Darwaish
UPDATE: Nov. 3, 2007: Emergency Declared in Pakistan.
UPDATE: Nov. 4, 2007: Media Gagged. Listen to Geo News here.
In my last post, I mentioned that Electronic Media is under siege and many programs are likely to be banned. But I was not expecting it to happen so soon. Geo News transmission have been completely shut down in most parts of the country and Aaj TVvhas disappeared from my cable at least (WorldCall Cable, Lahore).
I don’t know if Aaj TV has been completely banned or not. It happened while I was watching Dr. Shahid Masood’s Mere Mutabiq. Muslim League (Q)’s own Vice President Kabir Wasti was strongly criticizing General Musharaf, holding him responsible for the judicial crises when suddenly Geo News was shut down. I thought that its a temporary ban and transmission will be back as soon as Dr. Shahid’s program is over but its been several hours now and still no signs of Geo or Aaj coming back on my cable. A friend of mine sent me this SMS from Karachi that Geo News disappeared from most parts of the Sindh around 8 o clock too during Imran Khan’s interview in another program Jawab De.
Geo News website has this to say:
The government has blocked the transmission of the Geo News TV channel across the country due to the reasons best known to them. The viewers calls flooded the Geo office to ask that why the transmission of Geo News TV channel was suddenly suspended when the famous programme, “Meray Mutabik” was going on air.
The calls from the viewers were received from various parts of the country. According to Geo News sources the government has blocked the transmission of the Geo News. Geo transmission was blocked in various parts of Islamabad, Lahore, Hyderabad, Karachi and other areas. The citizens, social and political circles have condemned the ban on transmission of Geo News and they have demanded of the government to immediately lift ban on the transmission of the Geo News and give complete freedom to media in the country.
I am unable to understand why this step has been taken but lets wait and see the official reason which will surely be Afwaje Pakistan ke khilaaf baat ki gaye hai. I suspect the title of Dr. Shahid’s program Idaro Ka Takrao - Fatah Kiski Ho Gi (Clash of Institutions - Who Will be Victorious) must have caused concerns among people sitting in Information Ministry aka Mr. Ghalat Biyani.
Whatever government says but I thought it was a very interesting program and a healthy discussion going on when some wise men decided to shut it down. I hope the ban is lifted soon and government shows some common sense. Like they say in Urdu, Kuch Hosh Ke Nakhun Lo Bhai. Whatever happened to those free media and freedom of press claims :). This is yet another direct attack on freedom of expression and truly a shameful act and should be strongly condemned. I am afraid Dr. Shahid Masood will be in trouble once again for not being afraid, for speaking his mind and saying what is in hearts of millions of ordinary Pakistanis.
Cynic: I disagree that this his purely a belief-in-the-boots phenomenon.
Musharraf had a message 8 years ago that resonated with the people who had seen enough horse-trading and lota-baazi in the assemblies. He, as a person, seemed to represent more than just the boots that brought him to power. It was an opportunity to create institutions and frameworks for true democracy to find some roots in Pakistan. We needed a technocratic government at the center to set up the right organizational frameworks and setups.
But he lost his path and ventured towards all too familiar power-hoarding. He realized that the task before him (that he had promised the nation) was too difficult to achieve, partly because the people he assembled around him were all too eager to get the power they could not easily get with other governments.
Musharraf bit more than he could chew, and kept digging himself into a deeper hole. The only way out for him seemed to hold onto power with the hope that miraculously good things would happen to save him from disgrace like those he had replaced a few years earlier. There is a pattern in all of this. He started with initiatives that had national support: decentralization of government, NAAB, police reforms, education reforms…Later he pandered and tried desperately to find big-hitters to get the confidence back: women’s rights, Kashmir policy, tribal feuds etc.
He really needs a crisis manager who can advise him on how to get out of the hole has buried himself in. Unfortunately those surrounding (and isolating) him are the same people who failed to advise Nawaz and Benazir in similar situations and have no new ideas for Musharraf. Musharraf and his band of followers are so distant from the reality over which they rule that they have no idea how much it would help to simply be honest for a change. We will find a decent place for them to ‘retire’ to.
