Khadim Hussain Rizvi is not exactly popular on the internet.Â
The Herald which is a publication under the Dawn group recently released the nominees for their 2018 Person Of The Year. And the list was pretty controversial and had a few names in it which people were incredibly unhappy about.
Herald’s ‘Person Of The Year‘ award has become a sort of national conversation owing to the prestige of the publication
The title was started in 2013, and in the last five years, people such as Imran Khan and Mashal Khan have held the title. Some nominations previously, like Mama Qadeer in 2017 and Asif Ali Zardari in 2013, have been a little controversial but nothing equals the backlash that their nominations received this year.
This year, the prestigious magazine courted controversy amid claims that it went overboard with some of their nominees for ‘Person Of The Year’ for 2018
This year some of the more controversial nominees included, Manzoor Pashteen, Nawaz Sharif, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, and Bilawal Bhutto.
@HeraldPakistan Person Of the Year 2018 @ImranKhanPTI
Why Nominations For #Mafia's#MalikRiaz is #LandGrabber ?#KhadimRizvi is #Anarchist ?#ManzoorPasheen is #Traitor ?#NawazSharif is #Thief & #OustedPM ? #IndianDawnHerald pic.twitter.com/tEYifJeR06— Oranxaib 🇧🇫 (@oranxaib) December 4, 2018
But Khadim Hussain Rizvi drew the most ire out of all the nominees.
Khadim Rizvi’s nomination for Herald Person of the Year is completely justified. Nobody better reflects Pakistani society as it stands today than this guy.
— Usman Ahmad (@UsmanAhmad_iam) December 5, 2018
Is this even serious? Khadim Rizvi and Khalai Makhlooq in the list? Has the quality at Herald regressed this bad? https://t.co/LTaj8Ws47d
— Hussain Nadim (@HNadim87) December 5, 2018
Herald has been responsible for some incredibly serious and good joirnalism in the past many years. This list however certainly doesnt make it. Khadim Hussain Rizvi & Khalai Makhlooq? Like really? Wtf. https://t.co/UHi4uqcctf
— Ali Rizvi (@Rizvinator) December 5, 2018
There were people who pointed out that the voting system the magazine has in place is pretty useless and easily manipulated.
The voting system is such a farce.. you can vote multiple times and the decision can be flawed.
— Muzz (@MuzzImran) December 5, 2018
All the while a campaign to discredit Herald as a ‘foreign agent’ began on Twitter
A traitor Manzoor Pashteen is in the list of Herald's person of the year award? DAWN News once again showing its true colour of being anti-Pakistan. IT SHOULD BE BANNED#IndianDawnHerald
— Nimra Ch ® (@Nimra___Ch) December 4, 2018
Like seriously @Dawn_News , other than SN and IK the others as Person of Year is spitting in the face. are you #indiandawnherald?https://t.co/ieuzuGRWqN pic.twitter.com/DmZbQpQxYw
— Shaheryar Rajper (@RajperShaheryar) December 4, 2018
While other people pointed out that being nominated for ‘Person Of The Year’ was not merely based on positive impact but just plain old impact
And for better or for worse, the ‘impact’ Khadim Hussain Rizvi made this year on the country, could probably not be ignored.
Not really. It’s about the person who had the most influence/impact. For example, Putin & Trump have both won Time magazine’s person of the year.
— Bilal Lakhani (@MBilalLakhani) December 5, 2018
Person of the year is about influence, not being good
— Ghauri (@TheSaadGhauri) December 5, 2018
Some people have also pointed out that to even nominate him for the had positive connotations, leading many to get subconsciously affected.
After the widespread online backlash directed at Herald, they decided to remove the Person of the Year 2018 survey after explaining their voting system.
Dear readers,
The Herald has decided to take down its Person of the Year survey from the Internet. We have been using a three-way system – a survey on the ground, an online opinion poll and a panel of 10 experts – since 2013 to choose our Person of the Year. 1/3
— Herald (@HeraldPakistan) December 7, 2018
This year the online poll has led to an unprecedented hate directed towards the magazine, deeply dividing public opinion and making the entire process controversial. 2/3
— Herald (@HeraldPakistan) December 7, 2018
It is never the Herald’s intention to sensationalise, incite hate or promote bigotry. And it is for this reason that we have decided to not conduct the online opinion poll this year. We apologise to our readers for the inconvenience. 3/3
— Herald (@HeraldPakistan) December 7, 2018
They explained that they never intended to condone bigotry and hate. Since they have taken down the survey, it is unclear how the Person Of The Year for 2018 will be decided or if it will be decided at all.
What do you think about the Herald’s nominees for Person Of The Year? Let us know in the comments.
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Cover Image Source: @ramsha_amjad5/@heraldpakistan via Twitter.com