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.