By Darwaish
As expected, the Military Government of Pakistan has finally lost its patience and the live coverage of CJ’s bar addresses and live talk shows have been banned from today.
This means there is every chance that we won’t be able to see Live with Talat Hussain or Hamid Mir’s Capital Talk and possibly Dr. Shahid Masood’s Mere Mutabiq for sometime at least. Some of the less dangerous programmes like Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Saath may survive in my view. Meanwhile, in related news, Karachi journalists are now recieving threatening letters with bullets in them.
Our beloved Information Minister Mr. Ghalat Biyani held a press conference today and warned media. He said that government is talking to TV channels and either they trying to convince them to impose a self-censorship which is basically say nothing against Pakistan Army and national security institutions and No Live Coverage of CJ. We will find out exactly what happens in next few days and how far owners of electronic media channels can resist. Those of you following CJ’s Abotabad District Bar visit today must have noticed a sudden change in electronic media coverage, a partial blackout. We are only seeing repetition of recorded clips on all the channels. PEMRA has issued strict orders to all channels NOT to broadcast CJ’s speech today. ARY ‘s transmission has already been banned in Islamabad and Rawalpindi since yesterday mainly because of anti army slogans during Ayaz Amir’s show in Islamabad last week. Talat Hussain also hinted last night that there is a possibility that viewers won’t see him on Aaj TV in coming weeks.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has vowed to challenge this move in highest courts and a petition will be filed on Monday. This step was expected after yesterday’s Corps Commanders Conference which apparently taken strict notice of an organized campaign against National Security Institutions by a minority. Lahore High Court Bar has slammed this move by government. According to Daily Times:
The LHCBA on Friday denounced the government for taking steps to ban the live coverage of the lawyers’ movement. LHCBA representatives said in a joint statement that Information and Broadcasting minister Muhammad Ali Durrani’s statement about changing the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority rules were against the independence of the media. LHCBA president Ahsen Bhoon said a free media was essential for the development of a country. He said, “The military government wants to use the media for its ulterior motives.� He said the lawyers’ movement would continue till the end of the military government. LHCBA secretary Sarfaraz Cheema condemned the Sindh chief minister for allegedly accusing the lawyers for taking foreign grants for the movement against the government.
This whole thing has been triggered after heated speeches and slogans against Pakistan Army during last week’s seminar in Supreme Court Auditorium. Personally, I think some of the speeches and slogans were not at all appropriate and should have been avoided. One can argue about the role of military in politics since 1954 and the corruption that exists at the highest levels. But we should not blame the entire institution that includes ordinary army jawans and junior officers who have nothing to do with politics and who perform their duties in extremely tough conditions so that we can feel secure from internal and external threats.
Its the junior officers and soldiers who die for us in the battle fields and they deserve highest regard. Having said that, it should be clear to our respected generals that since top military leadership is ruling this country (there is hardly a civilian institution that is not headed by a Brigadier Saab these days) and involved in all kinds of politics (who can deny the ugly role of ISI in politics?) therefore they should also learn to take criticism like politicians do.
The days of Muqadas Gaye treatment are over. A conclusion should be made whether Pakistan is supposed to be a social welfare state for people of Pakistan or a National Security State for an institution. And what is this National Security anyways? Have we ever defined it? Once a question was put by a PPP MNA in national assembly asking if army officers declare their assets annually and file their returns like average Pakistani and they got official answer that this question cannot be answered since it is a National Security issue.
While all this is happening, its ironic that parliament and elected members are nowhere to be seen in any major decision making. Chaudhary Shujaat came up with an immature remark that all the lawyers who are talking against military should be shot (goli maar deni chahiye).
Is he not provoking violence?
I hope that common sense prevails before things get out of hands and Pakistan Army gets out of politics and they get back to their real duties. The last thing any sensible person wants is an increase in hatred against the military in ordinary people and possibly a violent clash.
One shouldn’t forget the example of what happened in Argentina and that will be disastrous and a great tragedy for people of Pakistan.
[quote comment=”51212″]Sad that the government is taking on these two institutions of judiciary and press at the same time. This will be the undoing of the government.[/quote]
Reminds me Hitler’s great folly (and belive me Musharraf is turning into a mini-Hitler), opening a 2nd front by attcking Russia. I am not a historian but I believe Napolean made a similar fatal miskate i.e. he opened multiple fronts. Correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks admin. Returning back to the subject, the media is digging its heels for a fight. They’ve tken a cue from the lawyers and I don’t see them succumbing to pressures. The govt using the same playbook, just like they dressed people as lawyers to derail lawyers’ movement, they are now dressing up goons as journalists. This led to the scuffle in NA yesterday.
First the bar and the bench stood up against General Musharraf’s govt, now the media has accepted the challenge too. I think teachers are next and one by one other segments of the society will join the movement to reclaim Pakistan from the jaws of blood-thirsty sharks guised in uniform.
