The Dawn Blog » Blog Archive » Freedom to insult?

 

 

Since the Pakistani media seems to be in the insulting mode these days, here is my own two-pence worth of the same aimed at those who have insulted my sense of being a Pakistani man: Veena Malik has become my icon, not of the celebrity variety, but as a woman who braved the insults hurled at her by two bigoted men, one of them bearded, on national TV the other night for being herself on a recently concluded reality TV show in India. It is such men and their lack of respect for women under different pretexts that defines exactly what has gone wrong with our society. That is why we will not have another Noorjehan, not even another Mehdi Hasan, in our midst for a long time to come, and that is why we will keep killing banning Basant celebrations, and not the killer twine. Instead, we’ll just have more of the same bigots manning our airwaves and pushing their obscurantist agenda, as if to honour the memory of Ziaul Haq and his ilk. And, of course, insulting women and minorities on public TV is not a subject that our courts will ever find worthy of taking notice of.

Two simple questions: why would TV anchors never ask the Meeras and Veenas and Reshams of our entertainment industry, for whatever the industry and they put together are worth, to sit in judgment on the conduct of those who defend the killers of Salman Taseer, or those who blow themselves up at Sufi shrines killing and maiming innocent men, women and children? Why is it always the mullah who must adjudicate affairs across the board amongst adherents of a faith that does not allow for priesthood in the first place? But that is how one-sided the discourse has become in the new, brave, independent media today. If it is media trials that we must hold, then why not hold one of the Lal Masjid cleric who escaped the bloodied compound in a burqa, and who should be held at least partly responsible for the many lives lost in the military action of 2007? That is, if that is how the media organs must see their new role, inflated as it is, in society, which is quite against the industry norms anywhere in the world. There are perhaps more hate-mongers, xenophobic anchors and preachers, on our TV screens on a given day today than all religious programmes put together that PTV broadcast during 11 years of Ziaul Haq’s rule.

The obsession with display of personal piety and religiosity, which often comes wrapped in layers of hypocrisy and self-righteousness, is just revolting. That the media should have such unbridled freedom to insult women (and minorities) is just very appalling, nay disgusting; which is the politest way of putting across the feeling of shame that I have as a Pakistani man.

Besides the views expressed on women, another glaring example of mixing up values is the media’s soft-peddling of terrorism-related issues, of which more Pakistanis have been ready victims than westerners or Indians in recent years. There is this slogan I read the other day in Karachi’s business district, advertising a recently launched Lahore-based, English-language newspaper, which says something to the effect: We treat our Aasias and Aafias alike (thank God Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden are not daughters of Pakistan). The sheer comparison is shocking but obviously equivocal. It works both ways: one is touted to be the victim of American hysteria about Islam, the other of Pakistanis’ growing bigotry in response to West’s provocation; or more dangerously, it aims to blur the line between a criminal and a sinner.

What is next, you may ask. Would the same newspaper say tomorrow that it treats Salman Taseer and Mumtaz Qadri equally, or indeed, equate Benazir Bhutto with Baituallah Mehsud, the purported mastermind behind her killing? Moosa-o-Firaun-o-Shabbir-o-Yazid/ Een do quwwat az hayaat aayed padeed (Moses and Pharaoh, Hussain and Yazid/ Are the two forces [good and evil] that shape life). If this is the vision of the newspaper concerned of what is Pakistan today, then let the poet Iqbal turn in his grave, whose ideology the paper claims to espouse.

Meanwhile, thank you, Veena Malik, for saying loud and clear that you represented our entertainment industry and yourself, and not Islam or Pakistan, on “Bigg Boss,” to which Pakistani viewers back home were just as riveted as their counterparts in India. I respect you for being yourself, and am insulted when you are.

Murtaza Razvi is the Editor, Magazines, at Dawn.

This article was published on The Dawn Blog.

 

Last Five Years,The News International

The Scorpion’s Tail:

The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in
Pakistan – And How It Threatens the World

By Zahid Hussain

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Pages: 245

Price: Rs 1195

A day after Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was assassinated in Islamabad by his police guard for voicing criticism of the blasphemy laws, senior journalist Zahid Hussain made a grim announcement at the launch of his second book, ‘The Scorpion’s Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan – And How It Threatens the World’ — “Pakistan is drifting towards chaos and anarchy”.

