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Leftist Rag The Wire Journo Arfa Khanum Sherwani Platforms Pakistani Journalists To Deny Pahalgam Attack And Spin Collapsed Talks As Pakistan’s Win

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The Commune
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In two separate videos uploaded on her YouTube channel on 12 April 2026 and 13 April 2026, journalist of leftist rag The Wire Arfa Khanum Sherwani hosted Pakistani journalist Beena Sarwar and Geo News anchor Hamid Mir on her YouTube channel and the conversations that followed seemed to legitimise Pakistani state narratives on the Pahalgam terror attack and the collapsed Islamabad ceasefire talks.

Beena Sarwar: “No Evidence Against Pakistan” – Arfa Agrees

In the first video (12 April 2026), Arfa hosted Beena Sarwar, a Karachi-based Pakistani journalist and peace activist. When the Pahalgam terror attack came up, in which 26 civilians were killed, Sarwar made an unequivocal defence of Pakistan, she said, “Regarding Pahalgam, look, we in Pakistan, our friends, we are the first to criticise our own country and our own army, unlike Indians who do not criticise their own country and their own state, especially in front of other people. We openly criticise ourselves, we are even called traitors here in Pakistan for doing so. But regarding Pahalgam, no evidence was presented. The moment it happened; blame was immediately put on Pakistan. And as a person who believes in fairness, I think that was unfair. No matter how much we ourselves speak against Pakistan’s army, we are called traitors here in Pakistan for it, but in this case, I am sorry to say, it was totally jumping the gun. And because of that conflict that happened last May, if you look at who benefited from it, on your side, your Modi government became stronger. On our side, our army became stronger. What did the common people get from it?”

Far from pushing back or questioning this framing, Arfa endorsed it saying, “Yes, Beena, I want to move forward from Pahalgam, because I also don’t have evidence. The evidence has to be shown by the Indian government.”

Hamid Mir: Lebanon Broke the Deal – An “Insider Story” Arfa Was Thrilled to Platform

In the second video (13 April 2026), Arfa invited Hamid Mir, the veteran Geo News anchor, for what she billed as an exclusive on the collapsed Islamabad ceasefire talks between the US and Iran. Mir proceeded to give Pakistan near-total credit for brokering the talks – talks that had, by that point, already broken down and offered what he framed as insider intelligence on why they failed. He said, “I am telling you with full confidence, the two or three issues that Donald Trump mentioned in his threats, one is the enrichment of uranium and the other is the Strait of Hormuz, the impression he is giving is that there is a big dispute over these. Yes, the Iranians are not ready to stop uranium enrichment. But he is pressurising them on it, and Trump also says, ‘I hope they will return to the negotiating table.’ Now, here is the key point during the 21 hours of talks, there was actually NO problem on these issues at all. They had come very close to agreement on these points. The issue that Donald Trump is avoiding – the one he is NOT mentioning, the one that caused the Iranians to walk out when they were just inches away from a breakthrough was the Lebanon ceasefire. Because look, when Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif made that ceasefire announcement and shared this big news with the world on day one, if you go back and read it carefully, it was explicitly mentioned that the ceasefire would apply to Lebanon as well. But then, when JD Vance was leaving America heading towards Pakistan, he gave a statement: ‘No, Lebanon was NOT part of our deal.’ So they were backing out of it. Why were they backing out? Because they had already anticipated in advance that when the Iranian side sat across from them, Iran would not compromise on the Lebanon issue. So they denied it as a pressure tactic. And exactly that happened. When they sat down – there were 15 points from America and 10 points from Iran. All the issues were being discussed well. But when it came to the Lebanon issue, the Iranians said: ‘On this, we will not compromise with you. Because Netanyahu has started a genocide in Lebanon. And if we now make an agreement with you, the message that goes to the world will be that we abandoned Hezbollah, we gave up Hamas, we did their deal, we sold their sacrifices. We cannot do this. Don’t expect this from us. You will have to do a ceasefire on this.'”

Rather than interrogating Mir’s claims or noting that the talks had collapsed precisely during Pakistan’s much-hyped diplomatic moment, Arfa responded with admiration. She said, “This is a very significant point, Sir. There has not been much reporting on what you are saying. This is quite a big revelation — an insider story, inside information that you are sharing. Because on the surface, it is said that the uranium enrichment and Hormuz issue is what stalled things. But the Lebanon…”

While sharing the above video on her X handle, she wrote, “Hamid Mir categorically said: ‘Not Hormuz. Not nukes. Lebanon broke the deal.’ An insight no one else in mainstream media is reporting.” essentially amplifying a Pakistani journalist’s unverified version of events as an exclusive scoop.

One pattern is common – within the span of 48 hours, Arfa used her channel to enable denying of Pakistani culpability in a terror attack on Indian soil, and then to allow a Pakistani television anchor to reframe a diplomatic failure as a Pakistani strategic victory. The Islamabad talks which Pakistan had projected as a massive win for its regional relevance, collapsed after 21 hours of negotiations, with Iran walking out and the ceasefire unravelling soon after. Neither guest was meaningfully challenged on any of their claims.

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