Arbitrary & unjust
It seems that the government is readying itself for a war on the media, particularly the electronic one, in the country. This is most unfortunate and troubling given that it already has one problematic front — the ongoing judicial crisis with the legal community up in arms against it — to deal with. What else can one make of the several amendments announced by the government on Tuesday in the laws regulating the electronic media? Coming in the midst of the judicial crisis and increasing pressure being applied by the government on the print and electronic media on coverage of the crisis and its related rallies and protests, the changes have been made via a presidential ordinance, just a few days before the National Assembly was to meet in session. In this context, it would be fair to say that the sole aim of the changes is to bring the media in general, and the electronic one in particular, to a point of submission.
The changes themselves go against the very spirit of natural justice which demands that before the state or one of its agencies takes any punitive action against a non-state entity for violation of the law, the latter be given adequate warning about such action. Furthermore, the right to lodge an appeal against and question any such action is an intrinsic part of the due process of law. Also, another important element of natural justice, contained in the maxim ‘audi alteram partem’ — that the other side’s view must also be heard — has been violated by the changes. How else does the government justify increasing the penalty ten-fold, authorising the state electronic media regulator, PEMRA, to confiscate equipment, seal the premises of TV channels or cancel a channel’s licence without referring the matter first to a council of complaints (as envisaged under legislation that Tuesday’s ordinance amended)?
Also, the government’s intention that pressure on the media is going to be further tightened is shown by bringing under PEMRA’s purview even video images relayed on mobile phones and the Internet. This shows panic on the part of the government in that it now wants to even control what people see on their mobile phones and the Internet. It is also an indication of how desperate it is to stamp out coverage of the rallies and protests related to the judicial crisis. In addition to this, PEMRA has been given, quite arbitrarily, sweeping authority to make rules and regulations from time to time to enforce the ordinance. This new proviso can always be used by this or any other government to further increase pressure on the electronic media.
Clearly, the signs — especially with this new ordinance — are ominous. There should be no doubt about the fact that the effects of this widening battle/confrontation with the media are going to be disastrous — for the country, for civil society and for the government as well. For starters, the international image of the government, which some have cultivated thanks to Pakistan’s participation in the US-led war against terrorism, is sure to take a battering (the US State Department has already commented on it, saying that the media should be able to carry out its job of reporting the judicial crisis). Further to that, and perhaps more importantly, whatever support that the government had among domestic public opinion is sure to diminish. That the changes were made by an ordinance, when there is an elected parliament, and when many PEMRA provisions were enacted as recent as February of this year, is a deathly blow to whatever democracy there is in Pakistan at this point in time.
Surely, the way forward out of the crisis is not to open another, potentially dangerous, front with the media. Those at the helm of affairs need to understand that (a) the crisis unfolding before it has not been initiated or manipulated by the media as it seems to sadly believe, that (b) curbs of the electronic and print media, in this day and age; and with public opinion generally in synch with the view that the crisis is of the government’s own making (and worsening by every passing day because its guiding principle seems to be the proverb ‘Cut your nose to spite your face’), are only going to exacerbate the situation and further lower the credibility of the government in the eyes of most Pakistanis as well as overseas observers; that (c) simply imposing stringent censorship and banning TV channels will not make the crisis disappear, for the simple reason that the media did not create it and (d) that the only way to defuse the situation is for the prime mover — i.e., the government — to take appropriate steps such as withdrawing the reference against the chief justice, reversing the media curbs and the president choosing either the post of army chief or president.
Editorial, The News, June 6, 2007
http://www.pakistanimedia.com/vid/imranonjawabdeh. wmv
the above interview was one of the reasons along with Dr. Shahid Masood’s Kabir Ali Wasti interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko1fbP1iGaE
and his Saturday’s (Mere Mutabiq Classical)
could anyone upload it please…
a must see as lots of people couldn’t watch it in Pakistan
[quote comment=”51457″][quote]Till we Pakistanis do not get ourselves educated, be tolerent, disciplined and improve upon our social behaviour we do not deserve freedom and democracy the way we expect it. [/quote]
This is a silly argument. It’s like saying a child does not deserve to go to school until s/he learns to brush her/his teeth, wear neat clothes, be disciplined and improves her/his social habits etc. These things are not learnt sequentially but simultaneously. One encourages and reinforces the other. Same is the case with democracy.
[quote]… do we deserve freedom and democracy? [/quote]
Again, a silly question. Yes, of course, we do deserve freedom and democracy. Everyone does![/quote]
I don’t believe in your comments. We cannot handle freedom and democracy – you see the results! Obviously you are not in the same situation – are you actually living in Pakistan or in some Western country? I believe Mr Rumi has hit the nail on the head. You start with education and discipline and tolerance, this will facilitate the path to democracy. As for the comparison to the child, this does not make sense at all. A child learns to brush their teeth and wear clothes and then does go to school, this is the logical process, as is education and discipline the path to democracy.
Pakistanis who leave their country for higher education and then stay abroad to work, and then “pretend to care” – that is where the probelm lies. If they returned to give back to the country what they have learned, then perhaps Pakistan has a chance to move up a level in terms of education and discipline.