Politics: A social mystification in Pakistan!

‘Democracy is the ultimate means to figure out egalitarianism in a broken society.’ ‘It isn’t chaos rather the manifestation of freedom ensured by the democracy.’ ‘Oh, don’t consume it so badly! Since we are in transition from absolutism to democracy and it would take time to have a mature politics in Pakistan.’ These were the resolutions of my students to an open ended question about their views on whether or not we are heading toward a civil disorder with the present state of governance in Pakistan.

Frankly speaking, It wasn’t unexpected for me because what else can you expect of the young  creative thinkers for whom everything said in a Prime time TV talk Show is the ultimate fact—a revelation.  A plain folk rhetoric presented and reinforced every day by the mainstream media.

Nevertheless, all of them were thunderstruck to a follow-up question on what do they believe that whether an uninterrupted decade isn’t ample for a nation to learn the job of running a country, especially when the country has such a struggling political past.

Our routine political affairs in Pakistan today give us a vibrant hint that we are entirely unaware of the usage and benefits of persuasive politics-an essence a country vitally needs for serenity— Persuasive politics practiced on the part of government contributes diversity and Rule of Law to the state where the rules are legitimated by traditions, customs and constitutional procedures. 

The most silent attribute of this system is the compromise politics of give and take. Such system automatically discourages and to a certain extent blocks the opposition’s opportunity to a configuration where political parties and media merge into a network to test government through rallies and litigation. Media in this setting isn’t capable to fuel the hype by having the dedicated coverage of rallies and opinion shows on wishful outcomes for the litigations against government. Media debates in such setting revolve around the advantages and disadvantages of government legislation and development.

Education at curve

For better or for worse, the university education is moving into the curve.

No doubt, the technology particularly, Internet revolutionizes the way we process and search for information. It serves as a personal informant and in some ways as a private teacher. With a wealth of knowledge within our reach, many teachers are beginning to seek out the Internet as a means to streamline the classroom experience.

While the Web serves as an excellent tool to distribute the gift of knowledge, teachers should reconsider its use in the classroom before committing a portion of the curriculum to it. Online homework, tests, assignments and examinations provides many benefits to students, but its function at times can hinder rather than provide a boon.

The manual way of grading pencil-and-paper assignments, tests and terminal marks can often be a daunting task for academicians especially when grading hundreds of papers.

Online examination does provide instantaneous feedback to the students and makes grading considerably easier for the teacher, but it’s a flawed system.

CITIZENS' DIVIDE

What I perceive as one of the biggest problems of Pakistan is the interconnected problem of large scale ethnic, lingual, and cultural divide among its citizens. We are perhaps one of those countries where individual differences are reported and valued stronger than the commonalities at different manifests of importance. The ghost which is hunting us most since our very inception is the prevalence of ethnocentric groups’ formation of either being a Baluchi, Punjabis, Pashtun, Sindhi, Seraiki, Muhajir, Chitrali, Kohistani, and Hindko rather than the ‘Pakistani’.

No doubt, the need for egalitarian society exists and has been voiced several times over the years by intelligentsia, but the struggle for it usually ends up in beginning of another ethnic conflict in Pakistan. Despite of offering resolution, Political parties exploit all this in turn to get an existence fuel for their presence in the coming years. 

though diversity contributes to culture and creative richness, yet in case of Pakistan, the division among the people on the basis of economic disparities, geographic associations, language, religion, cultism has not only affected our economy and progress, adversely, but the Urdu-Bengali conflict has also led us to war in 1971 between the Eastern and Western parts of our country, which resulted in division of the country and creation of an independent state.

Despite of the loss of thousands of precious innocent lives in the past two or three decades, the problem of ethnicity tends to intensify with the passage of time.

Keeping in view the impact of media on society in Pakistan, media Houses and universities need to develop media contents aimed at bridging the differences between ethnic and sectarian groups by highlighting their commonalities and similarities, instead of highlighting their differences.

Though media is never supposed of to operate to reduce conflict however the presentation of accurate, balanced and impartial reporting can help a lot in conflict reduction.

