The details emerging out of Pakistan are still somewhat sketchy but some facts are clear; more than 30 people are dead and over 115 injured. The Chief Justice of Pakistan was unable to address the Sindh Bar Association and was forced to go back to Islamabad and the private television station Aaj TV, which has been in the forefront of covering pro-judiciary and anti-Musharraf protests, was attacked by armed gunmen. This is indeed another dark day in the checkered political history of Pakistan.
It is now well past time for the Musharraf regime to go. This government has now lost the last shreds of moral authority required to govern. I salute the men and women of the civil society of Pakistan and the courageous independent media who are leading this struggle for the supremacy of the law and freedom of expression at grave risk to their life and limb.
As tragic and sad as events in Karachi are, this political moment is of historic import for the people of Pakistan and even on this day of darkness I see some hope for a better future. Since the sacking of the CJP on March 9th, the heroic struggle of the lawyers has germinated greater democratic desire and decisively strengthened Pakistan’s civil society and its beleagured independent media.
In the face of relentless governmental coercion there have been heartwarming displays of peaceful resistance, none more evident than in the historic journey of Justice Chaudhry through the heart of Punjab. Those in Pakistan and abroad who desire an eventual constitutional democratic polity rooted in a rule of law have to be encouraged by these developments. The conclusion of this episode, however, remains highly uncertain because no political sagacity can be expected from those who have brought us to this pass.
This grassroots peoples’ movement has also forced the politicians of all hues to make a choice; they either stand on the side of the rule of law or for the perpetuation of a dangerously unstable, one-man military banana republic. Mainstream politicians (despite all their historical shortcomings) clearly seem to grasp the national mood and the King’s men who are standing up for the present dispensation to save their personal fiefdoms will hopefully pay a steep price whenever they face the electorate in a fair election.
MQM more clearly exposed itself today than it ever has in its sordid history (thanks to private TV channels). The party that started with great hopes, rooted in the educated middle classes has over the years just become a collection of vicious thugs. It is wielding its fascistic tactics on behalf of people who seem to believe they have a divine right to perpetual power and who originally nurtured this party as a counterweight to PPP. MQM has shown itself the mirror image of the worst of MMA; both groups want people to acquiesce to their ideologies by force. Neither believes in nor has any fundamental respect for a constitutional rule of law.
Pakistan stands at a critical juncture as it has so many times in its unfortunate 60 year independent history. I would urge all Pakistanis and their well wishers to lend thier support to the struggle of Pakistan’s revitalized civil society. Let’s hope that the forces of peaceful democratic activism led by the country’s courageous lawyers ultimately emerge victorious and we can close this latest chapter of the military’s recurring era of authoritarian and unconstitutional misrule without further human suffering.
Fawad is a California-based literati-at-large and writes the blog ‘Moments of Tranquility,’ where a version of this was first posted.
– i edit the editorial pages of one of the country’s largest english newspapers and have yet to receive any call from any minister or govt official or the publisher for that matter telling me what to do â€
Only on the Internet could a proud professional print journalist write such trash or behave so unprofessionally – telling others they don’t know what they are talking about, calling them idiots, and live in a dreamworld thinking everyone else lives in one.
Although Omar R Qureshi’s comment must have upset many, both for it’s tone and content, we see that this democratic medium – which could have been used to call him the many things he more than deserves – has shown more decency and decorum in allowing him to express his inane views and use language that his medium of choice would not permit.
The times, Mr. Print Journalist, are a-changing. Wake up! You are young enough to be writing (hopefully more maturely and with fewer immature reactions!) in the road ahead for this medium which will be there for a long, long while after print journalism has further lost it’s relevance and impact … and only the best among it (The News is certainly far from that) survive.
This from The News editorial today (18 May):
“And that is where the other dangerous aspect to all of this comes in — the pressure on the print and electronic media, which was manifest as never before on May 12. According to reports, it figured in the May 15 meeting as well, with almost all participants expressing unanimity that the government do something to put the media in order, given that it was blowing things out of proportion. Coming good on that request would be a most unwise step, for the government itself.
Those at the helm in Islamabad need to ask themselves that on a day when dozens die in brutal gunfights, when a TV channel is attacked for six hours with no police or Rangers stepping in to thwart the attackers, when people are left on the rode to die in cold blood, to blame the media for blowing things out of proportion is a recipe for disaster. It means that the government is not willing to even look at what went wrong on May 12, so finding the way forward and to ensure that such a day does not happen again seems an elusive possibility.”
Has anyone seen the Imran Khan interviews on BBC. They keep repeating this. Maybe someone is thinking that he is about to make a splash!
Do people have any idea at all just how childish this whole conversation sounds! Pity, because the real topic is interesting.
First, lets be clear that calling someone an idiot is a bad thing. It is wrong to do on a blog just as it is wrong in a newspaper. A simple apology will solve this.
Second, OQ is right that most blogs use newspaper reports to base their stories on. They are not news sources but they can be sources of personal deep stories and sometimes even bring in things that are not in newspapers yet. But mostly their value is to give a picture of what people are thinking. In recent Karachi killings the blogs gave more personal testimonials but I still went to newspapers for overall picture.
Third, newspapers should be more careful than blogs in naming etc. Blogs are personal so anyone can write anything, even wrong things often with false names. In most blogs (this one is exception) you get opinion as if it is fact. Look at comments and everyone seems to know exactly what is really true! They just know it without proof or verification. This is why blogs are good for opinion but not always for facts. Newspapers have to be more careful and should be.
So, overall, now people get news from many many places including newspapers, TV and radio, blogs, friends. They know how to treat each source. It is not who is good and bad because they are different and it does not mean that new source will replace old ones. Also, more information is good thing, so why would you want one to replace other?