Punish the journalists, gag the press, the party is on
What is it that the press is paying for? Why is it that the government continues to train its guns on the media and is in a mood to teach them a lesson. The Pakistani press has been fiercely independent more so because of the extended years it has spent fighting against dictatorship and the tyranny of our rulers and their spooks. And yet, journalists are routinely harassed, monitored, arrested, beaten, jailed, tortured and killed. While the rulers look the other way, one worries when the people also seem to also cast a blind eye.
The people have fallen into the trap set by the government of the day. Armchair analysts are saying that the media “got what it deserved “because” it had gone out of control”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The week started with the depressing news that the widow of Hayatullah Khan, a journalist who was kidnapped and killed last year, was also murdered after some unidentified persons planted a bomb under her room at her house in North Waziristan agency. Hayatullah Khan leaves behind five children. His crime? He reported truthfully what was happening in the tribal areas, and paid a heavy price for it.
His wife’s crime? She was vocal in trying to unearth the killers of her husband. Did they get what they deserved? In the eyes of those in power, possibly yes.
On Tuesday last, the attack on journalists protesting the curbs on the media outside the Karachi Press Club was vicious. They were lathi-charged and beaten by a police only too happy to teach lessons, as told to them by their officers. What one finds ridiculous is that not only were hundreds of policemen deployed at the spot, there were an equal number of Rangers. They too were raring to go. Is it not ironic that our law enforcing agencies seem most successful when they are fighting battles with their own people? It is a matter of national shame. Why are we spending billions on our law enforcers? So that the police chiefs and the Ranger DGs can live lives of luxury and their force can beat the living daylights out of journalists and members of civil society? Something is wrong somewhere.
One hundred and eighty media persons were arrested or courted arrest that day, this correspondent included. As we were taken in a police van from one Karachi police station to another, it became apparent that the lock-ups were full and could not accommodate more. The crime of these journalists? That they want to be able to freely report what is happening in the country.
However, better sense prevailed in the form of the Sindh Governor, who ordered their release. The new home minister Akhtar Zamin, a retired army man, was bent on some punishment. The police officials at the thana level were not at all happy. Their take was simple: governments come and go while journalists and policemen stay where they are.
The people were unmoved. One of the biggest misconceptions that our public seem to nurture is that this is a battle of the media only.This is the war to restore Geo TV to the airwaves. It is not. It is the battle of the right to know and to be informed. By gagging the media, Islamabad wants to set the news agenda like the good old days. And it has partially succeeded in this by making deals independently with the media moguls. What one finds surprising is that those media groups who were once cited as bastions of press independence have broken ranks and bent over backwards. The Quaid would not be amused.
In all this, the Great Leader continued to have his way. It was a good week. The Supreme Court on Friday validated the imposition of emergency and the promulgation of the PCO and justified all the steps taken after the emergency was imposed. This is the same emergency that the president admitted was illegal in a candid interview with a foreign media organization. On Wednesday, the Great Leader had issued an ordinance that the emergency could not be challenged in a court of law, pre-empting any future move that would call in to question this extra-constitutional step. On Friday, the SC dismissed the last of six petitions challenging the candidature of General Musharraf for the office of president. Why is none of this any surprise? But one cant say anything, we are living in emergency plus.
The Americans have been their usual smart selves. Never before have we seen such direct interference in the affairs of our country. But this doesn’t seem to be affecting our national standing in the eyes of those who matter in Islamabad. US Deputy Secretary of State, the blue blooded John Negroponte, urged General Musharraf to lift emergency, release political prisoners and stop banning the media. On Sunday, this message was given. By Tuesday, 3416 detainees had been released.
American diplomats have been active — visiting politicians, media organizations and the press clubs. In a rare show, the government left it to the PTV to attack the diplomats.
Now to our caretaker cabinet. One that is charged with overseeing free and fair elections in January. That is a joke. Most of those who have been given slots are either personal loyalists of the president or candidates of the parties that form the ruling coalition. We have among this august band of men and women, a former PPP senator who has forcibly occupied the house of a widow in Islamabad. The senator left the PPP after Ms Bhutto reprimanded him for forcibly occupying the house. Now he is with the merry men. Another cabinet minister is a vet by profession who may not have excelled in his practice but did have the knack to put up billboards in strategic locations of the federal capital praising General Musharraf. Now he is a minister. Another minister is accused of human trafficking under the guise of human rights. Yet another minister is a media baron whose TV channel was the first to bend over backwards.
The provincial cabinets are no better. One person has been given a slot because he is the husband of an important TV personality. Another because he himself hosted a TV show that was in favour of the General. There is a gentleman who has headed the cricket board, the national airline and is now a member of the cabinet. Jack of all, master of none. The usual families and their progeny have taken important cabinet slots.
By no means is the caretaker government independent or able. What one wonders is whether a cabinet position is all that matters to this band of questionable characters. Is there not an iota of self respect left in our “enlightened” classes?
A word of warning has been given by a top provincial bureaucrat. Transfers and postings have started to ensure that elections are “smooth and trouble free.” This should be noted with great concern.
Officials are being posted that are loyal to those in power. Polling stations will be fixed and results will be manipulated. The same old game is being played all over again. Another point of worry is the attempt at inducting thousands into government jobs at a time when the government is intent on downsizing. Jobs in the police are being filled with loyalists. Where are we heading?
The week brings us the possibility of General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan. It is something that many people have been looking forward to for a number of different reasons. Meanwhile for the media, the struggle continues.
Source: The News
Date:11/26/2007
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