The Parliamentary Party meeting of the PTI provided a glaring opportunity regarding how the media functions in the country and how far removed it is increasingly becoming from the world of logic, facts and reality. It is downright unfortunate as it not only reflects the institutional decline which has occurred over time, it also casts a shadow on the sinister minds of those who operate behind the scenes to manipulate things.
During the course of the meeting, television screens were all over with ‘breaking news’ flashes, backed by blaring voices, regarding some acrimonious discussion which had taken place. It was also insinuated that there was a verbal clash between a senior member of the party, who is also a sitting federal minister, and the Prime Minister. In spite of the fact that the minister these words were attributed to, personally spoke on camera and repudiated the circulating rumours, the channels remained adamant and kept broadcasting news of the alleged altercation.
Much has gone wrong in the country. What is important is to arrest the decline and help it move forward to salvation. Any further delay can cause irremediable damage. Of the many institutions which can play a defining role in this effort, media is an important one. It is time for its stalwarts to do an appraisal of how it has conducted itself and the consequences it has had. They should also look at how this approach could change so that the claimant of being the fourth pillar of the state can actually begin playing a role commensurate with that stature. Nothing less will do at this critical juncture when the state is transiting to becoming a more viable and transparent entity to start its journey upward
It did not stop there. It was taken much further. It was likened to the beginning of the end of the days of the PTI government. I personally heard a bunch of so-called anchors/analysts, all delving deep into the conspiracy syndrome, and making projections about how damning the crisis actually was and how badly this would impact the party.
It was a narrative replete with dream-come-true projections as if seeing the back of the PTI government was the most desirable objective of the media and its operators. It is seldom that one would hear people talking with so much rancour oozing out of every word spoken and every gesture made. Wide smiles emblazoned their faces and their body language brimmed with energy while projecting the demise of the PTI government. Those who may not be familiar with this pattern of reporting may actually have believed that the government was just about to fall.
What is happening? Why is the media wearing the unmistakable apparel of partisanship? Why is it burning in the billowing fire of hatred and animus? Why has it lost its objectivity and fairness? Why is it immersed in the caustic juices of self-immolation? Why has it drifted so far away from its professional duties and taken on the job of casting aspersions on people and their thoughts without any substantiating evidence? It appears it has lost its way and is meandering in its own wonderland, desperately trying to find a foothold, but without success. What was the need, if any at all, for doing this? Why has the media turned its profession into becoming a belligerent battle zone to oust the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan? Why have the channels and the newspapers turned into gossip mills, churning out lacklustre and ludicrous projections with painful monotony?
The media seems to be consumed with a state of mind which is not healthy or professional. It is incessantly blaring with falsehoods and fabrications. It is no longer the media that it should have been. It is something else. It has virtually turned into a political party which is operating behind the facade of its profession. This drama has gone on for much too long. It is time for the charade to be brought to an end. But who will do so, and how?
The parliamentary party meeting is not the first time this has happened. It has been occurring every time the government undertakes the process of incorporating fundamental reform to regulate institutions in the country and hold everyone accountable before law. One understood that this would be anathema to the political parties whose leaders have indulged in remorseless corruption during their stints in power, and who would do everything not to let a transparent system be introduced to hold them answerable before law. But, in actual effect, it is the media that is feeling threatened with the onset of accountable governance and is going overboard in its attempts to sabotage the effort.
This country has been ravaged brutally by crooked conglomerates. It has tottered to a point where it can no longer survive carrying the ailments inflicted upon it through numerous decades of loot and plunder. It has to be administered the medicine which it desperately needs– the medicine of comprehensive reform to make the system align with the needs of a just, transparent and accountable state. It can no longer remain subservient to the fiefdoms of pelf erected atop the skeleton of the state and the corpses of the poor and the marginalised communities. This will come about only through introducing a just and equitable dispensation operating transparently through the government of the time.
Instead of lending support to this effort, the media has taken to opposing it with unmitigated ferocity. It is as if the reform, if successfully implemented, will sound the death knell for the profession. This could be because, in previous times, the media and its functionaries have been used to benefitting liberally from the state largesse, distributed heartlessly by the leaders who lived by exploiting it to their benefit.
This was easy money coming their way, attractively packaged in ‘tokris’ (baskets) as described in that demeaning conversation between Maryam Safdar and Parvez Rashid that went viral a few days ago. Instead of apologising for referring to some journalists as ‘dogs’, the heir-apparent demanded that apology should be tendered to her for recording the audio conversation. In the process, she forgets her own jubilant claims of being in possession of countless similar audio and video recordings which she has been threatening to make public from time to time.
The same journalists who take to hollering unsubstantiated and fabricated news about the current government remained totally mum on even being called horrible names. This is what happens when you sell your souls and get paid for every written and spoken word as per instructions received. You no longer remain a credible journalist. You become a commodity up for grabs by the highest bidder. Is this what journalists have been reduced to? Is it that, by spreading false rumours to destabilise the government, they would want Pakistan to go back to the criminal days of the Sharif and Bhutto/Zardari dynasties? Is this the status they are comfortable with, or are there some still left who would take to remedying this?
It hurts me to find the media in this state. Writings are the pride of the writers which cannot be compromised for any profit. I can’t understand how some people could put their profession up for sale for their pound of flesh, no matter how substantive, knowing full well that, in the process, this would cause incalculable damage to the state and its institutions. Instead of opposing it, the media should have become an active partner in implementing the envisaged change for a more accountable and transparent Pakistan because that is the only way to lay the foundation of a system that works by merit to bring relief to people who suffered incessantly at the hands of the wicked mafias which had the levers of power within their control and a system which had been corrupted to respond only to the din of coins.
Much has gone wrong in the country. What is important is to arrest the decline and help it move forward to salvation. Any further delay can cause irremediable damage. Of the many institutions which can play a defining role in this effort, media is an important one. It is time for its stalwarts to do an appraisal of how it has conducted itself and the consequences it has had. They should also look at how this approach could change so that the claimant of being the fourth pillar of the state can actually begin playing a role commensurate with that stature. Nothing less will do at this critical juncture when the state is transiting to becoming a more viable and transparent entity to start its journey upward.
Here is a challenge which has to be met with the combined support and might of the state and its institutions, with media being one of them. It is time that this noble profession is extricated from the pit of regression to play the role that is professionally incumbent upon it. This caustic slant should be arrested before the fall becomes inevitable.
