Surviving the pandemic

I am getting invitations to visit places, since we have got the opportunity for holidays in the middle of the busiest time of the year. These “invitations” are the indicators of our ignorance from the global pandemic. Nobody is taking it seriously. Memes and funny videos are in abundance. Social distancing is not in sight, food streets are bustling, and the closure of public gatherings is being received with apprehension. I ask myself about the reasons for this nonchalance. There might be many. Lack of awareness is one. This lack of awareness springs out of our general lack of seriousness towards health issues. The traditional set ups, like mosques, shrines are functioning and preaching religious determinism as a counter punch to scientific truth. It is a case of tradition vs innovation, of predestination vs knowledge. They need to get out of their refuge and join hands with the world around them. Government has closed down all educational institutions till April 5th. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa there is resentment among parents and private schools. Newspaper articles are being written in leading newspapers to express this displeasure, citing medicine doctors as experts. Schools even defied the government directive and remained open on Monday. The employees are happy they have a holiday, while the employers are taking it non seriously too. This brings into play the usual mistrust in the educational system, especially higher education and private schools, where the so called administrations consider the teaching staff less loyal to the institutions. Since no one was prepared to deal with such a catastrophe, improper responses are emerging everywhere. Punjab government has to circulate another directive addressed to private universities not to ask teaching staff to come to the educational institutions. The culture of making fun of everything, a specific trait of social media, has desensitised people in Pakistan to the gravity of the situation. The reality of the situation is that the number of cases has risen from around 30 to 92 over the weekend. People mostly travelling from Gulf and Iran are being tested positive. But this is not all: passengers coming from London and the US have also tested positive in Lahore and Islamabad, respectively. But the use of authentic information is not a strength of Pakistani information seekers. We can all get relevant information through using authentic sources like WHO, or the coronavirus update on the conversation. Instead of getting all sorts of useless, unconfirmed WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram news junk we can easily sign into fact based sources. You can use your social media accounts to get access to authentic sources. One also has to get into the habit of long reads. Instead of repeating the same facts or fictions we should start reading the details. This ranges from basic facts and timeline to simple rules to follow to the manage our media consumption of COVID 19 on the way we see globalisation and the way it will be affected by it. This will fill the gap of authenticity in our information void. Misinformation is lethal when it comes to such huge catastrophes. The fact that we are refusing to adjust to a new information culture is nothing wrong. It is very natural to avoid the truth conveniently, because of the fear of changing our persona. Or maybe the real us! But we have to understand the fact that this change in unavoidable. We need to change our perspective. Even if it seems like a flu, it is not the flu. It is dangerous, because it has no cure. And having no cure is a scientific fact. There is no conspiracy. If social distancing is advised, it is the right measure. If one has the luxury to work from home, one should take it seriously. The employers should also understand the fact that it is in their best interest too. It might seem like fun at the moment. But if the pandemic stays longer, and it seems it is not going away anytime soon, it won’t be fun anymore. Work from home and being on one’s own might seem as a recipe for leisure and introversion, it is in not so in reality. We also should be weary of overstretching the power of our faiths. Faith healing or the inner value of our particular faith is not going to help. Only science can. And science is advising us to adjust to a human situation. Imagine if it were a war and all of us had to enlist for the very purpose of killing each other. Thank God, it is not! The whole world is being united to share information, to enhance transparency, and to get through the crises. We are all in it. And maybe for the first time in human history we are not pitted against each other. We are creating a global fraternity to overcome a common enemy. So, the best way to be part of the solution is to be positive, be cautious, be scientific, and be responsible. Above all, experience has shown that the more proactive a society is the better are its chances to survive the pandemic. And last but not least we need to be more generous and forgiving. Most of the people can’t afford to isolate themselves. They have to work to get their sustenance running. We should think about them. We should be more compassionate, our government more humane, and we should also rethink the distribution of resources. We should keep in mind the fact that the earth has enough resources to feed the people living on it. It is the people who divest similar human beings from their right to live. Let’s be not among those. Let’s try to be among the ones who make life easier for others. This is humanity. Let’s be human! Picture courtesy WTAP

The Reluctant Gunner

In my younger days, 1970s and 80s, it was a common sight to see men, young and old, carrying guns everywhere in Hashtnagar, literally meaning eight cities, the area that includes Charsadda and 7 other towns in the area. Guns were carried while travelling in bus or walking around, being on a bicycle or riding the newly introduced motorcycles. Even the Imam of our mosque, who used to visit only for Friday prayers from Shabqadar, used to carry a German C96 Mauser, a big pistol with a wooden holster. As kids we used to fancy the gun more than the sermon and looking at the firebrand while he used to deliver his Friday sermon; and then shaking his hands after the prayers was a rare pleasure. He was a very kind man, soft spoken, gentle, and always delighted to see the kids coming to the mosque. These were the days when guns in Pashtoon society had nothing to do with violence. Violence was there, but every person carrying a gun weren't trigger happy. True, there were family feuds and other issues that ended in violent encounters, but it was nothing compared to the state of affairs we are in at the present.
The tragedy in Charsadda has brought the brave side of Pashtoons to the fore. The professors sacrificing their lives to save their students and students and local staff defending the university are acts of bravery that have been lauded nationally as well as globally. In the mixed expression of grief and frustration we have seen outcries like "we don't need laptops, give us guns", and many similar slogans. These are very natural emotional expressions after the loss of so many lives and the emerging sense of mistrust in the state institutions to protect educational institutions, especially those of higher education. But all this fury and anger should't make us blind to the very purpose of having educational institutions, higher education in particular.
The emerging debate of carrying guns for the sake of personal security and collective good on campuses is not an easy question to answer. This has nothing to do with the Pashtoon traditions, the sacrifice of teachers and students, the bravery of these young men as well as the local staff. There is a deeper moral question involved. A question that could not be brushed aside in the sentimental remembrance of a past that looks pretty through the lens of nostalgia.  The last few decades were the years of the rise of education and that of the importance of the child in a family in this region. These were also years of the rise of nucleus family due to increasing number of working class Pashtoons. The youth got educated and started looking for jobs. A working class mind always thinks about getting a better career, looks for better schools for his/her child, and, naturally, likes to avoid anything that threatens their job security. And what could be more fatal to job security than a family feud, an old enmity, or a new one. Had there been any older scores to settle, the Pashtoon working class avoided getting into new ones.
Marx was right while saying that cultural change happened best through the change in the instruments of production. The land tillers got into 9 to 5 office routines. Sons (and also daughters) bringing cash on a given date was a great help to support the farming family. Slowly but gradually everyone wanted to have more and more of their family members into jobs, preferably government jobs. The change in the instruments of production also brought change in the family structure. Nucleus families emerged out of the ages old joint family system. The nucleus family brought one necessary change with it: the rise of the importance of the child. The little guys became the centre of attention of the parent. The bread winning father and the house-holding mother's focus of attention is now the child. And what is the most important thing for a child after a healthy meal, clothing, and health? It is education. Look at the network of private schools in every nook and corner of KP. Look at the rise of universities in every corner of the province. And not only are there universities, there is competition among young men and women to get admitted into these universities.
What does it signify? It signifies the emergence of a new paradigm. It is not simply a paradigm shift. Pashtoons have reinvented themselves in one of the darkest hours of their history. They have decided to transform the tribal tradition of gun loving folk to that of book loving, education thirsty nation. This is the new national identity of the Pashtoons. Our decision to work at universities and the youth's to get educated there is a cultural change, made through a moral decision of a people who see life differently. This is the social role this new Pashotoon society has assigned to teachers and students. In the same way we have abdicated the gun loving and carrying role in favour of the security apparatus of this country. Asking us to perform a social role we no longer own is too naive. It is not possible to go back to my childhood days and watch "Tamache Mullah (The Religious Scholar with a Pistol)" in the Friday sermon. He is no more there, nor is anyone with any semblance to him. In the words of Iqbal, "Worn out ideas could never rise to power in a people who had worn them out".
The right thing to do is to support and sustain universities and all teaching institutions perform their social role and make it possible for the institutions responsible for security to perform theirs. It is never about expediency and ad-hocism. It is about firm decisions keeping in mind the right roles each and everyone among us are destined to perform. Pashtoons are courageously going through the worst of all times. The national leadership should recognise it and make sure that this cultural progress is respected and defended. This is the basis of a true national unity. A nation failing to achieve this doesn't stand a chance in the comity of nations.      

