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’.