Essence of Conflict Sensitive Journalism and getting command on technical aspects of the program's contents, like how to do prior research, theme workout, putting hooks, transition and multiple sources, scripts etc will place Journalists in a position to have the required confidence to produce programs having such active and progressive themes. As usually the lack of confidence on a part of the journalist ruins implementation of creative ideas. Similarly, programs on themes trying to provoke people into thinking in terms of similarities are probable to lose impact all due to the reason that journalist wasn't able to wrap it up with conventional structure despite of having novel and relevant ideas. I believe it is the reason why journalists from rural areas, despite of availability, fails to produce valued contents.

HEAD_LIGHTS

In addition to being a requirement of travelling in the dark, Crystal Clear, glittering headlights are the most prominent component of persona of a contemporary car today. They add looks and emotions to the ride as a headlight can easily make any car look happy, angry or gloomy. People even use to call certain popular models of Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Chevrolet as snake, dolphin or cat all due to their facade. Since my childhood, I personally feel attracted most towards cars with the smartest headlights and I wonder how cars would look if they don’t have the headlights.

 Why do all classic cars have round headlights and why do modern cars have more architecturally designed headlines? These question creep to my mind when I was rubbing the wax out of my 2012 Corolla GLI headlights today. Was it style, choice or other techno limitations?

I then also remember my father’s saying, “They are the eyes of my car,” he once uttered these words to me when he was polishing his early Mazda 929 headlights. Indeed, they look like the eyes of a car! But it wasn’t just a styling choice or technological limitation rather it was the law.

The story trace its origin back to 1940 when the motor vehicle administrations of several states in USA came up with the idea of uniform standard of seven inches sealed-beam headlamps for all the vehicles throughout country. These one-piece lights combined the filament, reflector, housing, and lens. They were supposed to improve reliability as the chances of dirt and dead bugs finding its way into the lamp, possibly causing hot spots and early burnout were nearly impossible. The standard was adopted by the government and remained into effect for the next 40 years known as a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108. USA being the large market for cars in those days compelled the Japanese and European manufacturers also to adopt the same standard for all their productions.  

  

Healthy Viewing Choices

It wouldn't be wrong in saying that the mushroom growth of media in the last decade has left us with an important question of how can we have the healthy viewing choices for  whole family, particularly when it has the tremendous liberty, lot of audience and 24 hours seven days screen presence in majority of the bedrooms in Pakistan. I believe screen time for public is like chocolate. It’s delicious, pleasure in small portions, but eating too much can lead to a lifetime of bad habits.

 Although there's no single recipe for producing a successful program that could be valuable to the whole family yet with the inclusion of certain fundamentals we can easily have a high quality television contents for the entire family.

A RANDOM DAY AT SHRINE

Located at the foot of Margalla Hills, a few miles away from the Prime Minister House, the shrine of SHAH ABDUL LATIF KAZMI ( Bari Imam) is the center of hope for the disappointed, ill, heartbroken and needy people of the subcontinent for centuries.

It’s been more than 300 years when (Bari Imam) came to this place- barren land in those days - from District Jhelum.

 After helping his father in grazing animals, at the age of 12, he left for Ghaur Ghashti (now Attock) to learn fiqh, hadith, logic, mathematics, medicine and philosophy. The Saint is believed to meditate there in a cave for about twelve years visited only by the wild beasts and demons. A rock in that cave resembling a snake is also believed to be the miracle turned into stone by the holy man for being the devil’s advocate to break his meditation.

QADRI: MYTH OF DISPLAY & POWER

 Qadri holding the Constitution

What impelled a dual national Dr. Tahir ul Qadri to suddenly terminate his self- exile in Canada and come back with so much display, money and publicity?

Is the only question I can ask of myself in a situation when I've been limited to my guest house’s room watching everything on TV due to emergency identical situation in Islamabad today.

Is it the pain and love for the nation which he had shunned six years ago or is there some other hidden agenda? Only time will tell!

Dr. Qadri however says he is not interested in power and claims to be back only to save the nation from a total disaster.  He appears and poses to be a Khomeini- type messiah and savior of the nation and believes he can transform Constitutional Avenue into Pakistani tahrir square.

