Three bits of news last week became the focus of a lot of attention in the media, social media and public exchange. First came the news of the arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of Mir Shakilur Rehman, owner and Editor-in-chief of the Jang/Geo media group on March 12, 2020. Then the growing anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic hit a peak. Last but not least, the sad but not entirely unexpected news of ailing Dr Mubashir Hasan's passing away on March 14, 2020 in Lahore.
Mir Shakilur Rehman and the Jang/Geo group had been on NAB's radar for at least 18 months prior to the arrest of Mir Shakilur Rehman. According to media reports, the group had received at least a dozen notices from NAB pertaining to its coverage of news about NAB's activities that did not sit well with the controversial accountability watchdog. There are also reports about pressure being exerted on the group from time to time to 'go easy' on NAB, but the media group's unwillingness to toe the line led to the arrest of its Editor-in-Chief on charges relating to a 34-year-old case of land allotment in Jauhar Town, Lahore.
NAB alleges Mir Shakilur Rehman was the beneficiary of exemptions regarding 54 kanals of land in the housing society in 1986, an alleged 'favour' bestowed upon him by then chief minister Punjab Nawaz Sharif. Mir Shakilur Rehman refutes this charge by asserting that this was a transaction between two private parties and he had the record to show that nothing illegal transpired. NAB, in its by now notorious style, called Mir Shakilur Rehman to its office in Tokhar Niaz Baig in Lahore and, expressing dissatisfaction with Mir Shakilur Rehman's replies to its (verbal) questions, arrested him on the spot. This action violated NAB's own laid down procedure and defied the Islamabad High Court's direction to NAB not to indulge in arrests of those under investigation without solid evidence or proof. The court was moved to issue this direction when faced with case after case of NAB jumping the gun to arrest accused before even investigations had been completed, only for those charged eventually being freed on bail when the courts could not be satisfied by NAB as to its findings against the accused. Now NAB has 'summoned' ailing Nawaz Sharif back from London, in another farcical move when it is common knowledge the return of Nawaz Sharif is still subject to his treatment and state of health.
The matter of Mir Shakilur Rehman's arrest is of course by now sub judice, but Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Media Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan's disingenuous attempt to use this fact to suppress any criticism of the arrest was self-serving at best. In a 'leaked' interaction with select journalists, Dr Awan tried to distance the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government from the arrest, trotting out once again the by now tired claim that the government had nothing to do with NAB's actions. She even tried to buttress her argument by pointing to the 'embarrassment' being caused to the PTI government by NAB's inept handling of (almost exclusively opposition figures') cases, which has turned 'villains' (in her view) into 'heroes'. Unfortunately for Dr Awan and her government, there are fewer and fewer takers by the day for her claims and arguments.
The attempt to relegate Geo to unreachable channel positions through pressure on cable operators is the latest in repressive measures against the media. Dawn group has suffered similar treatment. Both media groups complain of being denied government advertising, an issue on which the Dawn group has now had recourse to the courts. These steps, it should be understood, came on the crest of similar measures against the media entire (chillingly effective), accompanied by attempted repression of critical and dissident opinion on the social media (not entirely effective). The steps taken against the major (and some relatively minor) media groups portend a determined assault on freedom of the press and expression. This is actually a reflection of the establishment's paranoia, insecurity, and quixotic campaign to suppress all dissenting opinion. A society without the freedoms of press and expression is a society in chains, something the people of Pakistan have a long and glorious track record of resisting, and which shall not pass without a fight.
The coronavirus pandemic has badly exposed the hitherto not fully understood risks and implications of an interconnected world and a globalised economy. The latter is in free fall as we speak because of the disruption of global supply chains and the restrictions on public gatherings in an increasing number of countries worldwide. A post-corona world will appear as strange and bewildering to our complacent assumptions about life and work in contemporary times.
The passing of Dr Mubashir Hasan is nothing less than the end of an era that saw left-wing populism emerge, win power, and then decline and perish on the altar of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's misguided arrogance, class betrayal, and abandonment of what the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) originally stood for. Dr Mubashir was a founding member of the PPP. In fact the party was founded at his residence in Lahore in 1967. He played a critical role in framing the original manifesto of the PPP and organising its mass base. After the PPP was installed in power in 1971 following the Fall of Dacca, he served as its Finance Minister till 1974, overseeing the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy and land reform on his watch. By 1974, it was obvious that Bhutto, having ridden to power on the shoulders of the Left within the PPP, abandoned it (and its constituencies, the working class and peasantry). It is no surprise then that when the agitation against Bhutto's regime erupted after allegedly rigged elections in 1977, the masses did not come to his rescue. The rest, as they say, is history.
Dr Mubashir did not rest on his PPP laurels after his disillusionment with the direction Bhutto had taken. He went on to join the PPP-SB of Ghinwa Bhutto, the widow of slain son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Mir Murtaza Bhutto. He was also a founder member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy. An intellectual and political giant of his generation, his passing marks the parlous state of progressive causes in Pakistan in the absence of worthy successors to past generations of fighters for the people's cause.
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