TV THOUGHTS: Footage that shows assassin targetting BB; If there was footage available of Liaquat's murder...

Writing this column on Thursday morning, makes me conscious of the fact that it was on Thursday last, (27th December 2007) that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi. I was watching television, more precisely channel surfing, and was stunned to hear that she had been targetted by terrorists and was fighting for life.
This was another battle in her life. The last battle. We know the rest of the story. The rest is sacrifice - and the rest is history. May her soul rest in peace. We have all watched a lot of television in the last one week, and it is understandable.
Watching TV that Thursday evening brought back many thoughts and memories to the mind, as the heart was struck by a feeling of something sinking around me. There was sadness, and despair, and there was anger and uncertainty. I have said this in my Wednesday column also, and there is need to be repetitive.
One major theme that came to mind was that of the elections that were originally scheduled for 8th January 2008, which have now been put off to 18th February 2008. The mind looked back and forth and a reason for this was also the fact that yet another year in the calendar of our lives was coming to an end.
But this theme was sidelined -and the one story that has been hitting the headlines in the national and the international media has been the assassination of the twice - elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the Chairperson of Pakistan People's Party.
The other thought related to the fact that the first Prime Minister of this new born state, was shot dead in 1951 at the very same Liaquat Bagh on the 16th of October. It is said that a crowd of 100000 was present at the meeting at Company Bagh which was later named after Liaquat Ali Khan. There was no television then in the country, and the media must have been small and its impact minor one assumes.
Contrast this with the fact of the growing network of TV channels that we have today and the volume of media focus that has revolved around the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed theme that has suddenly entered our national life. In fact her assassination has hit the international media and stunned the world wondering about the amazing courage that she had.
She was aware of the death threat that she faced, and TV channels have been repeatedly showing the extract from one of her speeches wherein she said that she was repeatedly being advised to stay away from the Liaquat Bagh. And there was a studied defiance, as it were, in her attitude, which reflected the resolve that she had of going to Liaquat Bagh.
Various TV channels (Pakistani and foreign) have also shown or reported that she was advised or asked prior to her return that she would face a life threat were she to return to Pakistan. I remember in one case she simply kept quiet and her eyes had a thoughtful distant look.
Then we all know what happened on 18th October 2007 when she arrived. The mystery of those two bomb blasts still remain unresolved with possibly two dozen questions that torment the mind. That is another theme, and this too is surfacing in the channels, with reports of what the inquiry tribunal investigating the October 18 Karsaz bombings.
The tribunal is headed by Justice Dr Ghaus Mohammad (retired). A report on 3rd January said that the tribunal was told that "the leadership of the Pakistan People's Party was not consulted about the registration of the First Information Report (FIR) lodged on behalf of the state within three hours of the twin blasts."
I am compelled to quote a short extract from the proceedings that have been reported in the media. It is said that the tribunal cross-examined a witness on 2nd January, the then Station House Officer (SHO) of the Bahadurabad Police Station, sub-inspector Abid Hussain Shah who was a complainant in the October 18 Karsaz twin blasts case. This was Benazir's home coming procession which was being shown on the twin channels, and which also showed the blasts and the aftermath.
It is said that SI Shah told the tribunal that the first blast took place at about 0010 hours and he registered the FIR at 0315 hours. "Did you inform your superiors that you were going to lodge the FIR?" asked the tribunal to which the witness said that he had discussed the matter with SDPO Nawaz Ranjha, who asked him to register it."
Watching the shocking and depressing details of the Liaquat Bagh blasts which in which 20 - others also lost their lives along with Benazir Bhutto, memories of the hanging of her father, a former prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on 4th April 1979, ran like a parallel pathway in the uneasy mind.
There was no cable or satellite TV in the country at that time and there was only the state-owned and state-managed Pakistan TV. Even the print media was smaller and there was the National Press Trust (NPT) to look after and champion the voice of officialdom.
A platform that bureaucracy (civil and military) used well to their immediate gains. What it did to the fabric and texture of credibility of the media in society is something that could well become the subject of research and analysis.
Pakistani society could well benefit from such a proposition. The absence of credibility in Pakistani society is something that is truly a disturbing phenomenon. And is well worth bothering about.
I hope that some TV channel will be able to look at the media coverage (national and international) that was done when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged at the Pindi Jail. And the coverage that has taken place so far since 27th December 2007. I would like to mention here the fact that almost all TV channels have telecast the last speech that was made by Benazir Bhutto - and of course that was made at Liaquat Bagh.
