Saturday, November 17, 2012

4Pakistani.com

4Pakistani.com

Living in Denialistan

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 12:48 PM PST



The recent attack on Abdullah Shah Ghazi's shrine is another reminder of the plain truth that the Pakistani state needs to focus on its domestic crises rather than remain obsessive about external threats. The unholy conglomerate comprising al Qaeda, sectarian outfits and elements within the state has targeted Karachi's best-known public and cultural space. This is a continuation of Islamist battles against Pakistan.

Yet, apologists remain adamant. Butchering of civilians and annihilation of a plural Sufi culture is a reaction, we are told. First, it was the US occupation of Afghanistan, then the invasion of Iraq and now drone attacks in Pakistan. True, Muslims and Pakistanis are enraged at US policies and its sheer arrogance in dealing with the region. But using anti-Americanism as an excuse to overlook the growing cancer of bigotry at home is disingenuous and dangerous for our future.

Denial is etched in our memory and cultural ethos. Even today we are not willing to admit that the majority of Indian Muslims did not migrate to the Land of the Pure. And that we mistreated the Bengalis. We are also in denial about the ever-growing crop of suicide bombers and how sectarianism has penetrated our society over the last three years.

The truth is that we are a fractured and crumbling society in denial. Even the glorification of our nuclear weapons is an act of denial: such prowess does not provide social services, internal security and economic prosperity. We are paranoid about our nuclear weapons — the common view is that everyone in the world is out to forcibly remove them.

Despite the common perception that it wants to denuclearise us, our military is dependent on the West. American culture is now the standard culture, our students yearn to be in US universities and migration to the Newfoundland remains a desirable ambition. Such schizophrenic realities are also denied and swept under the carpet. Until we confront ourselves and admit some home truths we are not likely to get far.

The reach of Islamism is also palpable. Watch a standard TV show, read the Urdu press (a leading newspaper quotes Taliban links and websites as references and prints their adverts), or participate in a regular drawing room conversation — myths have become real and the penetration of political Islam is capturing the discourse amid confusing globalisation.

Worse, the de-legitimisation project of secular, moderate political parties is ongoing. The wise know that if anything prevents political Islam taking over the state, it is parties such as the PPP, the ANP and the PML-N. Even the JUI is no longer Islamic enough — hence the recent attacks. These forces are a bulwark against the tide of Islamism and its agenda. But the historically naive and complicit middle class of Pakistan refuses to smell the coffee. It beats its proverbial chest over fake degrees, why the 'corrupt' are in high places and why the Taliban sympathisers, such as a sportsman-turned-politician, are not in power. It fails to see why reactionary movements are effectively 'anti-change'. The recent gibberish about revolution and clean politics is familiar but comes at a make or break juncture.

The PPP government, despite its uncertain shelf life, owes it to the people of Pakistan to forge consensus on a new education policy, madrassa reform and developing a national counter-terrorism plan. This is an area where initiative is lacking. Detoxing Pakistan is not a short-term process. It will be a five to 10 year unavoidable battle if Pakistan wishes to remain a viable state and relatively functional society. Reform should start with revisions to curricula and focus on a grassroot campaign against sectarianism. The prerequisites for such reforms are political stability, policy continuity and a growing economy.

Unelected institutions of the state no longer have the luxury of orchestrating games of musical chairs amongst politicos, technocrats and opportunists. 'Denialistan' and its masters must wake up.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2010.

Quickies bowl leaders SNGPL to big win

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 11:47 AM PST



KARACHI: 

SNGPL fast-bowlers Samiullah Niazi and Asad Ali captured 16 wickets between them to help their team to a 143-run win over PIA in their President's Trophy clash at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore yesterday.

The win ensured the league leaders continued their unbeaten run – winning their sixth match of the season – and sit at the top with 54 points from seven matches. Chasing 278, PIA resumed the final day on 68 for four but failed to mount any challenge as they were all out for 135. Niazi claimed a five-wicket haul while Ali picked three in the second-innings.

Meanwhile, Umar Gul's five-wicket haul ensured HBL remained in the hunt for the final as they defeated UBL by 251 runs. UBL started the day on 114 for three in their quest for the 428-run target but a burst from Gul left them in complete disarray, managing to add only 63 before being dismissed for 177.