  

 He certainly demonstrated one thing that he has the capacity to gather mammoth crowds.  Two factors in my opinion helped him in this task, the influence of political Islam in our society and the extreme frustration that the people have towards the present regime.

With more focus on the few emotional clauses, Qadri’s demands seem very inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution.  As the document which he urges to be upheld in its spirit and totality, unfortunately didn't have any provisions for a caretaker government to make decisions beyond running of routine affairs and the holding of elections.

Similarly an individual cannot arrogate to himself the right of representing people by merely gathering them together under the constitution. He or she has to be first elected by the people before he/she gets the constitutional prerogative of representing them.

Above all, our constitution does not prescribe any role for our army or judiciary in holding elections under a caretaker government.  

Metal thieves create new danger for pedestrians in Islamabad

Missing covers pose a significant public safety risk. Pets, pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are at serious danger by the open catch basins in F-7 and F-8 sectors at Islamabad this part of season when they prefer to have nighttime walks with their pets.

“Metal thieves have opened a gaping hole in the public safety of our streets.” says Abdul Jabber who has been resident of F-8/4 for more than 20 years.

Pedestrians face danger when they are walking on dark and rainy sidewalks. Thieves have stolen so many covers off storm drain basins that pedestrians now risk blindly stepping into a hole up to six feet deep that could result in a broken leg or worse.

Catch basins are located near curbs and in alleys to drain water from our roadways. They are covered with large metal grates. Uncovered, most catch basins are a foot or two deep. Others can be as deep as five or six feet.

 “In the dark, people may not recognize that a catch basin is missing or the open hole may be covered with leaves and debris making it harder to distinguish the hole from solid ground.” Says Munir, an old man, who lives in F-7 and prefers evening walks with his wife in the nearby area.

When city staff receives a report of a missing cover they secure the location, mark the danger and if necessary call a crew to replace the stolen cover, says Ramzan the official spokesman for the  CDA adding “Out of these, 3,000 manhole covers are managed by the Roads Division of the CDA,”

He insisted that the authority’s civic management wing was in the process of limiting the theft of manhole covers but “we can’t keep an eye on every manhole cover every day.”

A catch-basin cover is made of cast iron and weighs about 140 pounds. “There are gangs of young and old thieves, mostly from the squatter settlements of the capital,” he said, “and they are equipped with hammers and iron cutters to dismantle the covers within few minutes.”

Commenting over the financial loss faced by the authority he added that the per month loss crosses over Rs148, 000.

I ' m Editor Today !

 I wake-up early in the morning. Why so early?  Just as I ask myself, the clue flash in my mind, “I am  Mr. Editor on very first day of digital TOT’s news room week.”  First days and first turn are never easy for me. I always get so nervous.  They always remind me of my first day at school. My first day this time, however, was nothing like other first days I have had. This time, I wasn’t nervous. I didn’t pass myself on chocolate and didn’t even cry.  I was really excited about my first day on the assignment with fewer butterflies in my stomach.

My job was simply learning the procedure and feeling the responsibility prior to the assignment as an editor for my journalism department’s website. I knew I don’t have to teach how to write stories or to give a dictionary of technical web terminology and other bookish editing procedures.

 I knew I don’t need to impress my team with the authority I have for the day. But was sure the task this time was much more difficult as the things I supposed not to do were the things I was doing for the last six years as a journalism instructor.

I knew my Editor in Chief Michal Alexander would ask me a rundown and complete structure with pictures and videos as he had  earlier made me clearly understood how to interact with the team and to pull things out of them individually viewing their attitude. I also knew he would be my Guard father today.

 Though, we find it hard to pitch worthy story ideas as everyone  was discussing issues letting aside the stories attached to them, however everyone person was so nice and welcoming that I even forgot about the two butterflies that were still flying in stomach.

Everyone seems motivated in talking to me and treating me as their editor. The earlier few minutes spent with my workmates made me realized it’s the nicest experience I have ever experienced, but I knew I need to force them time and again to transform their writings, voice videos and pictures more stronger as in the end  only  this can make me strong as  Mr. Editor.

WHY TO BE SPIRITUAL?