Portraits of Grief: Helping the traumatised through story telling

Men die but dreams survive. Each of us will die with a dream, a longing for tomorrow. The same happened to the young who died in Charsadda. Every death leaves some dreams behind. But the sudden, unexpected departure of any youth leaves a lot of unfulfilled desires. In places like Charsadda it is not only the dream of a person, but that of a family, a village, a small town, a group of humans that die an untimely death. It is more the death, than the way it happened, that matters. The manner of death is a transitory story. It is important, no doubt! But life has to go beyond it, no matter what. Media is the conveyer of information about such heartbreaking happenings. It is but also the image factory that represents a people, happening, the aftermath, and the followups. The first function, naturally, is to inform a larger public about what happened. But then begins the phase of understanding the cultural context of the tragedy. Spot coverage and answering the immediate questions is important and there is no journalism without the spot coverage. But there are limits to continue with the same basics. Professionally and ethically there is need to build the capacity to switch from the news narrative to the human context. Following up on the same news spiral brings audience and media fatigue, which kills the story too early. It never helps understand the human problem a tragedy creates and leaves behind. It just keeps it a gory memory. The inability to follow tragedies from a human perspective is one great weakness Pakistani media has to learn to overcome.
How to do justice to this human function of the media? This is possible through opening the canvas of media representation beyond the spot coverage. People live and die in communities. They have lives that stretch far beyond the happening that brings their lives to an end. They live in the real human habitat, the human environment. Once the immediate fact finding and representation is over, the media has to follow up into the real life circles of the victims. Journalism has a responsibility to represent the community the victims belonged to. And this effort should not be focussed on finding clues about the happening. Not at all! The very reason for this is that communities under trauma need to be represented in the media. This is an ethical burden media should be readily able to shoulder, whenever the need arises. This need visits us too very often nowadays in KP and FATA, but the media, unfortunately, fails to respond each time. When tragedies strike a human denomination, journalistic responsibility goes beyond the narration of happenings. It stretches into the realms of integrating the community, keeping the collective psyche together, healing the wounds of the bereaved, and giving the sense of togetherness at moments of collective alienation.
How is it possible? Story telling, simple story telling! Don't let numbers make humans disappear. Always keep the human alive. In the present case, the number 21 or 22 has simply impersonalised the young souls. Weren't they young individuals with living lives, families, loved ones, loves, and places to go and likes to like? They surely were. But why to quantify them beyond recognition? I think none ever gave any serious thought to the fact that we have eliminated the very human aspect of the tragedy through a routine ritual, the counting game.
Don't universalise! Making larger than life characters out of human beings is no tribute. It doesn't help. Keep them human that ordinary mortals, their community and many other similar human beings, could identify themselves with. The misplaced idea of heroism being something abnormal, larger than life, is primitive. Death already reveals a lot about a human being. There is nothing more than the loss of a human life for a people who love the person. They need support, identity, and fellow feelings to overcome the grief. They need to see how their loved one is being portrayed. And what could be the best portrayal than the way the person lived? Just do that, if you want to help and put your bit into helping a people out of trauma. The person has family: a mother. Did they speak with their mother? What were the dreams they used to discuss? And please, don't bank upon misery. Don't use the wailing of a mother to develop a story. Get information from sources that are in a position to talk normally. Everything could wait, literally everything! A friend might be a good source to talk. A village elder might tell you about the young man who used to have a chat with him whenever he was home on the weekends. Don't go for extremes. Try to keep it normal. Keep in mind that the aim of such portraits is to help a people, not to make them a spectre of helplessness.
It is always about life, about the next day after the tragedy, about the stream of life. The human function after the tragedies is giving the survivors and relatives of the victims a closure that help them live through hard times. Another aspect is to make a larger audience understand how tragedy affects lives in general. This helps in developing a lager community, a partnership in grief. The sharing of grief is always soothing and it helps a lot. A people who know that others are also feeling their pain could overcome the trauma easily. They can easily defeat alienation, individual and collective. It is also vital to understand the difference between misery and grief. Journalists too very often think that a wailing female (mother, sister, victim) projects a tragedy best. This is untrue, and extremely unethical too! Being miserable doesn't create a bond. It simply attracts the audience for a moment and then shy them away. Nobody wants to see miseries all the time. People have their own baggages to carry too. It causes depressions, traumatises the audience. This doesn't mean that the audience is not interested. They are, more than anything else. But one has to give them something to relate to. One has to give a context to which they could relate. They are ready to understand life beyond the immediate happening. To know the life cycle of the victims, the normal selves before the last breath. Why do they take such interest in it, or why should they? Because they could identify with the stream of life. If none could identify with a happening, the marathon transmissions, and all the air and space dedicated to the coverage of a tragedy is in vain. Catching traumatised people and asking nasty questions to make them cry is not journalism at all. It is the rating race. Grief doesn't necessarily mean the weaker side of a human being. It is the total reaction of a person or a community to the loss of a person (or persons) who are important in the life cycle of the people. Portraits of grief are showing this place of a person in the community. And the portraits are nothing but a holistic image of the life of a community with the understanding that a community is the basic unit of human interaction. A journalist representing this unit properly is doing his/her job properly. If not, there is a lot to rethink!

The Academic's Burden: Offering the Thematic of Development in Everyday Journalism

Universities are based on the idea of giving fresh concepts to the societies that constitute them. Educating the students through granting degrees is one visible output. But this is not the core function. The modern market driven function of supporting the market falls too short of the very essence of having a university at all. Universities are not there to stuff the markets with whatever the market demands. It is not a supply system for a demand driven elite. Universities have a higher human function. Market might not be human. It, in fact, never is. A university exists for the very purpose of making things right and not simply "make things run". The question of what a university discipline should offer differs from discipline to discipline and from one time and space to another. Journalism, mass communication, media studies, and similar mushrooming nomenclatures are testament to the existence of a rapidly changing discipline, possibly a discipline that yet has to coin its very definition. One thing is but for sure: journalism exists because there is media! What should it do then? Serve the media, fulfill the market demand? This seems an obvious answer. But here we are confronted with another question: why does media exist? Because of the audience? Again, a simple and straightforward answer. But this makes things complicated for media education. The role of media educating institutions is not to serve the media market. It is, in fact, to serve the society that is constituted of human interactions and not institutional elitism. University education in the discipline of journalism, the business of reporting in all forms, is to make sure that this function is performed properly by the media (or whatever form of mass communication exists in a given society). Thus, the watchdog function over the very watchdog (the media). KP and FATA are one of the biggest sources of news in our modern world. The occasional rise of other centers never diminished the importance of this part of the world. The biggest problem with all this fame is just notoriety, not popularity in any positive sense. The world has known this part of the planet through the Afghan War, beginning in the late 1970s. The war never left this part of the world. 9/11, terrorism, drones, the war within Pakistan, and all that could go wrong here as well as its "consequences for the world", remains a topic of global interest. The local in Pakistan is also shaped by the global. So is the power of hegemony!

Since the world media attention became the reason for the very introduction of this part of the world in news, it, naturally, gave the global interest ascendency over the local. There were no skill sets for the local or national in this part of the globe at that time, and this remained the case for years to come. War sells best. It's true for any news media. It sold the best here too. Young or experienced, all journalists aspired to cover war and conflict. The coverage was, however, never controlled by the local journalist. The local journalists are almost always at the supply end of the news material needed by the international (sometimes the national) journalists that the local journalists cater to. This stringer function has not allowed the local media or system of journalism to develop its own shape. There is a rising sense of loss among the journalist community in KP and FATA that their contributions to the media networks around the globe is not helping their own life cycles as professionals. Unfortunately, it is adding to the notoriety perpetuated through the global media complex, highlighting a moneymaking cobweb to exploit the weak local media structure and a feeble capacity base of journalism professionals. The way out of the routine is not easy to find and the measures resorted to by individuals and institutions, remain "desperate" at their best and pathetic at their worst!

This is the point where academic responsibility comes into play – the urgency to offer something that could solve the social conundrum. We face a problem whose manifest results are known, along with the root cause, but there is no indication of the way out! The way out, the alternative, is a different skill set that could be used to work a new narrative that is positive, but newsworthy at the same time.  Offering a positive alternative in the midst of sea of negativity is not an easy task to accomplish. Market shows its real colors by resisting any effort to change the status quo. Any remote effort to make a dent in the moneymaking process is not welcome. Surely, developing a positive alternative in our case is destined to change the very status quo and affect vested interests within the global media complex. It will also affect the global image factory that runs on the very idea of keeping the bad boys bad and the good ones good.

For the media complex, it is not easy to adjust to newer positive images, after trading negativity and selling it profitably for almost four decades. The national and global political interests are also closely tied to the media hegemony and imperialism. The development of new themes thus becomes the responsibility of an institution that is not part of the media routine, but it is still too close to understand the dynamics, the needs, the problems, and the potential of the media. This is what an academic institution is about. It is not giving daily laborers for the routines, but innovative ideas and spaces that could help media perform the social service it might be failing to render.

The need of the hour seems to be giving this faceless part of the earth a face: a Human Face. We need the Human Face of KP and FATA in the media. The routine only keeps the negative one for its daily consumption, both at the national and global level. The space for development journalism is limited, if at all. It doesn't even exist for the whole of the country, let alone for a part of it that is viewed by many as wretched. Trading misery has become the trend in Pakistan. Most of our so-called development content is about oddities or miseries. Emphasis, workload, agenda, routines, and many other reasons deter the individual journalist as well as the institutions from doing anything innovative. In desperate efforts to make a difference, journalists and their respective media institutions resort to different stories. Even senior practitioners are not able to differentiate between investigative journalism and development. Many take infotainment, entertainment, and other soft themes as development. Some go the length of taking the pain of doing documentary content with a touch of misery or novelty to satisfy their urge to do a different job beyond routine. All this points to the simple need to develop an independent space where the themes are not simply developed, but also practiced. Such a space where high-quality and creative content is presented for sharing. Free of cost, no strings attached! Such a space can be offered only by a university whose primary purpose of being is the pursuit and propagation of knowledge.

