By Darwaish
Another unfortunate development of the day and I am unable to understand who is advising government of making such foolish decisions.
It seems now that the Government of Pakistan has banned Kamran Khan Show as yet another casualty in the ongoing saga of the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) removal from office. Geo has just made it public and Kamran Khan appeared on Geo News just a few moments ago and apologized to viewers that he would not be able to present his show due to this ban (audio of what he said, here).
It was Kamran Khan Show in which Mr Wasi Zafar’s misbehavior on VOA was reported (video of that program here). He was also the host of Geo’s live transmission which showed and commented on the misbehavior with Chief Justice of Pakistan and his family last Monday. I guess Kamran Khan has finally paid the price of speaking the truth and his efforts to present facts to the people of Pakistan.
GEO TV website has this information on how the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has banned this show:
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has imposed ban on “Aaj Kamran Khan Key Sath”, the famous programme of Geo Television Network.
“Aaj Kamran Khan Key Sath” has been stopped as the government has imposed ban on it, said the spokesman of the Geo Television Network.
It was regretted at 11:05 PM, when this programme starts daily, that the programme could not be aired due to government ban.
Reacting to the ban on this programme, Kamran Khan, the host of the programme, condemned the government action and said that there was no other agenda of the said programme except making people aware of real facts and correct analysis.
This is a direct attack on freedom of press and freedom of expression. Looks like we will now see more bans if Pakistani Media didn’t cooperate with the government. I am also wondering what will happen to the Ansaar Abbasi now. We should all condemn this unjust action? But HOW?
Here are two samples of video clips from the Kamran Khan Show related to this issue.
Here is GEO’s own report on the attack on its office.
Message from Altaf Hussain on attack on GEO office.
Hamid Mir interviews Gen. Musharraf on the attack.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=4730 4
Editorial, The News, March 18, 2007
Dealing with dissent
One would have thought that going by the tumultuous events of Friday and the general response of the nation to them, on Saturday the police would have been ordered to be a little more circumspect in their dealing with those protesting the ‘suspension’ of the chief justice. On Saturday, the ‘action’, so to speak, seems to have shifted to Lahore, with dozens of lawyers arrested, manhandled and lathi-charged by the trigger-happy Punjab police. And while the chief justice’s lawyers are now claiming that the tight security cordon around him has been relaxed, it should be remembered that this has happened (pending independent corroboration) only after the Supreme Judicial Council made it clear on Friday that there were no restrictions on the movement of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. As for Saturday’s actions by the police, they were mostly unprovoked again, this time beginning when lawyers were prevented by the police from going inside the premises of the LHC to attend an all-Pakistan convention organised by the Lahore High Court Bar Association. The police lathi-charged the lawyers and fired tear gas shells and this rash action eventually snow-balled into a full-fledged street battle between the unarmed lawyers and the Punjab police constabulary.
The question that one would like to ask is why cannot the government let the lawyers meet if they want, why cannot it be okay with people protesting whatever it is they wish to protest against, provided it is peaceful and does not disturb public order. Surely by now, it should have realised that an all-out confrontation with either the lawyers’ community or the media is going to be a futile if not downright negative exercise in that it will only serve to further exacerbate an already tense situation and that this heightening of tension will only damage the government’s own credibility and lower its image in the eyes of Pakistanis in general as well as the outside world. As for the attack on the office of The News and Geo TV on Friday, the government has reportedly suspended 14 policemen who allegedly took part in the raid. A judicial inquiry has been promised as well one can only hope that it succeeds in unearthing the real perpetrators of this naked assault on press and media freedom. Again, it is worth reiterating that it defies common sense and logic to believe that junior-level policemen on their own would attack and ransack the offices of a national newspaper and a news channel in the heart of Islamabad, a stone’s throw from the Parliament House, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the Presidency.
The best way forward for the government would be to allow peaceful forms of protest. As it has already said, the matter is now before the SJC and the directives of this body should be followed. One of them relates to the coverage of the SJC’s proceedings and of the hearing of the reference. Here, as directed by the SJC print and electronic media have reported only the press release detailing Friday’s proceedings. The government, and especially the electronic media regulator PEMRA, should not seek to unnecessarily extend this directive, as has been done so far, to order newspapers and TV channels not to cover the events and incidents arising out of Justice Iftikhar’s suspension and to desist from giving him any coverage.
Such a blanket prohibition impedes the people’s right to be informed on all matters related to the chief justice’s ‘suspension’ except of course those that are sub-judice, i.e. the contents of the reference against Justice Iftikhar and the proceedings of the SJC to examine it. Also, by prohibiting any coverage of the issue, a situation may well arise in which, because of absence of any information, rumours begin to gain currency and that only serves to destabilise things further. As a first step, the government should call off the police on the lawyers and permit them to exercise their democratic right to register a peaceful protest and this should be applicable for civil society in general. As has already been pointed out by some commentators, those at the helm of affairs should realise that the rise of the information age, characterised particularly by the coming of age of the country’s electronic media (and to some extent of the Internet, especially blogs and so on), has changed everything. Clamping down on the flow of information and on dissent is next to impossible and only counter-productive. Ban a TV channel and one will find the information on the Internet or on a blog, blackout a newspaper and get the story on a web forum. The dictum that the Internet is perhaps the biggest encourager of a democratic mindset (and certainly a facilitator of a level-playing field in terms of who controls and provides information) has never been as true as now in Pakistan’s case. Now only if the country’s polity was as democratic, with its head of state and head of government, both accountable solely to the people.
I think it is a no-win for the government. Let’s assume for a minute that the SJC declares the CJ not guilty. It will make Musharraf’s position untenable. And, a guilty verdict will have no credibility in the eyes of the people or for that matter in the eyes of the world after what has happened in the last 10 days.
With all that has happened in the last week, if the government survives now, it will be very bad for the country. A lot of other things such as poor governance etc we are used to, but when a government tries to use police state tactics, then its further continuation becomes very dangerous.
It won’t be just a one off situation, if Musharraf gets away with it, he will be willing to do it again and again.
Disciple, I think these are links of the same chain. It boils down to State oppression and subjugation of the people.
MQ, I did see Big Arm i.e. Wasi Duffer wimpering on TV apologizing. I am sure he has been put up to it. But I hope that his head rolls.
If everyone is making so much noise for attack on Geo but not on manhandling of CJ then we are certainly a nation of tamash-beens and not people who seek justice. Insaaf hu na hu tamasha huna chaheey.