received from affected people.
Separately, the Express Tribune reported that NAB Lahore seized land and assets connected to Al-Jalil Garden as part of action against several prominent private housing societies, and that the DG NAB issued instructions to ensure affected individuals received possession and ownership of their plots upon full payment of dues.
Fahad Mustafa is, at least primarily, an actor and host, a profession in which public image and commercial endorsement have always coexisted. But the case illustrates the exact risk this piece concerns: a documented, NAB-investigated housing project, fronted by a highly trusted television personality, with affected investors left to pursue their money through the accountability process years later.
A Lesson From Eden’s Ferozepur Road Project
Eden Group has delivered many successful projects across Lahore over the years, and it would be unfair to paint the entire organization with one brush. But its project on Ferozepur Road near Gajju Matta has remained problematic for a long time, a pattern reflected in Dawn’s reporting that Eden City affectees were also among those lodging complaints with NAB Lahore, with the Bureau confirming the launch of separate formal investigations into complaints against Eden City. I witnessed firsthand what that meant for at least one family.
I recall an overseas Pakistani woman from Canada who had purchased a 10-marla plot in that project and gifted it to her daughter ahead of her wedding, planning six months in advance to build a house before the ceremony. When the family arrived in Pakistan, the society had not been developed as promised. Eden had reportedly not even acquired the underlying land at that stage, despite the family having paid the full amount, including development charges.
I was present at Eden’s head office the day this fell apart. The woman was crying, yelling, and directing her anger not only at the developer but at Jugun Kazim, the model and TVC face of the campaign. Kazim was, notably, also a morning show host at the time, which meant her public trust extended beyond entertainment into the space of a familiar, credible household name. That crossover mattered to the investor. It is exactly why it should matter to broadcasters, too.
Waseem Badami and Tabish Hashmi: A New Chapter
Which brings us to the present moment, and the real theme of this piece. Waseem Badami is not simply a television personality. He anchors a primetime ARY News show and headlines the channel’s Ramadan transmission, arguably one of the most trusted platforms on Pakistani television during the year’s most-watched season. His credibility with viewers is, by any measure, sky-high.
Badami has now become the face and ambassador of a Lahore-based housing society. Tabish Hashmi, another familiar broadcast personality, is reportedly also part of the same campaign.
Given the documented regulatory history of Al-Jalil Garden and Eden City, both fronted by trusted television faces before affectees ended up in NAB’s open courts, the question deserves an honest answer: why did ARY permit its own anchor to lend his institutional credibility to a private real estate campaign?
Fahad Mustafa built his fame as an actor and host, an entertainment figure whose businesses have always run in parallel with brand endorsements. Waseem Badami’s fame is built on something else entirely: the promise that when he tells viewers something is true, it is true. Renting that specific credibility out for commercial gain in an industry with a documented, NAB-verified history of investor complaints is a fundamentally different transaction from an actor fronting a campaign.
Where Does the Line Belong?
This is not an argument that anchors should live monk-like, free of all outside income. It is an argument that the nature of the endorsement matters, and that the endorser’s profession matters even more. A skincare brand or a mobile network is a very different proposition from a housing society, an industry where, according to NAB Lahore’s own open court proceedings, hundreds of Pakistani investors have lodged formal complaints against multiple societies, where verification of land titles and development timelines is often opaque even to experienced buyers, and where a familiar face on a billboard can be the deciding factor for a first-time investor.
When that face belongs to someone millions of Pakistanis watch every night to learn what is true, the endorsement carries a different weight than any celebrity ad. It borrows the exact currency journalism depends on, and spends it somewhere journalism cannot follow up.
What Does Pakistan Think?
This is a genuine question, not a rhetorical one. Do Pakistani audiences see a difference between an actor like Fahad Mustafa, a host like Jugun Kazim, and a primetime news anchor like Waseem Badami all promoting housing societies? Does it change how much they trust the six o’clock bulletin? Does it change how much they trust the reporter standing outside a housing society’s NAB hearing next year, reporting on a case involving that very same developer?
The ball is in your court, both the broadcasters who approve these campaigns and the audiences who decide, every single night, whose word to trust.
— Imran Malik | Opinion | MediaBites.com.pk | SharjahNews.ae