JMC, UoP is ready to develop and share this space through its website for development journalism. The very local concept of development journalism has been devised according to the local needs. But these needs have been measured through a global lens, glocalised over the past five years. It is time to present the product that fit into this frame in keeping with the market needs. The development of a good concept is not difficult. Every academic could do it. It is the marketability of the concept of development that is the challenge. A product based in a definite concept of social service but complying to the needs of the market is the task. The website exactly aims at doing this. Development is an inclusive concept. Here, we have an aim. Development journalism is doing journalism with a sense of purpose. At present the underlying concept is to give the Human Face of People of this part of the globe. This is an ever-evolving paradigm. It is a process of social change with a dual function: transforming the narrative within the media as an institution on the one hand and serving the society that provides the base for both the media and the educational institutions, on the other. None could predict the time frame for change, but at the same time, no one could argue the fact that it is high time to make a sincere, full-blooded effort, here and now!

Development Journalism: defining the elephant in the dark

Development journalism is one of the many modern journalistic buzzwords. Like other similar nomenclatures, it is more fancy sounding than practically known. We all talk around it, but very seldom do we really understand. Like an elephant in the dark, everybody has his/her own definition. This ranges from experts to practitioners, novices to the enthusiasts. We all want to make the world a better place through our work in all walks of life. Journalism is no different. How to actually make the difference is the question that stares us in the face! There are as many definitions as there are conversations. We can just pick any and make a good talk. But this won’t help. We need a working definition that one could practice by employing it. When young men and women are asked to do development journalism they look at their workloads, salaries, capacities, and above all the demands of the medium/organization they are working for. And the question that strikes them most is whether their teacher/trainer/expert had ever been to the field, whether the guy has ever been through the toiling days of working up the ladder or was she/he just placed at the pinnacle. Or the person simply doesn’t mean what he is saying. This is where we fail miserably to serve development journalism as trainers. We make it a stand-alone venture. And stand-alones are never practical; they are exceptions. All the debate on development points to an extra, out of the box, heroic effort. Something big! Something unusual! Unfortunately, this is not the case. There is nothing unusual about development journalism. Development journalism is the effort to help the people, the audience, to make informed decisions by equipping them with right information. Development journalism is not advocacy; it is just putting bits of knowledge into every story to make it more helpful in understating a human situation—the human situation journalists report in their daily routine. Development journalism has a concept and one follows that concept in the daily routine to make a difference in everyday routine. The concept, as cited above, is to add to people’s knowledge about issues while covering the routine. The question that arises is how could one add to substance while doing the everyday spot reporting. If a video is 30-second long, how could one add to the substance? Time and space limitations are one of the major considerations of the media market. There is no escape from it. The other important element is expectation! What do people expect to hear or watch? And by this it is never meant sensation or otherwise. It is simple. A road accident spot news is a road accident. People are not looking for a documentary on how roads are built. They just want to know what did happen, how did it happen and with what effect. The easiest way of doing a good development story is to do objective reporting. Have a look at your story and see what information is NOT needed? Where are you repeating yourself to the limits of redundancy? The skill to do the right work lies in the basics. A journalist failing to do the basics right is destined to do bad stories. If you don’t have good language skills you are definitely going to write or talk longer, repeat sentences, and go round the same words again and again. Insecurity in expression is the worst enemy of any expression, journalism being no exception. The second most important element is breaking monotony. Read the last 10 stories you have written covering spot events of the same genre and look for something new. There won’t be any, if you are repeating the same. Think for a moment the time you and the audience are spending on this story. Is it worth repeating the same, despite the fact it is true? This is a very important question to ask. Every story should have a purpose. Information never means repetition of the same jargon. Once the monotony is detected, there is a need to break it. But here it is important that the news element is not compromised. One need to look for weaknesses in the report that could be rectified through brining in small bits of useful data or any other relevant facts that are easily available. The balance between news and novelty, between spot coverage and knowledge content is all that matters. The effort to make the story more objective rids the report of unnecessary words, expressions, images, voices. The place left open due to this clarity should be used to fill the report with useful information that adds to the audiences’ knowledge in a soft and regular manner. Useful information could be anything, ranging from common numbers to names of responsible persons to connect to. Keep in mind that the audience doesn’t have the same access to information as journalists have. It is never all for granted. People might not know when a common cold becomes life threatening. People might not know if dengue mosquito could be repelled by the common lemon grass or flowers that abound all over the place. This is a bit of information that would help people make better decisions. We should always keep the very nature of information in mind. It is not always a great revelation that people need. Something simple and useful that is not common knowledge qualifies as the best knowledge transfer. And think about all the 10 stories having this little bit of extra, each having an individual status, despite it being a routine story. A nice picture of a flower, marigold, with the details that its plant could be helpful in averting one of the scariest bites nowadays. Your story will have more aesthetics and also more credibility.

In terms of marketing and competing for space, time, and attention, rest assured that your organization will make use of the added information you have provided. If it is a video on TV, the marigold will be splashed every now and then. If it is a web story, the captioned picture will surely find a nice place on the page. And think about adding a little information each time you do a story. And keep it simple. Don’t over cook. Just add one bit at a time. Once you have done ten stories, sit back and have a look at your work. Compare the 10 routine stories without anything new with the ones that had a little bit of information. You will see the difference, a pattern of change in your presentation of facts. You will also see that to give room to something interesting, you have vetted your story and made it a better objective piece. The improvement on objectivity has given you the room to add something to your work that has directly enhanced the quality of your product. And what does your management love most: a product that is good and also doesn’t cost in terms of time, expense, or space. You just did that. It is a win-win situation. This is the most basic and correct way of doing development journalism, just adding something to the knowledge of your audience. Information that empowers people to make conscious decisions. Imagine all of us doing this as a habit. Development journalism will transform the very nature of development communication. And nobody is putting extra hours. Neither is anyone doing something out of the ordinary. It is all in the day’s work.

Peshawar Tragedy: representation in the media and fear of expanding Trauma

The life changing tragedy happening on December 16th has changed the very life perceptions of people living in this city. The show of solidarity from all segments of Pakistani society and the rest of the world is very comforting. The local and mainstream media’s response to the tragedy is laudable. People in the city of Peshawar felt to be part of the larger human habitat after a very long break. Media persons went through a personal trauma while covering the horrible event. This really showed the human side of journalists and journalism, which showed how this professional group owns the audience and how much they are part of it. At this point of our national history it is important to look at the way this incident is being presented and how it will affect the audience as well as the working journalists. The spot coverage of the event has exposed the very weakness of the media to deal with certain incidents. In an era of break neck competition and breaking news, it is difficult to manage live coverage. This has remained a long-standing ethical question, yet to be dealt with by the national media as an intuition. Asking critical questions form the victims, who were waiting to see whether their loved ones were alive or not, added to the grief of the parents and relatives on the spot. It has but also affected viewers across the globe. Then came the next day when media persons asked questions from relatives, mostly parents, in their homes or hospitals. Here again, most of the time, the limits of professionalism were extended beyond the ethical conscience of the journalists themselves. In hindsight, even the journalists covering the unfortunate incident and its aftermath will see that they pushed the interviewees too far. This brings the ethical question of making a clear policy on covering such gory incidences and capacity building of journalists on issues of trauma on a personal level as well as an understanding of the effects of their work on the audience. The second issue that is very important in media representations is “the follow up”. Follow-ups are mostly the repetition of the same day’s images and audio-visual presentations on the media. There is no question about the fact that the media and media professionals mean well and do their best to keep the audience up-to-date on the happening, and its aftermath. The audiences do need these follow ups to know about and deal with the tragedy. But the repetition of graphic presentations has a traumatizing effect on the audience, especially children. In the present case the very victims of the incident were children. This makes it even worse for the audience. Children looking at children, endlessly, seeing their misery, and identifying themselves with them, makes the whole media exposure extremely traumatizing to the worst limits. The media needs to look into this issue. It is not easy to adjust to unending tragedies and the professional requirements, professional and market pressure, and many other seen and unseen pressures on the individual journalists as well as media organizations. But at the same time, it is important to have a serious check on presenting and following up on tragic incidents. An audience-focused media is the need of the hour. It is high time to look into the needs of the audience and see to the effects of the media representations on the audience. An audience-focused media will strive to safeguard the best interests of its audience. Spreading trauma through a well-intended, but faulty, product is not a service. The line should be drawn to avoid any such impact. A debate on trauma and how to avoid its spread through the media product is immediately needed. And immediacy means right now, not any debate in the near future. We don’t have the time for such drawing room decisions.

