Want a baby? Get one on TV

Pakistani television is screening what many call its most controversial content yet in a ruthless quest for ratings: a talk-show host who gives away babies live on air.

Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a bespectacled 41-year-old with a neat beard, gave away two abandoned infant girls to childless families last month and plans to give away a baby boy this week.

"If we didn't find this baby, a cat or a dog would have eaten her," Hussain said during one broadcast before presenting a tiny girl wrapped in pink and red to her new parents. The audience erupted with applause.

Hussain is one of Pakistan's most popular talk-show hosts.

During his marathon broadcasts he cooks, interviews clerics and celebrities, entertains children and hosts game shows.

He usually gives away prizes such as motorbikes, cellphones and deeds to land to audience members who answer questions about Islam.

But at the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when television stations battle fiercely for ratings, Hussain astonished Pakistan by presenting two families with babies.

"We were told we had passed all the interviews and had been selected to adopt a baby," said Riaz Uddin, 40, an engineer. "We got our baby on live TV."

The abandoned babies were rescued by Chhipa Welfare.

"In a day or two, the next baby will be given away, God willing," said its leader, Ramzan Chhipa.

While the Chhipa teams scour rubbish dumps and other sites for discarded newborns, Hussain appeals for babies direct.

"If any family cannot afford to bring up their newborn baby because of poverty or illness, then instead of killing him they should hand the baby to Dr Aamir," a notice on his website reads.

The children would be given to deserving couples on air, the notice said.

It is not known if poor families wanting to keep their children would also be helped.

Many Pakistanis expressed disgust that abandoned babies were being given away in what they see as an attempt to boost ratings. Chhipa insisted that thousands of people wanted a baby and said all potential parents were strictly vetted. The true outrage, he said, was the poverty that forced families to abandon their children.

Hussain's show is one of many such. The Pakistani media has flourished over the past decade since the liberalisation of the industry, particularly broadcasting, after decades of tight state control.

Now presenters fight for audiences and advertising by seeing which can be the most outrageous.

TV has shown an anchor stalking couples in a park to challenge their morality, and a man bleeding to death in an operating theatre after being shot during a riot.