TV THOUGHTS: Train tragedies, bomb blasts, the image, and perceptions of a 'dying state'

I wanted to begin with this column either with the news of "Romance back on PTV with Miss Malaysia" or last week's pending end of column theme, "PAC hails PTV's performance. "But instead I am beginning with the mention of the train tragedy at Ghotki where three passenger trains collided on Wednesday morning.
I got this news on Television channel, and one of them said that this was the first train accident in the world where three trains had been involved this way. So far at least 130 men and women have died and all the bodies have not been identified.
But I am distracted again by a comment in Dawn, which has also saddened me. It is captioned "Perceptions of Pakistan" which began like this. "At a select gathering of intellectuals in Karachi recently, one of the speakers said 'Pakistan is a dying country.
It is only a question of time'. Absolutely loud and clear: no mincing or garnishing of words. The pronouncement appeared by and large to be well taken by the audience". This was Thursday morning and several current affairs discussions on the TV channels came to my mind, and I spent the next few minutes simply contemplating.
What was the writer of this comment, Brigadier A.R. Siddiqui (Retd) trying to say? Let us see what he is saying further, in the second paragraph. He writes "That all is not well with the state of Pakistan goes without saying. We are in a shambles.
However, this is not unlike the condition in many other states around.... What is so alarming, therefore, about seeing and calling Pakistan a 'dying country'? This is not for the first time that Pakistan has been so described. A section of the foreign press, through the closing stages of the 1971 crisis, would invoke the same description for Pakistan. And that came to pass as half the country did go away."
As I focus on this column a part of me says that it is not within the direct scope of this column called TV thoughts. But it needs to be underlined that many current affairs programmes, and interviews that viewers see on the TV channels here, appear to be sounding like this.
Brigadier A.R Siddiqui (Retd) says further that "East Pakistan was Islamabad's ' other island'---more or less. And its loss was anticipated, even manipulated (and hardly ever mourned) by the West Pakistani mainlanders. Now there is little left to give away.
A 'dying country' means a whole nation in the throes of death." I find it painful to carry on in this vein and reproduce more. The above mentioned writer, a former director general of the Inter Services Public Relations, says' "Why then must we still talk and hear of a 'dying country' and also greet it with muted applause'? Is it the terminal manifestation of a crisis of identity-worse still a loss of it or the end result of our progressive disengagement from the affairs of the state and the nation?" Grim grey questions I might say.
It is an absorbing thought provoking comment, to say the least. The comment concludes like this. "Are we a dying country or a failed state? A horrifying question to answer either way. What's even more horrifying is the seeming acceptance of the hypothesis by many".
Let's take another theme, that of the Pakistan image, in particular the soft image that we are oft discussing these days, both in official quarters, and in private conversations. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has also spoken once again on this theme, and this time in Frankfurt. I wonder whether any TV channel will discuss what he has said.
Said a headline on the front page on 12th July "A lot being done to rebuild image: PM". Said the story that "Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has acknowledged that Pakistan has an image problem, but assured that the country has a promising future." In a meeting with the German corporate sector he said, "we have an image problem.
And we are conscious of that. We are not perfect. But we are on the right path. We are going in the right direction." The prime minister further said that we are doing a lot to build our image.
The Pakistan of today and tomorrow is not the Pakistan of yesteryears. It is on the path of growth." The meeting was sponsored by the Deutsche Bank and its spokesman described Aziz, a former banker as "an old face in a new role", and also praised Pakistan's achievement in the economic field.
In the context of television channels that are growing in the country the question that is forthcoming is whether these channels are able to perceive the need to give to this country the image its officialdom wants. That Islamabad desires.
Now that story about the Public Accounts Committee which hailed the performance of the Pakistan TV. Interestingly the meeting was held on 25th May and a news story was published in an English language daily on 30th June.
The news report quoted the minutes of the of the meeting which reportedly said that" the steps taken by the new management to make the corporation economically, viable, and bringing openness in policies/programmes was highly appreciated by the PAC." Please note: "highly appreciated". The news report quoted the minutes which said that the new management took over in May last year and focused upon improving the financial position of the corporation.
The PTV management took bold steps and changed some marketing and programme policies, in addition to some new initiatives.
"The new innovative strategies proved quite successful and PTV's advertising revenue during the first ten months of the current financial year increased quite significantly.
In addition the revenue from the collection of the license fee also improved considerably due to change in collection methodology." The minutes reportedly said that "from a loss of Rs 470 million during the last financial year, the PTV had earned a profit of Rs254 million during the first ten months of this financial year. (ending June 2005) Referring to the content aspect of the current affairs programmes, the minutes of the PAC meeting provided to the newspaper concerned by the PTV management, said that different initiatives had been taken to improve and bring openness in its various programmes.
That there was no mention of credibility with reference to the performance is what I am wondering about. But then the other question is whether credibility in the case of PTV is measurable?
And the London blasts that television channels have been focusing upon since the day they took place. Pakistani channels like Aaj TV and Geo were focused on the news reporting side of the story, but the more demanding viewers were tuning into the BBC and the CNN for preferred live coverage options.
The BBC was my first choice, and one contemplated the shape of things to come. Indeed we have come a long way from the days when such stories in this part of the world were restricted to newspapers. Now it is the real life image that comes into the viewers life.
It is a deeper impact, and the image perhaps gets embedded for life. I often wonder about such things.
Television channels here on Wednesday night were carrying news stories which had names and details of the suicide bombers who were reportedly behind the London bomb blasts and these were young men born in Britain, with Pakistani background. Pakistan once again in the picture? And its image?