Peshawar Tragedy: Some basic fact checking, the Media Monolith tends to ignore

The whole world is busy explaining the events from yesterday in Peshawar. We all have our own ways of expression at individual and professional levels. In fact, individual expressions beamed on the media become collective images. I see an anchor arriving from Karachi and hovering at LRH, looking for interviewees. His prime target is to find a loved one who has lost a loved one and make him/her cry in public. He couldn’t find many and had to remain content with doctors and someone whose loved one escaped death with minor physical injuries. There were others who did follow their prey to homes (these were the local guys) and had a good rating by making the viewers cry. Well, this is media. And this is what most of people in this business call a human touch. Let me tell you guys, its NOT! I think breaking a few stereotypes/misconceptions would be great for a beginning. Images that we just built last night with the help of the global media enterprise in our effort to be “global”. First, Army Public School was a school where kids, like any other school going kids, studied. It was not a military school. It was a school where kids of military men went along with other civilian kids. And again all the kids did not belong to military officers. In the services there are also lower ranks where parents have similar problems as any of the lower middle class, poor ones with little incomes. Fees were lower for the forces’ kids, while civilian kids used to pay more. But the fees were affordable enough and the education was at a par with other private schools, at times better than many. And last but not least, the parents’ preference to get their children educated at this school was not due to any misplaced notion of hobnobbing with the brass. It was just good quality education. So much for the simple fact of defining the school. Now where is it located? It is not simply about military area, which is highly secure. This is not a solely military inhabited area. Warsak road leads to Peshawar’s suburbs, a number of villages. This road also has the largest number of private schools where most of the kids of the same age as the ones died on Tuesday go for leaning. And the talk about adjacency to the tribal areas is another misconception the Pakistani mainstream creates in collusion with the global media industry. Peshawar University and Hayatabad are nearer to Khyber agency than the area where this school is located could be to Mohmand Agency. Adding spice to demography to make it sellable at the cost of basic facts is extremely unethical by any standards. And the majority of the private schools being here and parents being satisfied with their children studying there is a testament to the fact that it was not situated in the middle of the wild west of Pakistan. Checking basic demographic facts is always good. Google mapping amidst drumming is no journalism. Its not even good story telling. The next question is whether people would be feeling safe to send their kids to any school at all, or to the ones in this area, let alone Army Public School? It is the future of education in this city that is at stake. The narrative of “we are united” is not worth. The politicians gathering in Peshawar won’t be there forever. And even if they are, it will merely add to the city’s security load at a time when its security apparatus should be least bothered with VIP security. The way ahead should be the immediate topic, not the rotten word juggling with the same sordid faces who change mantles like stage performers to earn their “dishonest buck”. And last but not least, the city is in shock and this is not symbolic. The rotten narrative of Pashtoon bravery should be kept aside and the real fact of everyone feeling afraid for today and tomorrow of their children should be the discourse. Getting images from schools from Punjab and Sindh with slogan chanting kids won’t change the reality on the ground. The false hope this city has developed during the last few months is no more. The fear of uneasy calm being the harbinger of a huge storm has proven right and now we are all right in its eye. By “we” I mean people of Peshawar and KPK (FATA included). The rest can surely praise us for our bravery and we appreciate it. But we know that in reality we are all alone amidst all this. This is the sad reality we need to understand and others, to acknowledge. Pakistan has yet to grow beyond provincial boundaries of ethnic divide. Until then, every unit stands alone amid the empty rhetoric of unity.

Peshawar in Grief: A Cynical View of its Represntation in the Media

It is a field day for writers, journalists, experts, mediapersons, media managers, and all who sell news and views. The diversity of the genre has been expanded beyond recognition with the social media and every status upload we all make. Amongst us are those who produce for different media, having different perspectives, and at times different agendas. They have this space in different media and also enjoy the luxury of using the social media, amongst so-called friends. Thus, comments, likes, ego inflation as “servers of truth and saviors of humanity”. We all have a day. And what a day! I am just looking at all that is being said on individual, national, and international levels. It is amazing how concerned the whole world is. How people are gathering to show their sympathies and showing solidarity with the innocent victims of yesterday's massacre. But when we carefully look at all this, we don't see the children. We see agendas: local, national, international, global, just name it and there is an angle; except the human one. Those who are talking about the grief of the parents don't really know what such a loss could be. A personal loss is a personal loss. Its very important we stay with the people in pain, but are we? We always have a statement, an agenda. We are using the incident as a peg to hang our prejudice on. We shouldn't do it. Sharing someone's loss isn't conditional, it doesn't need a slogan. I know all those sharing the grief mean well, but we are so mediatized that we have got into a habit of "marketing our love", proving it "fits into a format, a frame". We need to unlearn this habit to remain human. Now lets look at the media, the grief selling industry, the rating machine, and the interest-marketing monster. Since yesterday I am looking at the national and international media. The national one is analyzing first and reporting later. The typical exercise of using our tears as bait to lure us into an analysis where fixed agendas could be served on the table. The benefit of such a scheme is that no matter how bitter these seem to a sane person, these sell good in moments of indecision. To a careful eye the whole action seems premeditated. It is not premeditated in the sense of the media having the knowledge of the event. It’s rather the frame it has for its own audience. It is furthering the existing prejudices. One of the great myths of "what is positive in the tragedy"? "We got united." We didn't. And this is the unity we always have on the media scene. But did it ever help in the long run? It never. So, please don't beat the beaten path. And most importantly, if this leadership is united at such a cost, I think it is not worth. And what would be the outcome of all this unity and meetings we are pinning our hopes onto. Lets wait and see. We all know the results. Do the media managers know? Yes they do. Then why are they doing it? Either they are incapable to doing a sound analysis, or they just don't have it on their agenda. Now lets have a look at the international media. Shameless, as it is all the time. Fitting Pakistan into the frame of the terror haven is what they are doing. Well, many would argue this is what it is! Well, lets buy this for a moment. But would they do it to their own people if such a tragedy happens? They won't! It’s for us. Cobbling an image through naming all acts of terror that have taken place in the region and using the image of innocent children to prove the point is criminal. Be human for a moment. Think about the innocent loss of lives in this Godforsaken part of the earth. When a guy kills dozens in Norway, the country is not painted as racist. It is just a lone guy gone mad. And Pakistan bashing is not difficult. You get more than one chance every day. Just close the shop for one single day. You don't want to accept us as human beings, just leave us alone for a day, at least. Just let your frames rest and keep your hands off.

Ethics for Collaborative Journalism in Zones of Conflict: a Thematic Precept

The Gutenberg Galaxy has really caught up, the medium really became the message, and the world got retribalised. The Global Village is true, but at the same time we shouldn't be losing sight of retribalisation. People are so well connected through the advancement of technology, a fact which proves McLuhan right in his ideas of Media Determinism. But the results we are getting are far from reassuring. The idea of The Spring all over the Developing, in fact, Muslim, world are increasingly becoming obsolete in the light of evidence and research. But even if these were right, it the probable impact of this Integrated World develops a negative equation. The role of social media as a tool of resistance is being propagated around the globe. But the anomaly in the whole concept is that if the social media is a threat to status quo and it is inherent in its constitution, why would it be only true for the Muslim world, while it will remain supportive of the same equation in the West. Taking it as a liberating force in the Muslim countries, while supportive, or inactive, of whatever goes on in the West, or even non-Muslim developing world, doesn't make sense. The winds of change can't blow differently on different sections of the same global village. These should have the same pattern. This rejects the premise of change agent in the Muslim world. But the retribalisation is there. The world is now divided, entrenched in different hostile camps, and national identities are unmistakably ideologies against the other, a belligerent other. Here again we are confronted with an anomaly. On the one hand media is the agent of division, while on the other we are looking at it as a solution to the problem of division and hatred. Most of the world forgets this problem and sees the media and media professionals as agents of global integration, carriers of the ideals of universal democracy. Another aspect of the problem is that media, as systems of information, are considered to be biased, while journalists and their representative organizations, as systems of journalism, are considered as unbiased, or at least humane enough to understand the human side of the problem, universally. The problem in this premise is that there might be a difference between both the above mentioned structures, while, presumably, the former represents ownership, marketing, advertisements, and financial support; the mechanical, more industrial/capitalistic side of the business of journalism. While the latter, namely journalists, is taken as directly connected with the happenings on the ground, in touch with the human problems, and having a feeling of responsibility towards the users of the finished product. There is a modicum of plausibility in the supportive argument in favor of intra-system differences. But this can't be stretched too far. Differences within the same system can't be seen as two separate systems, one considered evil while the other striving for good. It is not logically acceptable that the parent body, the paymasters, support their own nemesis in the form of their workforce. The working journalists, thus, know the owners' agenda and do their "job" by working within that frame. Their personal views about issues might be diagonally apposed to those of the ones expressed on the media, yet their professional performances are not forced labor at all. There are no prisoners of conscience in the modern media business. They all are well aware of what they are doing and also knowing the consequences of their actions. Thus the whole hue and cry about the innocent saviors of humanity trapped in the cobweb of capitalistic enterprise is nothing more than a myth. Journalists get 'oriented' in the day to day business of news making and do accept the ideologies of their respective networks. The very word 'professionalism' means parting with personal belief systems and adhering to those of the profession. The biggest challenge at hand in our present day media business is "how to look at a universal ethics of journalism in a globalized world?". The very need for such an ethics is not based on lofty, abstract ideas of humanism and morality. The reasons are practical. How would a journalist professional in Pakistan and his/her counterpart in the US work together, while keeping a bias against each other at the same time? What would be the quality of the product, how would they synchronize their respective ideals for a single job? Would it be possible to develop a dual professional self, the one dealing with international, professional interaction, an intercultural/international enterprise, while, on the other hand, sticking somehow to the parent national/local ideologies of the profession, both in Pakistan and the US? The questions are easily placed but are very difficult to answer. First and foremost the whole global structure of journalism has to get out of the hypocritical notions of the global journalistic fraternity. The whole structure of global networks for rights of journalists is there to help after the damage is done. There is no preemption, no ethical structure of understanding, in place that could hinder the happenings. The problem should be faced head on, the acceptance of the devil within. There are biases and working together on the same issue with two antagonistic ideals and an image of the belligerent other for the coworker is destined to place one of the two into a blind alley. And this victim, most of the times, is the Muslim/local counterpart. The solution of the problem lies in an enlightened debate on the issue at the academic level. Students and budding journalists brought together to discuss the nature of media systems, media, media activity, laws, and socio-cultural contexts of both the systems in a free debate. This debate can't take in real world traveling packages. Journalists going to the West, mostly US, getting impressed with the routines and advancements and coming back with a malice towards their own parent organizations. This is no dialogue. Dialogue is based on respect for the other and accepting the other and her/his contexts as right. Seeing the differences as milestones in need of synergies, instead of molding one in favor of the other. The idea of a virtual class room is one of the many ways of doing this exercise in real time. A virtual discussion forum would bring the real affective matrices into play. This will help seeing the roots of preconceptions, misconceptions, and stereotyping. It will also ensure the continuity of the debate to a logical end. The short term shuttles into one or the other culture are nothing but confusing. This, naturally, will lead us towards a syllabus (or at least a working ethical understanding, initially) for a universal working ethics for journalists in zones of conflict where collaborative work is needed by professionals representing the warring parties into conflict in their personal as well as professional lives. The time is ripe and the clock is ticking. The sooner we begin with it, the better it would be for the present and future of international, collaborative journalism in zones of conflict.