Elsewhere, PQA continued their late surge in the tournament by registering their second successive win, defeating KRL by six wickets at their home ground. Set a target of 82, PQA suffered an early hiccup, losing four wickets for just 54. But opener Khurram Manzoor, who scored an important 152 in the first-innings to give his side a crucial lead in the context of the game, made a determined 22 while Mohammad Salam chipped in with an unbeaten 18 to take their side home. Yasir Ali bagged three wickets.

Manzoor was pleased with his performance in the match and felt that his 22-run knock was very important.

"At last I was able to repay the faith PQA have shown in me by helping them to an important win," Manzoor told The Express Tribune. "I hope to carry this form in the remaining two matches. Initially we wanted to fight for the title but things didn't go our way and now we need to make sure we avoid the drop which will give us a chance to aim for the title next season."

In other matches, Sohail Tanvir's impressive 11-wicket haul in the match gave ZTBL a much-needed four-wicket victory against SBP at the Diamond Ground in Islamabad.  Chasing 200, Haris Sohail top-scored with an unbeaten 68 to help ZTBL achieve the target in 42.2 overs as Kashif Siddique dismissed four batsmen.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2012.

Gone with the wind

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 10:45 AM PST



When they strapped me up and told me that it was my turn to go, I started reciting the few prayers I know. I had seen the bearded "head of operations" smoking a cigarette earlier, as he pointed me out to his Pashtun accomplice, his eyes invisible behind dark black sunglasses that covered most of his suntanned face.

Before my very eyes, they had similarly strapped a dozen or so people earlier, most of them teenage boys from a school and a couple of ladies, and hurled them off the cliff. I did not get to see the expression on the lady's face before me, but I did hear her scream as it pierced the serenity on the cliff. And now, it was my turn; my first experiment with paragliding!

Karachi, the city by the sea, is opening up to a number of adventure sports and activities but paragliding is not one of them as the monsoon winds lasting for over half the year pose a huge risk to paragliding enthusiasts. A dearth of suitable cliffs with appropriate landing areas devoid of hazards, such as powerlines etc, and precarious law and order in some suitable areas such as the infamous Kati Pahari, also contribute towards this shortage of locations.

But when a group from Islamabad offered paragliding opportunities during their upcoming visit to Karachi, I grabbed at the opportunity with both hands.

The site they chose was near Mubarak village. Much like its name, the village is "blessed and bountiful" for fishermen and adventure seekers exploring snorkelling, scuba-diving and angling. Our first "air-field" was a relatively flat piece of ground beyond a 25-foot hill, adjacent to the Hub Creek near Sunehra beach. As if the smoke cascading out of the sky-scraping chimney of Hubco Power Plant across the creek wasn't indication enough, an air-sock was put up to let us know the direction of the wind.

After a bit of "theory" and "dry" warm-up runs on the ground, one-by-one we were harnessed and made to run with the parachute till it was up and providing a lift. After this, we jumped off the tiny hill. The initial flights lasted only a few seconds and were just to prepare us for the later ones, without too much risk. After all, how badly can a person get hurt if he falls off a two-storey-high building onto, notwithstanding rocks, unpaved ground! I still recall my rude but extempore/spontaneous laughter when the first person to take the jump shouted after his five to six second flight "Buss??!!" One of his buddies was even more non-discreet and blurted out "Abey kya duniya ka chakkar lagaye ga!"

After the initial training jumps, we headed to the final site of the day. With all the cars, mostly saloons, neatly parked there, the off-road terrain looked like a corporate parking lot rather than the wilderness. This second cliff was around 80 to 100 feet high with a steady breeze blowing in from the Arabian Sea, which was visible beyond the village.

We were informed that since the height of the take-off site is not much and the breeze blowing in is not too strong either, in order to provide an enjoyable experience, the weight of the backpacks has been reduced by removing the extra protective cushions and reserve parachute! Some reassurance!

The experts started off with the light-weights first and a skinny girl was chosen as the "test-pilot". The "head of operations" thought the girl was too light and might end up "gone with the wind" so a few bottles of water were added to her backpack to increase the weight. I wondered why they didn't just put the reserve parachute back.

