TV THOUGHTS: Swat accord, Geo reporter shot dead; Musharraf sees conspiracy; the 'Aziz-Tarin' context

Assuming it is a matter of perception of the reality that is around us, and as profiled by the country's TV channels, some days appear to be sort of defining the times we are in even inadvertently. I have chosen most of Wednesday, the 18th February, which happens to be a year after the general elections last year.
The day's major morning stories were centered around Swat, and the peace accord that has been struck. The Americans have said that the country's constitution provides for Islamic law. The peace march in Mingora comes in the back drop of a Peshawar bomb blast that killed 8 people a day before. That the UNHCR Balochistan head, Joseph Solceki (an American national) remains missing. The Senate election process continues. So does the lawyers movement for the restoration of the November 2, 2007 judiciary. There is news that the PPP has suspended Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and Senator Safdar Abbasi, Central Executive Committee membership for issuing "harsh statements" against the party leadership.
There is a justification for remaining worried as one watches parts of Aaj TV's morning business programme anchored by that clear headed Imran Sultan who is now joined by Mohammad Toori, as Riaz Andy has left to join another channel (Duniya). This is another aspect of TV growth in the country, it seems.
Wednesday's programme had Irshaduddin Ejaz, Sharia Advisor of Bank Islami as the solitary guest and the conversation ranged from economic to metaphysical to epistemological dimensions. I found it unique and enlightening. I don't know why the mood of this programme made me feel that it was going to be a somewhat tranquil day all the way.
I was being very subjective. I heard cautious and not so cautious dissent and read about it in the print media also. The Swat accord. It is conditional and has to be watched. The government assures that it is not a sign of weakness and the West does not appear to be happy with it. Bannu has also announced a 15 day peace.
Towards the evening, despite a nagging loadshedding schedule becoming a spanner in the works, I found myself watching the lawyers' convention in Peshawar, live and reminiscent of similar the other recent occasions when Ali Ahmed Kurd and deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry spoke. The Dharna is coming up next month.
Switching channels to see what the TV channels were doing, and what else they were showing, I steered my way wondering what younger Pakistani think of the country as they hear the constitutional history being recalled at these lawyers conventions Or what all Pakistani think when they hear enthusiastic slogans from young Peshawar lawyers like Feroza Rubab who had the lawyers responding with "Zinda Hai" as she went through the imaginative but realistic list of slogans.
Then came the breaking news on Duniya News that the Federal Information Minister, Sherry Rehman, was visiting their main office (Lahore) and off went the lawyers convention and another Quetta live story the channel was telecasting. This was strange, to say the least and I took other channels options.
And within the next 20 minutes or so Geo broke the story that its Swat reporter, Musa Khan Khel, had been shot dead. The mood and tone of Geo naturally changed, and it focused on the murder and the journalist who had been killed. I was shocked and the Swat accord came to mind. There are so many worrying thoughts as I write this on Wednesday around midnight.
MUSHARRAF DENIES DOUBLE STANDARDS: Each time when former President Pervez speaks, now, and appears on the TV channels, some thoughts come to mind about the role of former Presidents of this country once they have quit office. We have military dictators who have been presidents, and there were civilian as well. There are questions looking for answers?
One cannot recall Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan and General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan as making public statements and comments on current affairs or national affairs of course the media was small, and at one time television was also a solitary state owned, firmly controlled and manipulated to misinform.
I do not remember either of the two former Presidents making their presence felt through the media after ceasing to be presidents. The latter (General Yahya) was President when the country got dismembered. The other military dictator President General M Ziaul Haq died in that mysterious air crash on 17th August 1988. He was the third military dictator the country has had.
Now former president and the country's fourth military dictator, Pervez Musharraf has spoken out here and abroad, several time since he resigned (under political pressure) in August last year. And now that there are a large number of news and current affairs channels, he is seen expressing himself, making one wonder about what kind of role he has envisioned for himself. Is he acting out of self-defence alone?
Pakistan has also had civilian presidents but they too have either been discreet or even silent after having quit that high office. Perhaps former President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto may be an example that is different from the rest. He later became Prime Minister and his end (4 April 1979) is another sad chapter in the life and politics of this troubled land.
