Pakistani Media Needs to be Tamed

Pakistani media needs to be much more mature when it comes to displaying images to a nationwide audience which carries no real substance whatsoever. The showing of a grainy video clip supposedly showing Taliban carrying out a sentence on a woman in Swat serves nobody, especially in Pakistan. The incessant ranting of the media needs to be censured. It seemed to me the clip came straight out of Hollywood studios designed to brainwash the Pakistani nation after the speech of the American President Barrack Obama, where he wants to put Pakistan in the same category as Afghanistan and wants Pakistan to descend into chaos so that the US has an excuse to further infiltrate into Pakistani territory. I would discuss first the religious aspect of the punishment meted out to the woman and then what the US wants to accomplish from mass viewership of such clips.

Religiously speaking, punishments have been carried out publicly in countries and territories which adhere to the Shariah law and such a sight is not so uncommon in those countries. Countries such as Saudi Arabia regularly carry out public decapitations and flogging of criminals after the due process of law has been given its course. The public display of these is designed to serve as an example for all to observe and acts as a deterrent to such crimes. One of my acquaintances, who lives in Saudi Arabia once narrated a detailed account of one such floggings when he was visiting a small town in the country. There he saw a man being whipped for a crime he had committed according to the Shariah law. Many local town people were present to witness the event. Usually, the judge who announces the verdict is not present in the ceremony. But this time he was present himself when the punishment was being given so that the whip floggers do not show any leniency/mercy in meting out the sentence and it serves as a real example for all to see. Testament to the heinous crime he had committed. Two floggers on each side whipped the person one after another while the judge chanted “flog him more”, till the guy lay unconscious. At that time, the judge ordered the floggers to stop.

The force and the brutality of a whip lash is such that even one whip is enough to take virtually the life out of a person. Now, the way the woman was shown being beaten was actually a mockup and it clearly seemed it was purposely designed for the media. Had she been beaten or given out the real punishment it would have been impossible for her to even stand on her own or even be conscious after even a three or four flogs. The timing of the video although perfect for the US administration, just after the new US policy, is suspicious because it has been portrayed that such an event happened months ago and reports that the video is fake. Even if the video is somehow proved to be real, then the issue comes out to be which crime is more heinous, the shoddy flogging of woman by Taliban a few months ago which might have hurt the woman slightly or the death of women and children by the US drones which incidentally happened on the same day that the Pakistani media was busy ranting about the woman being flogged. Nobody cared that women and children were brutally and silently killed by the US drones in Pakistani territory but the media was very busy doing propaganda against Taliban and portraying a bad image of Islam, precisely what the US wants.

Pakistani media should better spend its time on more important issues of national importance like the violations of Indus Water Treaty by India which has made one of Pakistan’s largest rivers by volume of water the Chenab virtually dry. Furthermore, India is constructing even more dams in its territory on Pakistani rivers downstream. It should also cover the plight of the poor families every day whose loved ones die at the missile firings of the US drones. Innocent women and children should not be called collateral damage and each death should be discussed and thoroughly investigated.

United States is to blame for pushing all the militants fighting the US occupation in Afghanistan into Pakistan. US should realize it cannot occupy Afghani territory without the will of the Afghani people by installing corrupt puppet regimes like that of the Karzai government. The US occupation is designed to push the militant Afghanis into Pakistani tribal areas thereby destabilizing Pakistan and destroying the only Islamic nuclear nation from within and Pakistani media is playing at the hands of these neo-cons and neo-crusaders. The sooner, the US government figures out that they cannot kill or subjugate thirty million Afghans and rule them against their will, the sooner this mess would be solved. The Afghanis have a right to live however they feel to live their lives without the need of a foreign power to dictate their affairs. Time is now for a dialog with the Taliban and a deal with these people which brings an end to the violence that has been perpetrated in the name of terrorism. Al-Qaeda and suicide bombing is a US creation which has no place in Islam. In fact, suicide is the worst crime in Islam and the punishment for that is to burn in hell for ever. Osama bin laden used to work for CIA at one time, that is for sure, what we do not know is whether he is still working for the CIA. It is about time, the US had a clear exit strategy and leave Afghanistan permanently and solve problems through a dialog with the Afghani people rather through the use of force. If all the Afghanis who have come to Pakistan after the US occupation leave Pakistan, Pakistan would be a much secure place and Pakistani people would be relieved of the spate of bombings that have devastated this great country of late. Also, US should not be allowed to operate in Pakistani areas without impunity. Any civilian death at the hands of the US drones should be investigated and the US commanders should be tried under international law for killing innocent people. Pakistani blood should not be shed so cheaply and profusely in this criminal war of terror.

Unless the Pakistani people are serious about the true perils that face the Pakistani people like this idiotic war on terror and the fallout from it, the ramifications of the Indus water treaty violations by India which can force many people in Pakistan to die of hunger and the everyday issues of clean and renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and hydro-power, we cannot be a nation worthy to be respected in the comity of nations.