When it was my turn, the paraglider had to haul a jumbo size weight, so we had a couple of dry-runs before I finally managed to lift off. Somewhere down the line in your life, you learn to let go, and this was just one of those times. All of a sudden, the realisation hits you that you are finally airborne and as a gust of oncoming wind takes you higher, you feel a sudden rush of blood, a moment's hesitation, for in your decades of age, you are doing something for the very first time. You were too young to remember your first step when you learnt to walk. By the time you learn how to swim, you probably have had a few experiences where on a picnic a wave lifted you off your feet and you came rushing to your parents, shouting that you have learnt how to swim.

But this is different. You're grown up and know fully well the significance of this transformation. Before this, you are a "being" familiar with a two-dimensional mode of movement — a left-right-straight-and-back routine. Now, one discovers the three-dimensional world that it really is. The addition of "up and down" to the navigational jargon also adds the possibility of "wwwaay waay down — and quick". Yes, it is strange, giving yourself up to the thin cords of a man-made fibre, which in turn is at the total disposal of the forces of nature, wind, heat from the sun and at that moment, the most fearsome of them all, gravity! Even after the realisation hits you, you keep hoping that the "gravity" of the situation doesn't!

For the first five seconds or so, I could hear instructions and precautions being hurled at me by the safety crew on the cliff. For the next five seconds, warnings followed along with what I believe could have been a few expletives, for ignoring the instructions, precaution and warnings sent earlier. And then, it really didn't matter because I was out of reach!

It was my own few moments of peace, away from cell phones and laptops and social media websites. It was good that there was no walkie-talkie to communicate with the instructor, despite a commitment. In fact, it was a blessing in disguise. Who'd want to contaminate "this" peace with the coarse voice of the instructor more keen on getting you to land safely and quickly rather than letting you "explore the world anew" — which is the point of the whole activity.

After an immensely pleasurable time, I realised that if I went any farther, I'd have to turn back "with the wind" towards the landing zone. The technicalities of "flying with the wind" were something that the experts had kept to themselves. Earlier, I had put my own name and number in the "contact in case of emergencies" field in the release form, so I decided not to experiment further and swerved right towards the far end of the safe landing zone.

I would not call the feeling of getting my feet back on the ground a ground-breaking experience, but it sure was an eye-opener for me. We casually flip over the pages of National Geographic and switch through adventure channels at leisure, but now I could better appreciate the amount of training, equipment and sheer hard work that goes behind the smoothly edited pictures and videos that make us go "Wow! I'd like to do that for a living!" It also reminded me of patangbazi from my younger years when I used to wonder what it would feel like to ride a kite, if one could.

Although I would not like to paraglide every day for a living, riding my own kite was definitely an exhilarating experience that I'd love to relive.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, October 28th, 2012.

Like Express Tribune Magazine on Facebook and follow at @ETribuneMag

Muslims should live in sectarian harmony during Muharram, urges Hussain

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 09:44 AM PST



LONDON: Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain appealed to the Shia and Sunni Muslims on Saturday to lessen sectarian strife during the holy month of Muharram, a statement issued by MQM read.

"Altaf Hussain has appealed to the Shia and Sunni people and religious scholars to thwart the evil conspiracy aimed at igniting sectarian strife by exhibiting ideal sectarian harmony during the month of Muharram," stated the press release.

Hussain stressed that maintaining sectarian harmony was crucial for strengthening unity among the Muslim population. He charged Muslims with "present[ing] the true spirit of the golden principles of Islam by giving to the world a message of peace, brotherhood and religious tolerance."

The MQM chief also tasked his party officials with maintaining contact with both Shia and Sunni religious scholars during the month of Muharram. He also asked them to hold daily meetings with the scholars to ensure that the two sects are on amicable terms.

Shiv Sena’s Bal Thackeray passes away: Doctor

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 08:43 AM PST



Bal Keshav Thackeray, one of India’s most polarising politicians and leader of an influential right-wing Hindu nationalist party that has ruled Mumbai for much of the past two decades, died on Saturday after suffering a cardiac arrest, one of his doctors said.

Thackeray, 86, has “breathed his last”, his physician Jalil Parkar told a huge crowd assembled outside the veteran politician’s house in India’s financial hub of Mumbai.

Thackeray, the founder and president of the hardline Shiv Sena (Tiger Army) party, was one of the most prominent and outspoken figures of  India’s Hindu nationalist movement, and rose to prominence with his fiery rhetoric against immigration in India’s richest city.

