With the MeToo movement gaining momentum around the world recently, prominent female journalist, Urooj Zia has now come forward and accused philanthropist Faisal Edhi of harassment.
Taking to Twitter to share her story, Urooj mentioned how she was allegedly harassed when she was younger by Faisal Edhi – who is the late humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi’s son – when she went to meet him on behalf of the communist party she was a member of.
“I was a reporter at The News, office on Chundrigar Road, about 5 minutes drive from the Edhi Center at Merewether Tower,” she posted. “I went to the Edhi Center at around 6 p.m to meet with Faisal Edhi on behalf of the Party. Faisal was civil during the meeting, we discussed how we could work together, etc, I was professional, he was too. When I was leaving, he asked me how I was going to get to work. I said that I’d probably take a taxi or a rickshaw, or I’d walk, it would take only about 15 mins.”
*takes a deep breathe*
Since this is all coming out, #MeToo too many times than I can count, but this one is about Faisal Edhi, Abdus Sattar Edhi's son – the guy heading the Edhi Foundation now.
It happened when I was very young (22 or 23 years old, I think.)
— Urooj Zia (@potaydur) October 10, 2018
In a thread of tweets, the journalist explained how Faisal started off with firstly grabbing onto her hand forcefully, to then calling her constantly, and subsequently, threatening to cut funding.
“He offered to drop me off. I said, sure. Here was a guy who was much older than me, had behaved well, I didn’t see a reason to refuse. He also asked for my number “for further discussion,†and I gave it to him. We got to the office building, I thanked him and started to get off. He held out his hand. I shook it politely, at which point, he grabbed my hand tightly and tried to kind of pull me back into the van. I was already halfway out and didn’t realise what he was doing. When he pulled even harder, I suddenly came to,†sort of, angrily took my arm back and walked off.”
in that same vein. I was gobsmacked, and not in a good way. He said that Party funding and assistance would be withdrawn if I didn't want to be "friends" with him. I hung up, retched violently, and went to the restroom and threw up.
This was a married man. With kids. Much
— Urooj Zia (@potaydur) October 10, 2018
After the allegation, the philanthropist has refuted the claim while speaking to a leading daily.
“I do not even know this lady and I have no idea why she is leveling allegations against me,†Faisal said.“I have no recollection of any such incident.â€