Pakistani Media: Problems and Potentials

Journalism in Pakistan has developed into a huge industry during the last decade or more. The freedom of electronic media, especially private television, has given it the position of a political player in Pakistan. Media conglomerates are becoming more and more powerful and individual journalists are earning more and more money and power. This has but also given rise to some old and new questions. On the media level it is largely the question of ethics in the age of television. This question directly comes down to the capacity of the individual journalists to deal with the questions of ethics of responsibility in challenging times. Closely related to this question is the one of journalists working conditions. The questions have two main dimensions: 1) media system, 2) and system of journalism. A media system deals with the whole of media, while system of journalism revolves around the activity of newsgathering and the gatherers and presenters. Have the working conditions and the professional skills to gather, package, and deliver information become better along with the rise in the media industry in Pakistan? The answer to the question, unfortunately, is negative. Why is it so? Are the journalists ill equipped to deal with the new freedom and power? Is the media ownership a hurdle in the face of objective journalism? Is the individual journalist partisan by default? Are the challenges too great to fathom and deal with? The answer to all these questions is yes. The present day free media in Pakistan developed out of the state controlled broadcast media and a very vocal free press, the newspaper. The history of newspaper in Pakistan is rooted in the tradition of an anti-Colonial press, which remained a political adversary to the British colonialists. After Independence in 1947 the press transformed this role into that of a social and political responsibility for the betterment of the newly independent Pakistan. While the government controlled the electronic media, the press maintained its freedom against all odds. It was only after the information explosion assisted by the rise of information technology that Pakistani electronic media got the freedom to enter the domain of private television and radio. Besides the technical and legal handicaps this abrupt entry left the journalists grappling with a whole new form of journalism, namely, the transition from the written word and the still picture to the audio-visual, 24/7 business of unending deadlines. The newspaper owners entered into the television news business and even those from outside the journalistic business had nothing but the print workforce at hand. The new journalistic workforce had the new influence tool in their hands, which made them literally visible in front of an audience whom they already saw as dependent with their role as guide and educators for the masses. The inclusion of presenters, anchors, in the business was decided mostly on face value and not journalistic skills. This new genre has replaced the traditional editors, who were supposed to be more skilled in giving final shape to the information given by the reporter. In the new equation the positions were reversed. The presenters were the ones with very little knowledge of the happenings and their backgrounds. There, naturally, were producers to give the final touch to the reporters' information, but the storm of breaking news has made it extremely difficult to sift the information properly before dishing it to an information hungry audience. Pakistan has become the center of world attention in the wake of the events after 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, and more so terrorism in Pakistan. Terrorism not only caught the Pakistani media unaware, it challenged their already feeble capacities to adapt to the changing landscape of everyday journalism. Even the political and social fabric of the country collapsed, bringing in a new, but unwanted, cultural order. This new media system and system of journalism gave more power to the owners and also more exposure to the journalists. But does all this change the working conditions and the working environment. It did and it didn't! It did transform a small number of urban journalists into celebrities, earning in millions a month. But this didn't happen for most of the working journalists. In fact, their influence and chances lessened by the gatekeepers, the anchors. On screen appearance became more important than the quality of information. Salaries didn't increase according to the workload that was now round the clock. Ironically, journalism became a very dangerous profession in Pakistan after 9/11. Terrorism has become the new beat, a beat nobody understood and none could cover without risking personal life and that of loved ones. In a country where regular salaries are a novelty, getting health and hazard coverage is nothing but a mirage. Fear of a lurking large death and the inability to deal with the new challenges of covering news traumatized the working journalists. They did get a lot of foreign visits, though, which added to their exposure to the Western world, but this didn't add up to their capacity to do justice to their profession. Corruption among the journalists and lack of capacity to do justice to the news and the medium of transmitting news (TV and web) are the biggest issues of Pakistani journalism right at present. The power of the media is being abused by most of the workforce, since media in Pakistan has never developed as an institution. It is more a conglomeration of media houses. These were earlier restricted to daily newspapers, but have now taken shape of a print, audio-visual, and at times, radio package. The owners have become part of the power structure and wield enormous influence in political decision-making. The individual journalists are making good use of this power share by exploiting the weaknesses of a corrupt political system, which gives more leverage by taking sides than remaining objective. The present media frenzy and partisanship over political issues is a glaring example of the unprofessional bias, showing the lack of ethical conscience among individuals as well as institutions. The inner strife in the media where media houses and their working journalists launch personal attacks on other media institutions and professionals show how shallow the whole structure is and how easily it could be manipulated. Despite the weak and vulnerable ethical base, Pakistani journalists could not be blamed of unprofessional practices to the extent of claiming the whole of the fraternity being corrupt or simply being opportunist. The reason for this is that the working environment is by no means comparable to the Western media system and the security, both financial and physical, offered to work within a Western media system. Thus, the difference of yardsticks to measure objectivity. The media needs capacity building and also needs to develop a code of ethics for self regulation. The former needs national and international support and expertise, while the latter could only be achieved through a process of internal dialogue as well as a dialogue with the audience. It also needs an audience-centered agenda by the media. Since Pakistani media is getting a lot of international support, it is not caring much about its audience or their interests. This need to be thoroughly reconsidered. True, media is a commercial venture and big money is needed to run the big enterprise. But at the same time it should be kept in mind that the whole business revolves around the audience. If there is no audience trust, the interest of the advertiser/donor will also vanish. Here the role of the audience in shaping media agenda is also vital. Audiences have to give their opinion and form forums where media analysis and instant responses to media presentations are given. A free and objective media is the cornerstone of democracy. Pakistani media has all the necessary capacities available. What is needed is the journalists’ commitment to objectivity and social responsibility. A media system based on ethics of responsibility will ensure capacity building that would bring objective journalism to the fore. This, in turn, will engender public trust that guarantees media freedom in the true sense of the word.