Thackeray, who was admitted into a central Mumbai hospital in July, died of cardio-respiratory arrest at his home, the doctor, Jalil Parker, said.

Thackeray is one of the best-known and most controversial figures in the western state of Maharashtra and its capital, which his party renamed from Bombay to Mumbai.

Land ‘grabbing’: Govt takes over ‘mismanaged’ land

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 07:42 AM PST



KARACHI: 

Officials in the Sindh government have admitted to taking over land owned by cooperative societies. They claim, however, that rampant corruption in the societies' management forced them to take these steps.

Moreover, the government has also appointed administrators for around 200 cooperative societies, overruling the elected committees.

Cooperative housing societies are associations owned and run by semi-governmental or non-governmental organisations for the social, economic and cultural benefit of their employees. Hundreds of such residential schemes are spread across Karachi, with around 131 in the KDAs' Scheme 33 alone. Many projects have been in limbo for decades now with a number of them even encroached upon by land grabbers.

The societies can "legally" be taken over by the government through an appointment notification of administrators but it has no right to take over those working in a transparent manner without any allegations against them.

Several cooperatives societies have submitted their applications to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption establishment, the chief minister's inspection team and the police department, alleging that apart from selling their land, the administrators have even siphoned off the entire budgets of their societies. Of the 131 housing societies in scheme 33, around 40 have been taken over by the Sindh government, officials said.

"There have been no allegations of misappropriation against us even in the audits," said Tahir Ahmed Sheikh, the secretary of the PIDC Employees Multipurpose Cooperative Housing Society. "One fails to understand why the government has taken over our society and started selling the plots."

The revenue department had allotted the PIDC society land in the 1970s. The foundation works and gas pipelines have been laid at the housing scheme near the famous Bundu Khan Restaurant off the Karachi-Hyderabad highway. The Sindh government has now appointed an administrator and terminated the society's elected body.

"After tampering the original records, the current administrator has sold off 500 plots to builders," alleged Sheikh while talking to The Express Tribune. He also showed some advertisements in the daily Jang to support his claims.

The PIDC society secretary went on to say that the administrator has also withdrawn huge amounts from the society's bank account. As per the rules, the government-appointed administrator can only withdraw Rs25,000 as salary with the consent of the society's secretary.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement's provincial minister Syed Sardar Ahmed told The Express Tribune that he had also received such complaints. "I've been told the administrator withdrew Rs10 million from August 2011 to May 2012 from the account of PIDC Employees Multipurpose Cooperative Housing Society," he said.

He added that he had written a letter to the chief minister a couple of months ago. "Since the cooperative portfolio is held by the chief minister, I have requested him to remove all corrupt administrators and let the societies to use their legitimate right to elect their own people to run society affairs."

A plot owner in Pakistan Broadcasting Cooperative Housing Society, Rizwan Khanzada, has sent evidence to the NAB how their plots have been sold out by the administrator.

"My father was a Radio Pakistan employee who had paid for the plot. We want know under which authority our plots are being given to a third party without our consent," he said. "Earlier, some land grabbers had taken over a few plots in the society but now the government is doing the same thing."

Abdul Hai, a plot owner in Nagori housing society, said the government had not issued any notification before taking over the society. "We are the owners but the government officials are eyeing our future homes because the land has become valuable [over the years]," he said. The plot owners had filed a court petition three years ago but the decision has yet to be announced.

Sindh Cooperative secretary Azhar Baloch refuted all the allegations, claiming that the department has the mandate to supervise the working of cooperative societies and take action against the corrupt ones. "The corrupt office bearers of these societies pocketed millions of rupees from retired people and their families by allotting plots among their own relatives," he alleged. "We have taken action after a number of complaints were filed against them."

"I do not remember the exact figure but many societies are still working independently because of their good track record," Baloch said when asked about the number of societies taken over by the Sindh government.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2012.

A Nobel prize for Malala

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 06:42 AM PST



"For heaven's sake! Give Malala's story a rest. We all have daughters and we all make compromises for them. Don't you know her name is being used to plan an attack on North Waziristan?" These were the lines I had to endure from a colleague, who was incensed by the media's continuous focus on the little girl, attacked by the Taliban. In his outrage, he was not even ready to listen to me as I tried to tell him that I had just returned from a rather important meeting where I was told that there were no plans for any operation in North Waziristan.