The event, held at a branch of the bookstore Liberty Books in Karachi, featured a discussion panel comprising journalist Ghazi Salahuddin, former Pakistani ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi, writer Asif Noorani and Hussain. Following an introduction by Noorani and Salahuddin, Lodhi expressed her views on ‘The Scorpion’s Tail’ and raised questions that have been swirling through the minds of many since the War on Terror began: “Why do people turn to violence? How do we deal with the facts that minds have been infected?” In Lodhi’s opinion, it is time to treat the underlying causes that breed violence, and not just the symptoms.

As the evening progressed, Hussain and Lodhi discussed topics such as the use of CIA-operated drones in Pakistan, the recent Af-Pak Review published by the US government and the futility of the current military strategy in Afghanistan. The war, according to the panellists, is unwinnable in Afghanistan, unless a political solution is reached in the war-torn country. Hussain recalled an incident that underlined the significance of the Pakistan Army in the political scenario. “I was told that the Foreign Ministry went to the Inter-Services Intelligence and asked them, what should be our (foreign) policy? The Foreign Minister is asking a military general what the country’s policy should be.” Hussain decried the lack of policymaking by the current PPP-led government, “Have they come out publicly about national security? Do they have a vision of economic policy? People gave a vote for change.”

Hussain’s book, published three years after his acclaimed debut Frontline Pakistan, is a chronology of the events that have shaped Pakistan in the last five years. It details how consecutive mistakes by the Pakistan government, the US administration and the military and the ruthlessness of the militants have led to Pakistan drifting into chaos and anarchy. As Hussain writes in ‘The Scorpion’s Tail’, “Pakistan has been a state in search of its identity and the struggle between Islamists and moderates has remained at the centre of that quest.” In a Pakistan that has been left shaken by Taseer’s assassination, with moderates shocked at the public display of support for Malik Mumtaz Qadri, Hussain’s words ring true.

In his book, Hussain describes events such as the failed peace deals in Fata, and the brutal tactics employed by militants against the Pakistan Army that was taken by surprise at the ferocity of the atrocities, decapitated soldiers, a colonel begging for his life — events that led to an eventual operation in South Waziristan, where the Pakistan Army is still waging a battle against a force that shows no sign of giving up. Hussain recalls the words of Nek Mohammad, a top militant commander, who was killed in a drone strike in June 2004. Prior to his death, Mohammad asked, “Why is this bird following me?” Hussain also describes the rise of Baitullah Mehsud, a man, who had only 4000 men in 2004 and later became the most wanted man in Pakistan.

‘The Scorpion’s Tail’ offers the readers a glimpse into the rise of the militants in the Swat Valley, and the state’s failure to nip the movement in the bud. It highlights how militants garnered favour with Swat’s residents after the state failed to provide them with basic facilities and implement reforms. Hussain recalls how Fazlullah, the leader of the militants in Swat, had 32 radio stations broadcasting his sermons. The unwritten question here is, why did the state let the status quo continue for as long as it did?

While Hussain’s book reads more like a chronology with less description of the cited events, the few details are remarkable: Faqir Mohammad, a wanted militant attends a meeting at a bureaucrat’s house in Swat, how the siege of the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi unfolded and the names and descriptions of armymen who left the forces after Musharraf allied with the US following 9/11 to join the militants in their war against US forces in Afghanistan and then against the Pakistani state.

Towards the end, Hussain hastens to wrap up the book. Describing the latest efforts by President Karzai to placate Islamabad, and the Pakistan Army’s interference in talks with the Taliban, Hussain advocates that the military solution in Afghanistan is bound to fail. While highlighting the efficiency of the CIA-operated Predator drone strikes in Fata, Hussain points towards the death of civilians in numerous incidents of drone strikes, a controversial issue that has been discussed heatedly since drone strikes began in Pakistani territory. The author also highlights cases such as Faisal Shahzad’s, the failed Times Square bomber, and how the radicalisation of youth in the West may lead to future terrorist attacks with more devastating consequences.

While Hussain offers little new to those who have been following his work for years, ‘The Scorpion’s Tail’ is a valuable addition to literature available on the modern history of Pakistan. One hopes that those in the corridors of power learn their lessons from the lessons of the past, but as things stand in Pakistan; this might remain an unfulfilled wish.

The Scorpion’s Tail is available at Liberty Books.