To have heard former President Pervez Musharraf speak to media at the Islamabad residence of his friend Brigadier Niaz (Retd) made me thinking on the subject of former Pakistani presidents and their appearing in the print and on the electronic media. It seems that the reason why he chose to speak to the media this time was a new book that has been published. It is written by a New York Times journalist, David Sanger, and is titled "The Inheritance".
The former President said to the Islamabad based media, and which was also telecast by some channels, that it was absolutely incorrect and conspiratorial to contend that he had played a double game of supporting the Taliban while receiving US funding to fight them when he was in power. He was referring to David Sanger and his new book.
The former President also said that it was incorrect to say that he had any involvement in the assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto shaheed and said the following: "I had never asked Benazir Bhutto that her security depends on her relations with me. Such allegations are equal to linking me to this case. I don't say such absurd things".
He further told the media that some elements had begun a 'character assassination' campaign against him and went onto say that there was a "big conspiracy" being hatched against Army and the ISI to weaken Pakistan. He added that "if this is done (the Army and the ISI are weakened) the international community's efforts against terrorism will fail".
Following the statements of former army chief and president Musharraf later on Monday this subject was a major theme in TV programme, Aaj Kamran Khan Key Saath (Geo), later that night. And the PML-N Information secretary, MNA Ahsan Iqbal said that "the Army has a chief and the ISI has a director general so if there is any conspiracy being hatched against these institutions they have the right to speak. So why is Musharraf pleading the case of these two institutions?"
Ahsan Iqbal said that if "allegations are being levelled against Musharraf he should file a suit against the said author in a US court". He added that Musharraf "pleased the US and did not enjoy local support and come into power with the blessings of the Americans.
There were many responses to what the former President Musharraf said and these came from Professor Ghafoor Ahmed, Lieutenant General Hameed Gul (retired), Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi (retired), journalist Imtiaz Alam, senior columnist Nazir Naji senior journalist and analyst Irfan Siddiqui senior journalist Mujibur Rehman Shami and senior analyst Haroonur Rashid.
The views of these above mention persons indicate that with the passage of time even the few persons who spoke out for him in the media are opting to stay out now, and only he speaks for himself. A news report in The News on 17th February carried the headline "Musharraf played havoc with the nation" and its opening paragraph said that "the views expressed by General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) are tantamount to rubbing salt into the wounds of the nation because it is dictatorship that pushed Pakistan towards a political and constitutional anarchy".
It is pertinent to mention what the federal Information Minister has been quoted in the media as having said the former president's statements were based on "assumptions and not reality". Anyway from the look of things on the Musharraf front there is going to be more coming onto the crowded canvass of the TV viewer.
Losing sovereignty? It wasn't the first time (nor the last presumably) that TV viewers were hearing references to former prime minister, Shaukat Aziz and the current advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tarin and with a participant referring to them both as "Aziz Tarin". This was in the Islamabad based current affairs programme (on Aaj TV) that is anchored by Khalid Jamil and called "Control Line".
This happened in a recent programme where the participants included senior journalist Shahidur Rehman, known for his long time reporting on economics and finance, columnist and analyst Haroonur Rashid, and Fakhar Kakakhel, a familiar Aaj TV reporter from Peshawar joining in via the telephone.
The purpose of putting Shaukat Aziz and Shaukat Tarin together seems to be say that the "Aziz -Tarin" context has made no difference to the economy and the common man in Pakistan. In fact Shahidur Rehman said that Pakistan has had 28 Finance Ministers so far and all their policies have been the same, and they have all followed the policies and programmes of the United States.
In yet another TV current affairs show that realistically mirrored the multiple challenges and threats that the country faces today, and the immediate issues that remain unattended, the participants felt that there was no real change from the policies, and programmes of the previous government despite the passage of one year.