This response was not new to me. I have continuously seen educated, seasoned people giving in to conspiracy theories just because they do not want to believe that our own people can do this to us. Engaging with these friends becomes impossible, thanks to the likes of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who never loses an opportunity to peddle unsubstantiated conspiracy theories and Imran Khan, who teaches his supporters to blame the US for all ills in this country.

It is the denial of this sort that forces us to ignore the sacrifices of our valiant soldiers, policemen and political leaders exposed to terrorism. Have you not wondered why it is so easy for a newscaster to use the word 'shaheed' (martyred) when narrating a story about people killed by the Israeli or Indian forces and difficult to call our own soldiers anything but 'jan bahaq' (killed) when martyred by the terrorists?

Malala Yousufzai's story is important. Not just because it exposes the Taliban for the vandals they are, but because of the courage a 15-year-old girl can show when confronted by an armed gunman committed to denying her the right to education. Only in a weird world can one resent the attention being given to such heroism. Unfortunately, we Pakistanis live in the very same weird world.

While growing up, I always wondered why we have such a dearth of national heroes. Consider this: our national poet died years before Pakistan was created, never used the country's name in his poetry and wrote an anthem for a country that we fought all major wars with. While many countries have pictures of more than one leader on their currency notes, ours carry only the picture of the Quaid-e-Azam, who died only a year after the creation of Pakistan. Don't get me wrong. Of course, these leaders have every right to be there. But our national journey certainly does not end there.

The trouble is that Pakistani nationalism has become a dogma in itself and we do not want to update it with every passing development. Our state and some of its deeper parts do not want to meddle with the sacrosanct notion that the only existential threat to us comes from India and only those who fight it can be our heroes. To this day, we don't have the exact details of the Kargil war but our soldiers who perished there have been awarded the Nishan-e-Haider, but those who have written tales of great valour in the fight against terror have been offered none.

It is time to put an end to all this denial. While we remain confused about our enemies, our heroes are going to dust. It is time to celebrate the best for who they are: shining beacons of hope. Let us start by nominating Malala for the Nobel peace prize and by acknowledging her as a true national hero.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2012.

PTI to hold intra-party elections in Islamabad on November 18

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 05:40 AM PST



Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will hold its intra-party elections in Islamabad on November 18, reported Express News on Saturday.

PTI Election Commission Cell head Hamid Khan held a press briefing where he announced that the electronic voting will begin from midnight on November 17, and 63,000 party members will participate in the elections from 40 union councils in the federal capital.

The elections will be held on nine general seats and four women seats, and only those voters will be accepted who vote through a SIM registered on their National Identity Cards (NIC).

Election camps will also be set up at every union council, said Khan.

The elections will be completed in three phases across the country.

In the first phase, elections will be held in the Islamabad Capital Territory, followed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the second.

Elections in the other three provinces will be held in the third phase.

 

 

‘Banned organisations involved in target killings more than Taliban’

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 04:39 AM PST



KARACHI: Members of banned organisations are involved in incidents of bank robberies and other crimes in Karachi, more than the Taliban, said CID Functional Crime Unit head Raja Umar Khitab.

Speaking to Roznama Express, SSP Khitab said there was no proof of Taliban's presence in the Old City area or Lyari, however, reports have been received regarding the presence of banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

On the issue of rising extortion cases, the SSP explained that summoning information regarding extortionists' hideouts takes up to one week and till that time, the suspects have already shifted to another place.

Members of banned organisations team up with Lyari gangwar suspects and distribute chits among businessmen and traders. The chits have their numbers on them, which are used by police and other agencies to locate them, he detailed.

Locating the extortionists takes up to 5-7 days and within that time, people have already paid extortion after coming under immense pressure and the same happens in kidnapping cases, the SSP said.

The kidnappers take ransom within a week and release the kidnapped person, while most of the families do not even register kidnapping cases.

The SSP lamented that the technology available to the law enforcement agencies is not up to the mark and a great deal of crimes can be curbed in the city if the technology if upgraded.

The original story appeared in Roznama Express on November 17, 2012.

Gaza attack, not a priority for Pakistan’s press

Posted: 17 Nov 2012 03:38 AM PST



KARACHI: For a country that has historically been extremely pro-Palestine and refused to recognize the state of Israel, the coverage of the recent Gaza attack by its media, especially local newspapers has been slow in recognizing the issue.