Logic only tells us what we see with our perceptual mind. Might be we believe, what we see, but it doesn’t address everything we have in our life. Even the most devoted observer must admit that we have no hope of understanding the universe. Some things always remain unknowable to us

This, I think has actually happened to our society in Pakistan where losing of spiritual values has resulted as a freeze in the way of propagation of love, values and humanity.

The fading of emotional support through Sufism, tolerance, festivals and spiritual devotional  dance and songs over shrines has affected our culture a way that an average Pakistani seems to be disturbed today even after studying throughout their life.

In this situation, the time might come when the knowledge and the man knowing that knowledge might come to an end. The common people hate and the elite remain unsatisfied from spiritualism. This is the era of that situation in our life. It is all about power, politics and money, which people have come to use as replacement of hope these days.

The result is the emergence of mind that think the admiration of saints and its devotional singing and dancing as a unforgiving sin and curse for the society.

In Pakistan, Government neither supervises the spiritual sciences nor encouraged the trend of specialized social institutions cultivating the spiritual learners having tolerance for the society. This negligence has also resulted in a mindset having  silence or otherwise acceptance for the militants bombing dozens of Sufi shrines and killing hundreds of worshipers since 2005. Most worst is the fact that this has now even prompted devotees of the typically nonviolent and politically inactive sect to begin preparing for battle with them.

It’s now the time for our government to decide which way they want to destine their society or otherwise it’s never.

VEGGIES PRICE HIKE IN ISLAMABAD

The vegetable prices in Islamabad almost doubled in the past year. Today you could buy a kilo of tomatoes for 45 rupees. A year ago the same tomatoes would sell for 25 rupees. The sellers blame the middlemen for the high prices, while the middlemen blame the producers. However experts and market officials say that the state of economy and the lack of proper agricultural policies are to blame for the hike in the vegetable prices.

There might be multiple reasons but all it affects is the pocket of a common man.

An average buyer like Muhammad Riaz Whom I met in Rana Market Islamabad is unable to understand the price Mechanism. He says they fluctuate every day. He doesn’t know anything about middle men, producers or inflation and says vegetables and fruits in the market have got so expensive that it has become impossible for him to buy anything. He says “Its 60 today would be forty tomorrow and something else day after tomorrow. It has been like this for years.” He even fears he has to sleep meal less one day.

 

“Please weight them properly,” “how much, 100, isn't it too much,” “the other guy demanded 60 for the same,” “don’t do like this,” is the conversation you might hear at every vegetable shop if you are a regular visitor. The shopkeepers have a single answer, “we buy it expensive these days then how could we sell it less.”

The shopkeepers usually accuse merchants for selling high to them. The merchants in turn reply they have to locally buy these vegetables or to import from other part of the world. Taxes and farm production are the reason for price hike to them. They even accuse government for damaging their business by not having a food friendly economic policy.

The economist like Prof. Pervaz janjua, on other hand, has the view that the food commodities are perishable and it’s normal if they fluctuate in prices in a country where despite of deficit the food is usually exported to increase per capita income.  

 

WHAT I BELIEVE OF MY MEDIA

I know! One would call me pessimist and biased though I am sure that Media can profile growth, governance, serve audience as their third eye and a prolonged ear to have clues of future trends. It can also help in forming positive perception regarding  public representatives, policy and institutions.

But it wouldn't be wrong, if I today generalize the functioning of my 24x7 TV channels as a business with desperate acts of pathetic dynamics.

Sheer sensationalism and an over-enthusiasm to report under breaking News has now started to give this impression of media to its typical viewers in a country where an average citizen starts his day by listening morning news and wraps it up by watching the late night's prime time opinions, all, just to keep himself informed of truth and reality.

In the name of analysis and political discourse, most news channels have now decided to operate on a popular formula that was formerly associated with Urdu Mainstream press. 
 

The formula, which once asked newspapers to cover more of those events and issues which had their pitch against the immediate government, and consequently those papers grabbed more readership, circulation and advertisements than their neutral counterparts.

 This also gave promotion to the filthy culture of TV talk shows where the blunt disgrace for each other   determines the success of the Show and channel among audience today.

To catch more advertisers, a flood of programs copying the content lines from across the border have increased dramatically with the passage of time. similarly re-telecasting an Indian Program has  also become more the matter of competition and marketing tool for every TV channel in Pakistan.