All this is made more certain for me when I see who the Pakistanis are rallying around. Notice the absence of any political leaders: because we know them all too well to be corrupt. They are rallying around an unknown chief justice because they do not know much about him. Imran Khan is another one of those - at least we don’t know how he would be when he in the government, or TV talk show hosts. Where is the leadership? The leadership vacuum is identical to the one that brought Musharraf into power and allowed him to be accepted by people. I seriously think that if he left and even if the next in line General took over again, the nation would calm down for a while. We seem to need somebody, anybody but those in charge, now.
I wonder if there is a way for all of us that are outraged by the increasingly oppressive policies of Musharraf/Army to organize ourselves into a focused web campaign?
[quote comment="51697"]what happened to Musharraf? He used to be a courageous, intelligent fellow. Now he has degenerated into a foolish despot, damaging institutions and hurting people just to keep himself in power.[/quote]
That is the problem with us pakistanis. we make heroes out of boots and are then surprised to see that they have no brains. people all over the world decided a long time ago that if they had to have idiots as leaders, it was better to have representative idiots rather than despotic idiots.
Good point Ahmad! Then I guess the only beneficiaries will be overseas Pakistanis and there are millions of them in Europe, US and Middle East.
Plus it will again highlight the hypocrisy of Musharraf, he claims to be an enlightened moderate but is following in the footsteps of Saddam, Karimov and Mugabe.
[quote comment="51708"][quote comment="51675"]think following steps can be taken to fight the PEMRA / CABLE MAFIA
1. Buy a Dish Antena and a Reciever(a unit costs less than 5000 Rs) and share it with Mohalla / neigbours. Even better is to inject the signal in your cable connection :)
2. Geo / Aaj / ARY may make available the hourly news and all talk shows in a format where people can download them to their mobiles and share with friends via bluetooth etc.[/quote]
Good ideas. I also think that lawyers should start recording the CJP’s visits to the bar associations themselves and upload them on video google. It is quite simple. There are a lot of people who’d be willing to do this if the lawyers make a video recording of their bar meetings.
The viewership will be limited, but still the message will get out.[/quote]
What if youtube is banned in Pakistan like it was in Turkey and Thailand?
This is becoming big news.
New controls on media in Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf has signed into immediate effect measures to increase control over the media.
Current regulations related to television have been extended to the internet and mobile phones.
Some regulations on who is allowed to be licensed to broadcast in Pakistan have been extended to cover “any foreign non-governmental organisation”.
Gen Musharraf has been highly critical of the media in recent weeks over its coverage of opposition protests.
Correspondents say Gen Musharraf is facing the most serious challenge to his rule from a coalition of opposition parties and groups.
Their frequent street demonstrations mark the first big protest movement in Pakistan to take place as the country has entered an era of rapidly expanding, live TV news coverage.
The protests were sparked off by Gen Musharraf’s suspension of the chief justice of the Supreme Court on 9 March.
Threat to premises
The amended media regulations were changed on Monday because “circumstances exist which render it necessary to take immediate action”, a government statement said.
from beebeecee
A draconian presidential ordinance has been promulgated today which threatens to seal private TV channel offices and confiscate all their equipment if PEMRA rules are “violated”.
This ordinance seems to be straight out of Saddam Hussain’s book.
Read more on this draconian law at bbc urdu website.
[quote comment="51675"]think following steps can be taken to fight the PEMRA / CABLE MAFIA
1. Buy a Dish Antena and a Reciever(a unit costs less than 5000 Rs) and share it with Mohalla / neigbours. Even better is to inject the signal in your cable connection :)
2. Geo / Aaj / ARY may make available the hourly news and all talk shows in a format where people can download them to their mobiles and share with friends via bluetooth etc.[/quote]
Good ideas. I also think that lawyers should start recording the CJP’s visits to the bar associations themselves and upload them on video google. It is quite simple. There are a lot of people who’d be willing to do this if the lawyers make a video recording of their bar meetings.
The viewership will be limited, but still the message will get out.