In Remembrance of My Grandmother

We all have our own stories of life and our own versions of what life did to us, or how we lived our lives; of fate and destiny. There comes a moment in ones life when one likes to look back and see where one stands? I am thinking on these lines for quite sometime. I think any time in ones life is ripe enough to do so. But at my age, it is rather good to look back. There are many ways to look back at life. One can easily write a chronology, when, where, how kind of stuff. From beginning till date. One can also analyse the "achievements in life". Everyone amongst us has these. Or miseries one went through. We all have our versions. One can also put oneself in a larger social context and identify oneself with times, a ver populist way of promoting one's person. There is yet another manner of telling a story, the remembrance method. It is simple. we have memories that keep flashing in our mind all the time. These might be persons, events, successes, failures, fate or destiny. I like it most. I always have been a fan of anecdotes. I think it is most human. When I look back my grandmother (my mother's mother) stands tall in shaping my life.I grew up with her, since I were two and a half years of age. But I won't begin with the chronology. Since last night one memory is flashing in front of me, giving me a sleepless night and a kind of dizzy day. I think writing about it might be helpful in solving my problem also. While I was doing my masters in journalism, my grandmother was on death bed in Kohat, suffering from liver cancer. I succeeded in securing top position, clinching the first gold medal at the first session of Masters in Journalism at the University of Peshawar. I rushed to Kohat the very next morning to break the good news to my grandmother. I knew she had very little time left (less than a month, as the doctors used to tell). But the possibility of her death never crossed my mind. I just wanted to tell Maa Jee. I was not even excited. It was just routine for me to sit before her when anything big (in my personal capacity)happened. Most of the times she already knew what I was going to say. Some of these encounters were not so pleasant, since I most of the time had had done something really nasty and people from the village used to come to her to complain. I always used to get away with all sorts of mistakes in the village because of being Bibi Bangle Wali's (Lady who owned the bungalow)grandson. The whole village knew she loved me most and they respected her too much to annoy me. Things always used to work out in her presence and I didn't feel being in any trouble at all. She never admonished me once. She just kept quite. And that was always a lesson. Nothing else was needed. I reached my uncle's residence in Kohat and met her, breaking the news. She was happy. I could see that. "I am happy you completed your education. I was so unhappy, since you lost interest in your studies. They all used to blame me for spoiling you.I am happy things did work out for you." She paused and then asked the next question: "Would you also get a job?" I told her the job opportunity is quite obvious, since I was the first graduate. This was really good news for her. She searched under her pillow and took out 100 rupees."Buy yourself some sweets," she said, giving it to me. After lunch she asked me to go back home and not to stay. "I am too sick to take care of you", she said. I left for my hometown Tangi. This is the last I saw of Maa Jee. Within a week we got the news of her death and drove to Pindi Gheb in Punjab. That was also my last night stay at the place where I grew up. I never stayed a night at the place since her death in 1990. One person really makes a difference. Things do change and people prosper (or otherwise), but at the same time things never change. I never found another Maa Jee, though she is always there.

North Western Pakistan: the New Social Contract

The political Rhetoric in KPK is really frightening. Despite being in journalism I try to keep myself away from politics or at least making it a full time hobby. I must also admit that I am no fan of ANP and do doubt their liberal credentials, as trumpeted in the media all over the world. I also believe that their defeat was more a result of their incompetence and corruption than anything resulting out of the Taliban assaults on their rallies shortly before the elections. The idea of "level playing field" doesn't attract me much. Honestly, they got what they made themselves worth of during the whole incumbency period. This said lets look at what we got. The new leadership in the province has done its best to gain unpopularity as soon as it could. Right from the indecision to nominate the leader of the house, the chief minister, to the interview with BBC pleading for mercy to the terrorist, they have shown their incompetence at every step. Why such haste in nominating the potential CM and then juggling with names to get back to the square one? The bed ridden leader of the PTI team, Imran Khan, seems to be least interested in what is going to happen in the province whose people have given him the majority he has. His provincial team is playing petty, if anything, while the opposition is already claiming the fall within a few months. This is the picture of a part of the world everybody around the globe is interested to know about. The only party sitting pretty is ANP, knowing it doesn't have any role in the game, at least for now. The rest remains active to yell in the fish market. Above all when we look at the important issues debated, things seem too scary. The leader of the house says he doesn't know who the terrorists are and he is ready to give them the respect they ask for. Great. And the former CM, the JUI leader, spells the beans by telling the media that the PTI led government is destined to be doomed. This is no secret. The way things are going these guys might not last long. But the more interesting part of the argument is yet to follow. The very reason for that is that they don't have the recipe for talks with the militants. That sounds interesting. ANP and PPP also failed on this point, the experienced politician from the former MMA claims. Lets accept this argument also. But all this brings us to the most important question, namely, does the qualification to rule KPK lie in being on good terms with the militants? If that is true than what is the need for elections? Why to go through the whole pain of politicking through ballot. Militants, interestingly unknown to the newly nominated CM, are not looking for a dialogue. They are asking for submission. Total submission. Is the new government (or for that matter the opposition) ready to do this? If the answer is yes, then we are into a big mess. The whole world is into a big mess. We don't know how the "New Pakistan" would be like, but the contours of the "New North Western Pakistan" are very clear. Its going to be 'wild", really wild. And this time around it won't be due to the lack of governance, as was the case with the previous government. It would rather get wild due to the "New Social Contract" (let me give it a fancy name). The way it seems to me, the political system is ready to get into a Hobbesian Social Contract with the Taliban (The Leviathan); submitting their basic human rights to them through consensus within the peoples' representatives to achieve the very aim of getting safety for their lives in return. This time around we are not looking for divine rights of the king. But for the divines themselves. You like it or not, this is the way things are moving in that part of God's Empire of the Pure.

Key words: KPK, Fata, Taliban, PTI, JUI, Government, Social Contract, Leviathan.

Pakistan at crossroads after 'historic' elections

Former Pakistani PM Sharif has emerged victorious in parliamentary elections but the biggest winners in these historic elections are the Pakistani people who came out to vote despite the fear of the Taliban. The surprise loss of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the expected rise of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to the position of third largest party are the clear trends of change in Pakistani politics. Despite threats of violence from the militants and their ability to strike at will prior to the elections, people decided to come out in large numbers to cast their votes. Continuation of the democratic process in Pakistan by means of the completion of the full term in office of one government and the successful polling to elect a new government for the first time in the history of Pakistan is really a great achievement for a country where military has ruled for more than thirty years collectively and the interim governments have a tendency to stick to power. The caretaker government in Pakistan and the civil and military establishments deserve credit for making this historical achievement happen. A bumpy road ahead This is but the beginning of a very difficult journey ahead. Unlike various poll predictions, Pakistan did not get a split mandate. Sharif's PML-N party has a majority now to form a government on its own. The party’s has been swept to power in the biggest and arguably the most powerful Punjab province, which has given Sharif the mandate to rule Pakistan again. The expectation that the former ruling PPP’s loss might benefit Khan's PTI didn’t come true, proving the fact that traditional politics still prevails in the Punjab, which has been traditionally led by feudals. But on the whole, things look quite divided in three smaller provinces. The parties get a split provincial mandate. While the Punjab voted for the PML-N, Sindh remained loyal to President Asif Ali Zardari's PPP. The biggest surprise, however, is the overwhelming performance of the PTI which has defeated both secular Awami National Party (ANP) and the PPP in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Khan's PTI snatched the Hazara area, which is considered the PML-N stronghold. In Baluchistan, Sharif’s Muslim League might be heading for a coalition with the nationalists. Though it is too early to predict anything about Balochistan, this can still be the political setup in the highly volatile province facing a protracted separatist movement. No bed of roses Although each winner is celebrating at the moment, the honeymoon period might not last long. In fact, celebrations already have a dampened look keeping in view the daunting tasks ahead. Sharif has to deliver really quickly on both the national and international front. He is seen as a practical politician in the West and his personal statements about readiness to work with the US government might be of some consolation, but it is easier said than done. His tacit but known soft attitude towards the Islamist militant organizations - be it the Taliban or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi - is part of the victory package. He can’t afford to lose his support among these right-wing sections of the Punjab. Also, his focus on the Punjabi politics doesn’t make him a good politician nationally and internationally. On the other hand, he has to act really fast on his promises to end the energy crisis. His election campaign was mainly focussed on domestic issues and he has promised to change the fortunes of the country overnight. Now when the elections are over, people would like to see the change. His immediate performance will be gauged on solving the everyday problems of Pakistanis. In Balochistan, it is important for Sharif to enter a coalition to dismiss the perception that he is a Punjabi politician. Having government in two provinces will really help him a lot. But there are also things are not as simple as they look. The Baloch nationalists would like to get control of things in the province. This will have immediate affects on the non-Baloch population in the strife-torn province. Keeping a balance in this regard won’t be an easy task either. Trade and business In the field of trade and business, Sharif is surely a good choice. His business interests in India could be beneficial in reducing tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries. This, in turn, will have an affect on both the countries’ Afghanistan policies and we can expect some softening of stance from both sides. At the same time, there might be some major changes in Pakistan’s energy relations with Iran. President Zardari went into collaboration with Iran on the gas pipeline project, which has been openly opposed by the US. But now it will be interesting to see whether the Saudi-backed Sunni leader Sharif will keep the deal. Talks with the Taliban The most crucial outcome of the elections is Imran Khan’s PTI’s landslide victory in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Khan’s "tsunami" has really decimated all its rivals in the province. The veteran ANP politician Ghulam Ahmad Bilour conceded defeat honourably by saying, “People were not happy with our performance. We couldn’t deliver and the voters have decided in the favor of the change. The change is there and I wish it (the PTI) well” Pakistani Pashtuns have voted for change, for peace. Khan’s promise for peace is based on the premise of dialogue with the Taliban and an independent foreign policy not dictated by the US. This brings him closer to the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party, the other winner in the volatile province. The PTI can easily go into an alliance with Jamaat to form a government in the strategically important region bordering Afghanistan at a time when the NATO forces are withdrawing from Kabul. The West would have probably preferred a moderate government in the province, the hard-line government with Khan's charismatic leadership can be irritating. Khan, having lost in the center, is far from the foreign policy debate, but his promise to engage in a dialogue with the Taliban is something his supporters would like to see happening very soon. But the chances of conducting successful talks with the Taliban are really slim. Khan must keep in mind that he is not the first one to come up with the idea of talks. The ANP, the former ruling party in the province, engaged in talks with the Taliban at the very beginning of their term in 2008. Hopes were high but the results were disastrous. Experience shows that it is impossible to fulfil the wishes of the militants. The Taliban don’t have a centralized decision making structure, let alone the mechanism to implement any possible deals. The whole process is too complex and fraught with dangers, and at the end of the day Khan might end up losing his support. He might have won the elections, but it would still be wise to listen to the ANP's experiences and draw lessons from them. Defeat of the liberal thought Last but not least, there is the question of minorities and human rights in Pakistan. With the PPP’s defeat, Pakistan now has a predominantly wahhabi leadership which is strongly supporting a compromise with the Taliban. The minority Shiites were targeted with impunity during the tenure of the last government, and now there are fears that this might increase manifold if the governments in Islamabad and provinces don’t take necessary steps to nip the problem in the bud. Pakistan, as always, remains at the crossroads. The entire world is looking at Pakistan with fear and hope; probably with more fear than hope. It is high time that the new Pakistani leadership ensures the world that there is nothing to fear. There is still hope and the new players that have emerged in Pakistani politics along with the old ones are serious to make their own country and the world a safer place to live. Author: Altaf Khan Editor: Shamil Shams