Huma Imtiaz works as a journalist in Pakistan and can be reached at huma.imtiaz@gmail.com

 

The Dawn Blog » Silencing the voices of reason

The murder of my former colleague and journalist Wali Khan Babar has once again angered me. As a resident of Karachi, a citizen of Pakistan and as a journalist who has covered target killings – I feel an excruciating pain in my heart, as if someone has clenched it with an iron fist. I refuse to accept any other explanation for his death other than that it was a cold-blooded, premeditated murder! Babar’s murder sent waves of shock among all of us who knew him personally as well as professionally.

Soon after I heard about Babar’s murder, I switched on the TV to get updates. I heard a talk show host calling Wali Khan Babar, a Shaheed-e-Sahafat. We keep appeasing ourselves by giving our grief labels and tags. But the fact of the matter is that it was a cold-blooded murder, just like Governor Punjab Salman Taseer’s was, and like the other 1,400 innocent Karachiites who were victim of targeted killings last year. The body count at the morgues keeps increasing drastically but unfortunately, the state’s security apparatus deem fit only to issue verbal statements like the one that followed Babar’s murder by Interior Minister Rehman Malik who ordered an inquiry.

I would like to ask Mr. Rehman Malik as well as the Karachi Police, whether they have been able to bring the killers of over 1,400 residents of Karachi to task?

I remember Babar as a learned journalist, a passionate Pashtun from Zhob, Balochistan, who was proud of his roots and heritage. I remember how angry he was over the state-sponsored oppression in Balochistan. I remember my arguments on various issues with this young, vibrant, educated, civilised and forward-looking journalist. His voice of reason still echoes in my ears, a voice that was silenced by unknown assailants.

Journalists are supposedly the voices of reason. We are daring but are also cautious about not offending public sentiments and especially those of armed groups due to security concerns. We are exposed to frequent threats from state and non-state actors with no protection offered. According to Reporters Without Borders, 11 journalists succumbed to violence in Pakistan last year, making it the most dangerous country for media personnel. But many of these journalists were killed in the lawless northwest or in Balochistan. However, Babar was killed in the teeming metropolis of Karachi where apparently, there is not an officially-declared insurgency.

Currently, the state of affairs in Pakistan does not paint a bright picture whether it is about protecting the rights of minorities, providing justice, protecting free speech or providing assistance to journalists.

Each passing day, I count the numbers of the victims in Karachi – the numbers swell and so does the impunity in their murders. Why are these butchers of humanity not taken to task? Is it because they wield more power then the state that they have become a state within the state? Is it because we all fear that we might face the same fate as Wali Khan Babar’s?

But I want to make it clear that moderate and progressive forces like me will not remain silent. I will not be isolated and I will not allow forces of darkness to rein my city and my country. I will continue to peacefully uphold the flag of reason and sanity.

A text message that was forwarded by a colleague, raised an important question: how long will we remain victims of violence and remain silent about such killings?

This post was written by Sabin Agha and was published on the Dawn Blog.

Note by Maha Khan Phillips

Dear Reader,

The idea for Beautiful from this Angle came to me while I was at a newsagents, trawling through the newspapers, in London. Every single headline screamed something negative about Islam, whether it was the Muslim taxi driver that refused to let a guide dog into his cab, or the burkha-clad teacher whose students could not understand her, or terrifying-terrorising mad extremists breeding equally terrifying-terrorising students who, the paper warned, would blow the British sky high. It struck me then, that there was a reason that all my foreign friends and family were convinced that in Pakistan we lived in the Dark Ages, that all women were silenced and oppressed, and that it was only men who could be evil. I decided it would be fun to turn the idea on its head, in a light-hearted manner, to look at the craziness that is the media and it’s approach to Islam and to Pakistan.

Beautiful from this Angle is a satire about three well heeled Karachi girls who film a fake documentary about an honour killing, anxious to cash in on Western stereotypes. Then a real terrorist is found where the documentary is filmed, and suddenly, the girls find fame. They each take a different path in response to what is happening around them.  In the novel, the  gullible Western media is taking advantage of people, but, equally, the media is being taken advantage of. The book is, I hope, funny, and dark. I hope that those who read it will find it so!

With best wishes

Maha

Maha will be reading from her book & signing copies at Liberty Books next week. Please click here for more details.

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