To be conclusive of what I am saying is that our relatively young enthusiastic electronic media has committed few mistakes and sacrificed definite standards operating under certain impulses evolved out of our own endogenous circumstances, yet the most positive thing for media critics is that media itself has been critical of its role and debates have been ranged by them to analyze what social responsibility demands of them.

                                                                                                        Photo courtesy Google

Proscribed militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam have asked residents of KPK to dissociate themselves from pro-government peace committees and threatened attacks against those ignoring the warning.

The LI men distributed threatening leaflets among people and pasted posters in the area over the past two days.

Most of the areas where the pamphlets were distributed are under curfew for quite some time.
The pamphlets have been distributed at a time when the local administration has announced reinstatement of 600 khasadars who had resigned after they received similar warnings a week after the start of a military operation in the area in September 2009

Doctors in Balochistan have decided to continue their strike in protest of the non-recovery of their abducted colleague Dr Saeed Ahmed Khan, Following the approval of his bail petition by a session court in Quetta, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Balochistan chapter President Dr Sultan Tareen spoke to media representatives at a general body meeting of the association

Following the approval of his bail petition by a session court in Quetta, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Balochistan chapter President Dr Sultan Tareen spoke to media representatives at a general body meeting of the association.

A bomb tore through a security forces vehicle escorting schoolchildren home from school on Wednesday, killing four personnel and a woman in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.

The attack also wounded more than 20 people, officials said.
“The target was an army vehicle which was escorting a school bus carrying children of local army officers from different schools,” Quetta city police chief Hamid Shakeel told AFP.

KARACHI: One of Pakistan’s oldest and most renowned columnists, Ardeshir Cowasjee, passed away in Karachi on Saturday at the age of 86Cowasjee, whose weekly columns graced the Dawn newspaper from 1988 to 2011, was suffering from chest illness and had been admitted in a Karachi hospital’s intensive care unit for the past 12 days.

Cowasjee, whose weekly columns graced the Dawn newspaper from 1988 to 2011, was suffering from chest illness and had been admitted in a Karachi hospital’s intensive care unit for the past 12 days.

ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani journalist and TV anchor escaped a bid on his life Monday when the bomb disposal squad defused a bomb planted under his car in Islamabad, police and his channel said.

Hamid Mir, a senior Geo TV anchor was returning to his house in the capital and the bomb was apparently planted when he stopped at a market, Geo News reported.
The explosive device in a metal box was found stuck under the front passenger seat of Hamid Mir’s car, city police chief Bani Amin said.

first lady to be grilled in land-deal

SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's wife is to be questioned as part of a probe into a presidential retirement home deal that has already grilled Lee's brother and son, officials said Monday.

The inclusion of First Lady Kim Yoon-Ok in the investigation comes at a sensitive time, with South Korea just weeks away from a presidential election on December 19. "(We have) decided to investigate first lady Kim," assistant special counsel Lee Chang-Hoon told reporters on Monday. "The method and the timing of the questioning are still being discussed with the presidential office," Lee said.

Pakistan has spent $80 bn in terror war

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that no country had suffered so much as Pakistan from terrorism and it had lost 40,000 innocent lives in addition to $80 billion in economic terms.

The President was addressing inaugural ceremony of sixth conference of the Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians here on Sunday. He said Pakistan was committed to the SAARC Charter and believed that durable peace in the region was in the interest of all. He urged the regional countries to join hands to fight the menace of extremism and terrorism.

He said that the region should adopt a collective approach to face the common challenges and explore the opportunities for the benefit of the people.

He said that the SAARC parliaments should plan and lead efforts for solving complex issues by protecting political liberties, human freedoms and the rule of law to promote regional peace and security.

Kabul considers action against ICG

KABUL: Afghanistan is considering action against the International Crisis Group, with officials on Monday accusing the respected think-tank of bias in its reporting on the troubled nation.

An analysis by the Brussels-based ICG last month said the Kabul government could collapse after the withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014, particularly if presidential elections that year are fraudulent.

Karzai's senior spokesman Aimal Faizi hit back Monday, telling: "The ICG reports and activities have been politically motivated."