Blasphemy: The Word That Kills You

While liberal opinion in Pakistan was busy contesting the very nature and detail of the blasphmy law, it became a Sword of Democles hanging over every head in the country. Contesting it is a bygone story. The quest now is to somehow live with it without getting caught into the quagmire of this religio- political- personal- life spoiler. Anybody could be a target. It is not restricted to minorities anymore. Rimsha Maseeh and Shahbaz Bhatti (Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs) could be representatives of minorities in Pakistan, but Salman Taseer definetely not. The powerful governor of Punjab had to pay with his life for something he consistently denied. His death also didn't bring much remorse into the Pakistani intelligentsia. "He should have been more cautious in his utterances", was the response from many a liberals. The conservative opinion is then self evident. The recent incident of arrest of a Pakistani-American on December 10th in Islamabad on blasphemy charges is yet another addition to the pattern. And this is the most dangerous one of all. As the story goes the nephew of Dr. Iftikhar filed a complaint against his uncle saying that he has published some blasphemous material in one of his books. In his interview with the media Mr. Usman said, “The moment his (uncle's) deviant behaviour became evident, we limited our family terms with them. We tried to convince him that it is a great sin and he should let go his mission". Naturally, according to the nephew, when the Uncle didn't mend his ways there was no other option but to file a complaint against him. The police, on the other hand, arrested Dr. Iftikhar without any evidence at hand. They looked for it later. There was also another angle to the whole issue, namely money dispute between both persons, but when asked, the police chief summarily disregarded it saying, “That is another matter. Right now we are looking into the blasphemy issue". The above story points towards a very dangerous trend. One can easily blame someone in Pakistan of blasphemy without furnishing any evidence. The defendant has to prove his innocence, instead of being otherwise. Even more dangerous are the social implications of this blame for the person accused and the family. As the reports show the family has already left the house for an unknown destination. Even if proven innocent in the end Dr. Iftkhar doesn't have any chance of a social life for himself and the family in Pakistan. Excommunication to the limit of being in harms way for the rest of his is his fate. The same, unfortunately, would be true for the immediate, or even extended, family. Now the question is not that of whether he has committed blasphemy or not, or whether the law is right or wrong, or harsh. The question is that of the growing trend of settling personal scores with people by blaming them with something very abstract like blasphemy and getting away with it. What if the nephew is wrong? What if it is all about the money he owes to the uncle, or may be a jealousy between the have and the have not? Unlike the murderer of Salman Taseer this guy didn’t inflict any physical harm to the defendant. He just filed a complaint on the basis of his impression of the moral conduct of a person. Now the first question that comes to ones mind is whether he had the right to do so? He didn’t. But do our law enforcing agencies ever take this point into consideration? Did anybody ask the question at the police station at the time of filing the complaint? As far as the evidence goes no such questions were posed. There might be two main reasons for this. One, religious bigotry and intolerance has infiltrated the very fabric of Pakistani society to the limit that even the law enforcers and law makers don’t feel any remorse while stripping someone of the very existence on charges where there is sufficient room for doubt. Secondly, this automated reaction might be the result of fear of public backlash, of the feeling of insecurity regarding oneself and the family. In any of these instances Pakistan has a serious problem. If the decision makers of a society become either perpetrators of or hostage to radical elements from within it becomes difficult to live as a human polity. Charges of blasphemy are no more a question of aggression of a majority against minorities. It has become a social malaise and is on the spread with a new dimension in every new case. Deep soul searching by the intelligentsia and proactive involvement by the decision makers in the country is immediately needed. If we fail to do this as a nation, the country will evidence more and more incidences of lives and careers being ruined on one pretext or another, using religion as the ‘Sacred Prelude’.

