If you are a regular follower of the Pakistani blogosphere and main stream media, chances are that you might have come across these three stories (fake degree scandal, fox calling Pakistan pornistan and a heartbreaking rape incident of a nursing student). It’s amazing how the three stories that appear completely different to each other are one way or the other correlated.
Starting off with the fox news story, which claims that Pakistan tops the google chart when it comes to ‘Sexy Searches’ (Though personally speaking I find nothing sexy about horse sex). Frankly speaking the standard of journalism Fox News is infamous for, its special love for Pakistan and the Muslim world over the years and Google’s disassociation with the fox story takes away our special internet achievement. But I am sure folks around the world might have a good laugh on the story and our sexy (pervert is the correct word) nature. But does it take away the fact; that some of us actually make these searches or watch porn of similar genre (scary thought)? I think not, it actually signifies another attribute of our hypocritical nature. Like banning facebook, youtube and even Wikipedia but no such order against porn sites, I wonder why?
The Second story that continues to receive maximum media coverage is the fake degree scandal. The scandal reaffirms the value of education in our society and (lack of intellect) in our ruling class. Despite they invest millions in their election campaigns; the only investment they ever made in education department was acquiring a fake degree. Those who follow the budget speech every summer are aware of Governments annual spending on education (conveniently 3% or less of the total). It pretty much explains the literacy rate of this country. Not only that our rulers want us to remain illiterate, majority of us have hardly made any sincere efforts in getting quality or any education for that matter. Fact!
Last and the most heart breaking story is the tragic rape incident of a trainee nurse. I sadly witnessed the news when it first aired on a local channel. It was an exclusive video clip where the poor rape victim (rape survivor hopefully) was being brought to the hospital ward for treatment. In a 30 second video clip the cameraman found his professional obligation in zooming into rape victim’s wounded face and other injuries apparent on her body. It was the most painful sight ever; I wonder why the media squad present on the scene didn’t feel the same? The appalling coverage didn’t end here, every day onwards there is a video clip of the injured rape victim on every Pakistani channel. By now every Pakistani recognizes her face. The only object that sometime protects her from the embarrassment is her oxygen mask. Allegedly there are doctors who raped her and the hospital administration that ignored her genuine harassment complaints, now the same administration fails to protect her from unwanted visitors and media coverage.
The society where we live in, its A-Ok if the name or face of a rape victim is made public. Everyone knows that Mukhtara Mai or Dr. Shazia was raped but nobody can recall the faces or even names of the offenders who carried out this inhuman act. Deep down the perversion that we all embrace, negates the severity of a crime like rape. The lack of education that we all are so proud of, disregards the inhumanity in broadcasting rape victims while getting medical treatment. But God forbid if it happens to a member of your family, will you still allow it to broadcast?
2007 was a revolutionary year in the history of Pakistan. The power dynamics of the country shifted from three A’s (Allah, America and Army) to three J’s (Judiciary, Journalism and Jeneral). Oops! Did I write JENERAL? (Aaah.. the Sana Ullah Mastikhel syndrome!). Anyways, we all know what happened. The progressive General became a dictator overnight; black cameras aired and glorified every move the men in black (lawyers and judges) made. The entertainment shows lost their ratings and TV anchors became national celebrities. Politicians also claimed their cut in the transaction by declaring their long lost love for democracy. Three years later; Pakistan has democracy (translation: a President without uniform). Judiciary is free (the power to ban internet but not terrorism) and a media that doesn’t pay taxes (read).
In the first half of its tenure the democratic Govt. of PPP turned out to be exactly like their previous Governments (corrupt, incompetent and vision less) but only worse. The Govt. that failed to deliver started losing its credibility, as a result media took the moral and commercial liberty of showing how bad the politicians are when it comes to ruling this country. In the mean while Iftikhar Choudary’s Judiciary who already had a bone to pick with Zardari (on his hindrance for restoring judges) also developed a taste for popular decisions and what else can make people happy than watching their failed leaders penalized. Benefiting from Zaradari Inc. failures, PML-N emerged as Pakistan’s last hope. Things were going honky dory until a conflict of interest started to affect the tag team.
The way things are going it’s very possible that the no. of fake graduates in the assemblies are going to outnumber the real graduates. But a point of view could be; why over hype a situation when we have issues like terrorism, corruption, inflation and power to solve. Fake degree cases were queued to the same courts in the last Govt. but these judges chose not to take any action, so why now? Similarly, media fails to acknowledge any criticism that comes their way. Even two times Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif despite his past record with Army General’s is ready to bend down for a change and kick out his party members just to mend ways with media.
The Right thing to do:
Political parties with MNA’s and MPA’s holding fake degrees should immediately dismiss them from their party membership and set an example for forgery crimes
Judiciary should show equal enthusiasm while solving paid cases
Media should understand the difference between criticism and ridicule
Politics, Judiciary and Media are the three pillars of any democratic and modern society. If these entities actually aim to see REAL democracy in the country, they should learn to coexist.
Posted by عمار - aMmAr | Posted in Pakistan, videos | Posted on 22-06-2010-05-2008
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The news that Facebook confounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg may face a death penalty by Lahore High Court didn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the facebook fiasco in Pakistan. Keeping in view the recent few verdicts by LHC which ironically defied some basic laws of physics, geography and common sense; there is a major possibility that the young entrepreneur from New York gets a death penalty under Criminal Code 295-C on blasphemy laws.
Now I am not here to discuss the global pitfall of such verdict in the age of social media, nor will I defend the future of internet for those Pakistanis who make a living out of it. Because let’s face it a country experiencing crisis like energy, inflation, terrorism, corruption, starvation etc. should care less about bad publicity in an international market where its local entrepreneurs and businessmen are trying to make some name and money. Being an ideological and fundamentalists nation that we are, under no circumstances we should compromise our religious integrity and the right to protest against infidels running blasphemous sites on the World Wide Web.
But just for conversation sake, why these condemnations or speedy rulings are restricted to certain issues. We are ready to go to any extent if a non believer mocks our sacred values but if a believer in religious apparel commits a suicide attack or is guilty of sectarian violence, we conveniently shy away.
Since the “golden” period of Zia, Pakistan is home to sectarian criminals. The political progeny of the military dictator might condemn military ruling in the country but are continuing the same legacy of sectarian prejudice. Punjab Government has never denied their political coalition with the debarred organization of Sipah Sahabah. In fact sometimes I wonder who’s the real boss of Rana Sanaullah; Sharif or Ludhianvi?
FYI:the love is not one sided:
The irony doesn’t ends here as terrorists are let go on lack of evidence, while the remaining find a work around. All these facts reassure us that there will be another attack on Manawa training center, the target killing of Shias will continue as the perpetrators of the Ashoura tragedy are out there planning another attack. The Ahmadis will continue to live under the fear of getting mass murdered, again. And each attack will be followed by feeble condemnations and monotonous rhetoric’s. But all this violence shouldn’t stop LHC from sentencing the real terrorist, Mark Zuckerberg.
