Official steps making story a must read
ISLAMABAD: Various official steps have unfortunately made several newspaper readers in Pakistan and around the world to treat what the government and military terms “planted” and “concocted” Dawn story as a must-read otherwise it would have gone in the background long time ago as it happens even in the case of controversial stories.
Official moves, which are keeping the report alive, are unending. Senator Pervaiz Rashid’s sacking as information minister and formation of another high-powered committee comprising senior officials of spy agencies and others served as a shot in the arm, persuading even those newspaper readers, who had not gone through it, must have a deeper look at it.
The previous initial investigation was carried out by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. Later it was officially felt that a comprehensive inquiry is needed. When the new committee will deliberate upon the matter to reach a conclusion to be made public, it would hardly leave any reader not only in Pakistan but even abroad, who is interested to be abreast of developments in this country, un-involved.
The only charge, if it be called so, leveled against Pervez Rashid while driving him out of the cabinet is that he did not make any effort to stop this story from going into print by talking to the concerned editor or the newspaper management, and did not inform the government if they did not agree to spike the report.
However, those serving the ‘charge-sheet’ on Pervez Rashid don’t realize that gone are the days largely, when the media could be forced to bow before such “ominous requests”. Indeed, there was time that has gone by when the information secretary or even PIO (principal information officer) had the authority and clout to ensure that a certain story was not published. With the passage of time, the media or at least a section of it has not only become quite independent but aggressive as well. In addition, it hardly agrees to the definition of “national interest” done by the government or the security establishment. But at the same time, it is always engaged in self-censor so that public interest is not harmed in any way due to any report.
It is anybody’s guess as to what the interior minister investigated and what the new committee will look into. It is for the first time that the leaker and planter of a “false and fabricated” report is inquest.
However, questions have been raised ad nauseam about much more grave serious security lapses in the near past when neither such hype was created nor was any meaningful investigation conducted or felt a need for it. These issues remained alive in the media for some time but were quickly forgotten as no civil or military leader had talked about breach of the national security. But in the present case, some have treated the national security something very brittle that can be breached by a mere planted story.
In the meantime, a section of ‘informed’ (read ‘wired’) people is constantly propagating that Pervaiz Rashid has been made a scapegoat to avert the long arms of law to clutch the real “culprits”, meaning leakers and planters of the report. Rumour-mills are working overtime to aggravate the situation with the nefarious motive of creating civ-mil schism. The flight of imagination knows no bounds as some pathological haters of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are also implicating him in this so called leak. However, an untrue story can’t be even dubbed as a leak. Leak, as known worldwide, is always based on some facts of secret, closed door official meetings, and contained substantial facts that the concerned quarters want to keep under wraps.
Jaundiced views against Pervez Rashid, the premier and his government apart, the treatment meted out to the information minister has been widely denounced and the former minister has been acclaimed for his commitment and loyalty to his party. Any official position has never been his priority, preference or penchant.
The decision to remove him has also set a bad precedent. If the principle of showing door to a cabinet minister even before any final findings is accepted as valid, there will be no end, stopping to such a practice. Every now and then, such demands will be aired and if acceded to hardly any minister or top government functionary will be able to stay in office. Punishment or penalty before any definite proof is no justice at all. But there is no doubt that the prime minister took this decision for damage-control. However, its timing was very important that did not augur well for Nawaz Sharif.
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