Pakistan losing its fight against hunger

Food security in Pakistan has taken two different dimensions during the last six years. It has gone from malnutrition and lack of natural access to the basic amenities of life to abject haplessness after disasters, earthquake in 2005 and then floods 2009. Man made disasters emanating from terrorism and war on terror made people leave their homes and hearths to get displaced within their own country, primarily KPK and FATA; commonly known as Internally Displaced People (IDPs).
Defining hunger and categorizing it into plausible words is not going to help in the downward spiral Pakistan is in. Hunger and lack of subsistence is a traditional, historical problem in this land. As Gandhi once said that the world has enough to feed its inhabitants, Pakistan has enough to feed its people. The rotten feudalism inherited from earlier monarchies and then the British colonialists has kept majority of the Pakistani populace mal-nourished, under privileged, and kept a political system in place that segregates most of the people in this country out of the decision making process. Thus, inequality, lack of opportunity, and injustice. This is a ready recipe for exploitation of the most by a privileged few. It ingrains fear of the powerful, which, in turn, keeps the powerful well entrenched.
Structural food insecurity is what we call the looming large hunger in the country. This is the mother of all evil in the Pakistani society. Dependence of the tenets on the landowners for every morsel they take makes them incapable of any struggle for democracy, freedom, equality, or social justice. Famous revolutionary Urdu Poet Habib Jalib (1928-93) puts it poignantly into his many verses. One of them saying, ”Whenever I ponder upon the reasons for apathy in my environ, I reach the a single conclusion: slavery going back into many centuries is the cause of social apathy.” This is very much in sinc with Frantz Fenon’s idea of Internalization. Here internalization doesn’t have a racial colour. It is rather a feeling of inferiority in front of the ruling elite, the masters, of accepting the state of life as fate, something irrefutable.
When this internalization takes its roots into the socio-cultural structure of the society, the political will for a righteous social order based upon equality dies down. And it is at this point that the “slaves begin kissing their shackles”. Structural/historical poverty is strengthened by poverty coming out of malpractices in governance, like price hikes, hoarding of edibles, and so on, as well as natural catastrophes like earthquakes and disasters. Pakistan has seen many since 2005, besides the menace and terrorism and the ensuing displacement. Thus, the country has a horrible share of man made and natural disasters within an extremely corrupt political system.
Last year’s flood affected people are facing the new rains under the same roofless settings with no food to swallow and least clothes to cover their bones. And all this is happening amid tall claims of national and international organizations, NGOs, and naturally the Pakistani government’s claims of spending a fortune to help these people. Any recent media presentation, just a scratch on the surface, will lay bare the truth, the ugly truth of people being left in the lurch. A recent program on AVT Khyber, the only Pashto TV network (August 26th, 2011; 2200 hrs,) interviewed a number of flood-affected families from Charsadda, a town at 20 minutes drive from Peshawar, shows how miserable life has become for these families who were below the poverty line even before the floods last year. The respondents authenticated the sorry truth that corruption, nepotism, and apathy has taken the better of Pakistani society. That the people running relief organizations are running the show to fill their own pockets, to reward their friends and relatives as well as people with political connections, and are least interested in even thinking about the hapless families reeling under abject poverty right in front of them. Food and money has been taken away from them after being brought to these places (since this is usually the condition for such deliveries) and then being distributed among those who already have enough, while the needy remain hungry spectators, forced to beg for their daily subsistence in nearby cities, Peshawar being the nearest big town.
“We used to live well, had a house of our own, had three meals a day, and could buy clothes for the family. It is not far. It is nearby. Flood took it all away.” “I am living in this small tent, where it rains more than outside (pointing to the little tent, where hardly a single person could crawl in). They gave us nothing. I am forced to go with my small kid to beg for a day’s meal,” narrates a middle aged bearded man. He starts to sob while telling his story. “I can only get 100 or 200 Rupees after being humiliated all day long with my little son in Peshawar. People despise me; say nasty things in front of my child. I don’t have any other option. Now the kids are asking for new clothes, because eid is coming up. We live on alms. But it was last year. People helped during the heat of the moment. I tell my kids that whatever I could get, we barely get a meal out of it. Now if someone comes forward to give us more, we might be able to buy some clothes. Look at what I am wearing. He pointed to his shalwar and kameez, both different sizes and colours. The government is nowhere.” He stars wailing loudly,” May Allah burn all the powerful in government in hell. I am a Pakistani. I am born here and will die here. I have done everything in my prowess to serve my country, but nobody is bothered about me and others like me.”
Another family consisting of old and ailing parents and their teenage sons and daughters were living in a traditional sugar mill, a small room where local sugar from sugarcane is produced in a tiny mudroom. The old woman couldn’t walk, the old man crying while not being in any better shape than his wife. The young lads sitting in dismay while the mother and father narrating their plight. “They just take the rations from right in front of us and give it away to undeserving people. I ask my boys to go and ask for it, but they don’t. ‘Allah is watching. These people (NGOs getting the supplies from WFP) have humiliated us so many times that there is no use going in for it anymore.’ “When they go out to find work, there isn’t any. We just don’t know what to do.” The old woman sitting in the cot is too weak to even walk a few steps. She has a small pouch containing some cheap medicine. “I can’t walk. These are the drugs someone donated to me. I don’t know what are these for, but I take them. I went myself to get some ration. There were young and strong men and women who pushed me back all the time. I couldn’t even get the chance to look at the food items.”
These are no isolated incidents. It is all over. Families in Punjab and Sindh are under the open sky with little children walking naked without any food for days. Just a glimpse into the TV and one finds misery all over. The government, as usual, is trying to get hold of the political give and take by forming (and breaking) alliances to control Karachi. In Karachi the people are dying of bullet wounds and torture and also out of poverty. Poverty is no lesser factor in the big cities than in the rural backwaters, the militancy ridden border areas, as well as the displaced people waiting for the misery to end. A recent prime minster Gillani visit became a public relations fiasco when immediately after his departure the people started fighting for the food he brought to distribute for the camera flashes. One can go on and on citing examples. As one comedy show very cynically puts it on Geo TV: “everything is getting costlier during Ramadan. Prices are skyrocketing. But we still have one very rare commodity getting cheaper every passing day. It is human life in Pakistan.” This is the bitter, sad, but real truth of Pakistan.
Pakistani majority’s downwards spiral into poverty needs no statistics, no reports. It is not an issue to be discussed. It is a historical reality in this unfortunate land. The problem is not poverty per se. Poverty exists everywhere on earth, because “the world has enough to feed all men, but not enough to satisfy even one man’s greed”. The problem is Pakistani state and society’s inability to the curb the ever growing manifestations of newer forms of poverty. We haven’t been able give home to the earthquake’s affected people after almost 6 years, despite getting support, alms, and charity from every nook and corner of the world. IDPs remain hapless till date. People ruined by floods still remain under the harsh skies, with the new monsoon catching them in their homeless abodes.
The inability neither to find a solution to historical poverty nor the ever-happening man made and natural disasters is the real problem. Nobody is ready to deal with the problem by looking the monster in the eye. Unless and until we develop the genius to look into the social structure for immediate, mediate, and long-term solutions for poverty, things are never going to improve. Petty politics couldn’t feed empty stomachs. It only fuels the fires of hatred and anarchy.

Social Media: Is There A Pakistani Spring In The Making

I often wonder how the generation changed in Pakistan. How do people younger to me live their lives? What is the motivation and what are their pastimes, how do they make sense of the life cycle? There are naturally many many reasons. One can't just compartmentalize life like inanimate matter. To make it simple I look for the "instruments of identity", something very crucial for young men and women. I will narrow it down to the educated population of young Pakistan. Here I face the digital divide. What severs me from the younger people is their communication advantage. Cell phones, Media, the new media like Facebook and Twitter.
These young men and women have a very global platform for the formation of their identity. In good old days we used to say, "if you don't have good enough friends in the immediate environ, look for wiser, ageless friends, read books. We used to read books. Then we started watching television and got into the world of 24/7 TV, the breaking news syndrome, the soup operas, and the replication of cultural formats through imitation and interaction.
But this is not the end of it. The newest identity instruments are the interactive social media. There is a lot of talk about the potential of this social media to transform the transitional societies. The recent developments in the Islamic world beginning with the unrest in Iran a couple of years earlier and heightening in the present day turmoil in the Middle East harkens for a realistic analysis of the role of this highly trumpeted new savoir. The Arab Spring has entered into The Winter, but the euphoria has yet to be analyzed.
While talking about Pakistan the first and foremost question is about the present usage of the social media. This should also be put within the context of the number of users and then their usage. The country has dipping literacy rates, sprawling poverty, and problems like access to Internet. Even electricity is an elusive phenomenon in this country for the last many years, let alone its dependent instruments like Internet.
This makes Facebook and Twitter a privilege. There could easily be two views about it. One it is pastime of the rich, and two, it is pastime of those who are educated, or urban, or at least have access to the Internet. Unlike mobile phone, it is not a peoples’ gadget. In fact, both the ideas are true, but the latter bears more weight than the former. Internet is cheap and so are computers in the Pakistani market. So, what you need is access. In small towns and villages young men and women are surfing on their cell phones. So, the cell phone revolution has taken technology quite a few steps further. Although FB and twitter options are not available on Blackberries and cell phones in Pakistan (or they come and go), one can always access the email account to see the messages on the social media and enjoy the colourfulness of the page whenever there is access. Although Blackberry access is limited to post paid accounts, Internet surfing could easily be done on prepaid ones. Almost everyone has more than one pre paid sims. The cheaper Chinese cell phones with BB functions as well as lowering of the prices of the branded ones gives boost to the number of users.
Now technologically speaking access to Internet is possible to more people across the financial border than it is widely believed. But this theoretical reality is challenged by another factor, namely education. Yes, from a financial and theoretical perspective it is possible for everyone having a cell phone to avail Internet and, in turn, the social media. But in reality one needs enough education to use and operate the social media. Access is also limited to urban centres and the social media is not offered on simple surfing. This takes the real fun out of the whole socialisation paradigm. The social media are primarily fun media. In every corner of our present day world it began as entertainment. People enjoyed the chats, the pictures, and the gossip; and then like everything new getting matured entered into the phase of development. This phase of organizing social opinion of getting an alternative platform for debate is not the very essence of social media, but is, in fact, the outcome of user fatigue after the fun gadget loses its fun charm.
The question that comes to ones mind immediately is about the usage of the social media by the ones who have the luxury to use it. They use it as a pastime. This is the most common answer one gets. The issue of preference of FB over Twitter is the more self-presentation options the former provides than the latter. There is a group of people, journalists mainly, who prefer Twitter to FB. These are mostly managers or administrators. They follow the celebrities, other channels, and most of the international media on Twitter. “It doesn’t need to request for friendship. In fact, there is no friendship on Twitter. You just share things,” said one journalist.
But for the common user, the educated, young it is interaction, looking for partners and loving gossip, FB is more attractive. “One can post photos, have a long chat on a single post, also has the option of chatting with individuals while posting on the page.” The question of turning the tide is an important one to consider. Namely, is it possible to turn the gossip and chat box into a platform for democracy? Potentially, the answer is yes. Practically, it is not in sight. The moment of happening is not known. The direction is not towards human rights, discourse on immediate, regional, or global issues, and other relevant actions for support of democratic discourse.
The present usage is most of the time a supplement to the mainstream media. News from the mainstream are posted and discussed. The discussions on the postings do not go very far. These never add another dimension to the original content from the mainstream media. But we should keep in mind that this is not simply a Pakistani issue. A UC Berkeley study shows that in the US, over a period of 10 years, only 10% content on FB was original. 90% remains cut-paste or chat. This shows the real use of social media, especially FB. It remains an interactive platform among friends. The word friends naturally has a different meaning than the traditional one. The old use of the word ‘distant friends’ for books has now been transformed into ‘virtual friends in real time’. The reality of their being and the instant interaction is something really amazing.
At this point one can talk about supporting a movement, discourse on democracy, and other such angles. But the trend in vogue doesn’t seem to encourage this development. We either have to wait for the level of maturity at a global level or engineer a debate. The former will take time while the latter is unethical. It is like the notorious ‘lesbian blogger from Syria’. This is not an option, because it will ruin the very credibility of an interactive process meant for good. So, the best option is to wait and see. The last and most important word of caution could be that social media mouse clicks are no alternative to active participation in actions for democracy, human rights, and social change. The lazy clicks won’t change the world, no matter how many millions these could be. Awareness is not action. In fact, action is awareness.