Some channels have done repeat telecasts of this speech (called The Last Speech) and the Apna News Channel is one of them. I would like to mention here that there is an Apna Channel and it has a news channel as well, which is trying to compete with the bigger and mainstream news channels.
I was watching Dawn News TV on Wednesday night (2nd January) and the narrator while emphasizing the speech also underlined the confidence that she reflected in the last speech.
It is described as a comprehensive speech by TV viewers. It leaves impressions and memories of the last moments of her life as she was leaving the Liaquat Bagh will remain in memory for long, if not, forever. An image of her waving to the crowd seconds before the assassin struck her vulnerability, is something that will be a source of torment, and tears.
TV also has also shown to viewers at home and abroad the eloquent results of an amateur photographer whose footage shows a young clean shaven man, and another man with his head wrapped with a shawl (?) as allegedly being the men behind the blasts.
The clean shaven man is also shown raising and using the gun pointed at Benazir Bhutto, who reported slumped into the vehicle after being hit by the gun fire, which was quickly followed by the bomb blasts that took other precious lives also.
How much has television footage and coverage shown to us, during the week, and how much has been argued and discussed, as multiple dimensions to the shocking tragic incident. And how much has TV reported in worrying detail of what possibly is the cause of her death.
An interior ministry spokesman told a press conference that the cause of her death was not the gun fire or bomb blast, but that she was hit by a lever in the sun roof armored vehicle (Toyota). This contention was dismissed by the Pakistan People's Party and it did not appear convincing to the people to viewers also.
TV channels later on also reported that the federal Interior Minister Lieutenant General Hamid Nawaz (Retd) apologised for what had been said by the Interior ministry spokesman (Brigadier Javed Cheema (Retd) and said that the people should forgive and ignore what had been said by him, and that private TV channels had obtained footage that had shown an assassin firing at the PPL leader.
An Islamabad datelined report from UNI said that the Interior Minister was speaking at media briefing hosted by the caretaker Prime Minister, Mohammadmian Soomro. The UNI report said that the " Prime Minister tried to defend Brigadier Cheema (Retd) but on persistent queries referred the matter to Lieutenant General Nawaz (Retd) and this is what he said "We are conducting an investigation and all TV footage, all evidence that would be available will help in reaching a definite conclusion".
The Interior Minister has been quoted as saying that "the spokesman's comments may have been a mistake as we are 'faujis' and we are not so articulate to present our views as you journalists can. I am sorry if that happened, and please forgive us and ignore the comment."

****************
That private TV channels are competing with each other with a sustained spirit of enthusiasm is stating the obvious. But it has to be stated nevertheless, so as to make readers and viewers realise the immense advantage that this society has of the presence of so many news and current affairs channels. This is perhaps a subject for some other time.
This is a season and time for sorrow. A time to talk of grief and a time to mourn the death of a woman leader of this country who was a role model in so many ways. There has appeared a letter to the editor in this daily on 3rd January 2008 on the subject of "the paradox of Benazir Bhutto" which says this of the world's first Muslim Prime Minister.
The letter reads "She is part Radcliffe and Oxford, with an extremely well stocked mind, full of feminist literature, peace marches, the Oxford Union, and with a very liberated social life. She is also part feudal Sindh, a haughty aristocrat, the daughter and granddaughter of immensely wealthy landlords, whose inheritance gave her the right to rule.
She is an Eastern fatalist by birth, a western liberal by conviction, and a people - power revolutionary - who has carefully modelled herself on Evita Peron and Corazon Aquino - through sheer necessity. She is an expensively educated product of the West, who has ruled a male dominated Islamic society of the East. She is a democrat who appeals to feudal loyalties..."
To this one may add the fact that she died as a fearless political leader who demonstrated repeatedly, reserves of courage that will be remembered as one of her strongest personality traits in times to come.
Surely her father would be proud of her for having kept her promise to carry on his legacy - the Pakistan Peoples Party and in more intangible terms the Bhutto phenomenon.
Of course I have more to write about the Television we have seen, the investigations that have been promised, now by the Scotland Yard, and the many press conferences and panel discussions that have been telecast. But let me sign off by saying that Time alone will tell whether her son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will rise to the occasion with what his mother told him that "democracy is the best revenge."
Copyright Business Recorder, 2008