While veteran Shahidur Rehman felt that Pakistan was continuing to steadily lose more of its "sovereignty and integrity" and that country's leadership had never demonstrated in real terms to make those sacrifices which they expect of the common man, young Fakhar Kakakhel referred to the Pakhtoonkhwa situation in particular to say that even the faces of power and authority are the same as they were in the previous government.
NOSTALGIA MELODY QUEEN: Tributes to the melody queen Noor Jehan are an indispensable part of the programming of all TV channels and provide us with an excellent musical opportunity to walk down memory lane. It is not just her songs that get refreshed but it also reminds us the Pakistani films, their stories, their heroines, their heroes, and the quality of the Pakistani cinema that has been lost forever. We are now at a stage of cinema in Pakistan where the latest Indian films have been allowed to be screened so as to try and ensure that the cinema houses do not disappear completely from the scene.
That these Indian films also support the vision of bilateral ties between India and Pakistan (Mumbai blasts notwithstanding). Therefore, apparently, it seems futile to try and make Pakistani films save the cinema industry. It can be argued, both ways, but perhaps cinema going as it was once upon a time, may never return to this society, and the role that television channels alone have played needs to be kept in sight. So the advent of TV channels needs to be appreciated comprehensively.
Now the Noor Jehan nostalgia that returns from time to time. There has been focus on the poets Mirza Ghalib and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, for instance in this month, which is when their death anniversaries are observed. In the midst of all the terrorism and the accompanying tension, there are these literary, and melodious diversions.
One such musical programme was homage to Noor Jehan that was telecast recently, and its repeat telecast was what some of us saw. This was from the Hum TV and what made it different was that about 35 renderings by the Melody Queen were rendered by younger, lesser known female and male singers. And all said and done, their performance was enjoyable, even excellent. I don't know whether TV channels produce some of these programme on a commercial basis, for the ordinary viewer to keep as part of his collection.
Let me mention some of the memorable (though sad in many cases) songs that were rendered by the singers. Zareen Haidar sang "Kis Tarah Bhooley Ga Dil Tera Khayal Aaya Hua" from the film Village Girl; Florence and Kamran Saggu sang that duet "Yahan Badla Wafa Ka Bewafai Key Sewa Kya Hai from Anmol Ghadi; Hina Asif who sang Chand Hansey Duniya Basay from Intezar; and she also sang Dil Key Afsaney Nigahon Ki Zuban Pohnchey from the film Baaji; Suzanne Javed who sang Gayey Gee Duniya Geet Merey from the film Moosiqar; Samina Kamal who rendered "Sagar Roye Lehrein Shor Machain from the film Koel; Imrana Naeem who sang Tum Zindagi Ko Gham Ka Fasana Bana Gaye from the film Dupatta; Nafees Ahmad and Zareen Haidar who rendered that duet Piya Nahi Aaeen Sakhi, from the film Darwaza; Imrana Naeem who sang Lo Chal Diye Who Hum Ko Tasalli Diyey Baghair from the film Gulnaar; and Suzanne Javed who sang Kuch Log Rooth Kar Bhee Lagtey Hain Kitney Pyarey from the film Andaleeb.
There were a couple of Punjabi songs also and some non film ghazals that the Melody Queen made unforgettable by her rendering. Samina sang "Niyat-e-Shauq Bhar Na Jaeey Kaheen; Hina Asif sang Kabhi Kahan Na Kisey Sey Terey Fasana Ko and another one whose lyrics read as Silsiley Tor Gaya Who Sabhi Jatey Jatey.
And Nafees Ahmad did a sitar recital to the semi classical Ja Ja Mein Tau Sey Naheen Bolon rey, which was picturised on Sabiha Khanum. And mentioning this film heroine demands that one recall Shamim Ara, Zeba and even Noor Jehan herself on which many of the songs in this lovely tribute were included.
That there can and will always be a challenge in selecting from the reservoir of songs that the Melody Queen has left behind is something that ought to be kept in view. Of course in mentioning the names of some of the above mentioned films the names, images and even profiles of their towering producers, directors or music directors or the leading cast members also cross the mind. But even walking down memory lane has to be disciplined, I guess. But one cannot help wondering where that Pakistani cinema has gone?
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