The attacks that began on Wednesday, November 14 with Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza strip and retaliatory strikes on Tel Aviv from Gaza have claimed nearly 40 lives on both sides of the border.

While the issue has not made page one for most publications in the local press, the debate over the ongoing violence has occupied a front and center position for Pakistanis on social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, who criticized the local press for its lack of interest or concern.

The coverage by the broadcast media has been even more limited.

Monitoring Friday, November 16 and Saturday, November 17 newspaper editions of four national English newspapers in the country – including Dawn, The Express Tribune, The Nation and The News and three leading Urdu dailies including Jang, Nawa-i-Waqt and Roznama Express – reveals how much editorial significance was allotted to the story.

English Dailies

DAWN

DAWN ran a news story and an analysis featured on the international pages (Pages 12 &13) on Friday and one story on the back page (Page 14) on Saturday.

The Express Tribune

The Express Tribune ran one news story featured on the regional page (Page 8) on Friday and one story each on the front and regional page (Page 8) along with an editorial in the Opinion pages on Saturday.

The Nation

The Nation ran four stories on the issue. These included one news story (Page 8) and a news analysis (Page 9) on the foreign pages, one news report on the Back page (Page 12) and one small news item on the Business Page (Page 16) that discusses the impact of the Gaza attack on oil prices.

It also ran five stories on Saturday including 3 news stories and 2 analysis pieces.

The News

The NEWS ran one news story on the National Pages (Page 8) and another on its World News Page (Page 11).On Saturday, it ran 3 news stories along with an opinion piece.

Urdu Dailies

Jang 

Roznama Jang ran one news story on Page 3 on both days.

Roznama Express

Roznama Express also ran one news story on its National/International Pages (Page 3) and 4 news stories on Friday

Nawai-e-Waqt

Nawai-e-Waqt ran the news story on its front page on both days along with 2 news stories on Saturday.

While almost every foreign publication has been covering the situation in Gaza extensively, none of the English and Urdu daily newspapers in Pakistan ran more than one or two stories on the attack for the first two days, with the exception of The Nation.

The coverage improved marginally on Saturday once violence in Gaza escalated even further.

The gap in coverage of international issues by the Pakistani media is not a new one. The same trend has been observed in the coverage of the on-going violence in Syria that has claimed over 40,000 lives till date.

A large hue and cry was also raised on social media over the abysmal coverage of the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar by the local media, earlier in the year.

According to Ejaz Haider, a senior columnist, the lack in coverage can be attributed to shoestring budgets that most publications in Pakistan operate on and an over all lack of expertise when it comes to reporting on complicated regions like the Middle East.

"Forget faraway lands, we don't even cover India properly," says Haider. On the other hand, the coverage of Pakistan in Indian newspapers is much more in-depth and comprehensive, he added.

Senior columnist and academic Rasul Baksh Rais shared the same opinion.

According to Rais, the vacuum in coverage of international events by the Pakistani media – electronic media in particular – reflects a lack of integrity, professionalism and training by media organizations.

With respect to the Gaza attacks in particular, Rais stated that it is a major news story in terms of peace in the Middle East and human suffering but the Pakistani media predictably remains focused on its internal issues such as policing political actions and parties.

While problems within Pakistan are innumerable and complicated, it does not justify obliviousness to the outside world.

"If we stop the navel-gazing and constantly talking about our own problems, we might realize that our situation is not as bad as we think it is," says Haider.

He further added that one of the reasons for the under-reporting of the Palestine-Israel conflict could be the loss of the novelty factor.

He compared it to the coverage of the Kashmir issue where someone reading a Pakistani newspaper might think that things were completely normal in the region. But that remains far from the truth.

"One of the tools use by oppressors is to create a sense of despondency, so that even the supporters of the cause get worn out," he said.

For Pakistanis, social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, rather than traditional media have been the primary source of information about the Gaza attacks. While experts like Haider support the use of tools like Twitter, calling it the "most uselessly useful tool", he also admits that it cannot be a substitute for sound analysis.

According to Rais, the only way of ensuring balanced, fair coverage to different kinds of stories from all parts of the world is for media houses to stop taking shortcuts in their profession and invest in personnel with sound reporting, writing and research abilities and a holistic view of the world.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)