TV THOUGHTS: TV images bring grim questions to ordinary viewers; Mother's Day warmth; petroleum prices be lowered

This time the opinion that Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world has come from Canada, from its defence minister, Peter Mackay. Such a negative opinion has clearly not received the media attention that it has done in the past. But whither Pakistan's image?
The obvious, focus of the country, and the TV channels, is the ongoing military operation that has been launched by the government in Swat. In a way it is an agonising question time for the citizens, as they have begun seeing the most tormenting, saddening images of internally displaced persons in tents, camps, in scorching heat. How long will this operation (war against terror initiated by the United States) continue?
What will be the state of the country when it is over? Will Talibanisation, be contained as a result of this fierce anti-Taliban operation, and whatever strategies will subsequently follow. TV is prompting these and other serious questions even amongst ordinary viewers.
TV channels, which are evidently, unable to get into the depth of the grim Swat operation, are understandably going to be in a neck and neck race to provide the best possible coverage. It is likely to be the country's biggest migration of people, and mercifully overseas aid will come. But what will be the sustained response of the people of Pakistan.
It is once again time to come to the help of men, women, and children, whose suffering is visible as TV cameras depict more than ever before. Dunya News had a marathon live telecast on Wednesday from a platform set up in the NWFP assembly in Peshawar. Other channels have been portraying the pathos and highlighting the appalling inadequacy of the arrangements for the IDPs whose number is constantly, alarmingly rising.
Political leaders are asking questions about why the government did not plan better if it had an army operation in the pipeline. Or was the operation undertaken suddenly to time with the visit of President Zardari to the United States.
Indeed Pakistani viewers have been seeing plenty of images of President Obama and secretary of state Hilary Clinton and how she sat in control with the Pakistan and Afghan presidents on either side, Which reminds me that Syed Talat Hussain (Aaj News) did a convincing show going into details of how she managed the press conference and talked more than her two VVIP guests!
12 MAY 2007 IMAGES: Understandably all the news and current affairs channels were one hundred per cent focused on the 12 May 2007 mayhem, whose second anniversary, finally went off peacefully. With that familiar uneasy, frightening calm And the Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, said on the day after, that the Sindh government's decision to declare a public holiday on 12 May 2009, in the face of strike calls by coalition partners, the ANP and the MQM, had proved to be politically correct.
TV viewers spent the day at home, as Karachi came to a stand still, and surfed channels to know what was happening and whether there had been trouble somewhere. That is putting it very simply. The mood before May 12, this year, which was being discussed emotionally, angrily, with insinuations of sorts, on various channels. Some anchors also, once again, lost their cool also, and even reflected prejudice of a political kind.
On the eve of 12th May there were at least three panel discussions on various channels in which the focus was on the strike calls, which had been converted in to a public holiday. Most questions and most of the concern was about the multiple tensions in Karachi, and what was the future going to unfold. There was on Express News a panel discussion in Siyasi Log, in which anchor Quatrina Hussain was discussing the issue with Taj Haidar and Shahi Syed and Waseem Akhtar was on the phone from Islamabad. Ethnic tension was a primary concern.
On Dunya News, in Policy Matters the sedate but investigative Nasim Zehra had a panel that comprised Pir Mazharul Haq, Fahimuz Zaman, and Shahi Syed, and one theme that emerged repeatedly was that of the land and drug Mafia that operates in the city. Dimensions related to Talibanisation figured in this conversation also.
In the programme Kal Tak, the occasionally professorial anchor Javed Chaudhry was focusing on the Taliban and Karachi, which remains a major subject for some political circles, parties and channels. And a vital aspect of this is the counter argument that Talibanisation should not be associated with the Pakhtoons in Karachi.
And the same night (May 11th) Capital Talk had on Hamid Mir's panel Zahid Khan, Waseem Akhtar and Maulana Kifayatullah. It was so emotional a conversation that at one stage the anchor remarked "what will the TV viewers think of you?" No one seemed to bother.
Even though there is obviously so much to say let me refer, on this theme, to a film report that Waqt News showed on May 12 (Tuesday) in which the carnage that took place two years ago in the Sindh capital, and how former President Musharraf had claimed in Islamabad that he had shown his power in Karachi. The trial of the former President remains a demand from several parties and leaders, and as a theme on TV it stays.
SC DIRECTS: And the Supreme Court on Wednesday (13th May) ordered the federal government to reduce the prices of oil products within a week as it was in the interests of the people of the country. TV Channels reported that the government had sought a month's time for this.
TV viewers now eagerly await the lowering of fuel prices. Needless to say that this news has been welcomed by citizens. Earlier the Supreme Court on 12th May (Tuesday) released the interim report of the Justice Rana Bhagwandas-led Judicial commission which said that "it would therefore, be open to the august Supreme Court of Pakistan to make appropriate directions for interim relief in the prices of Petroleum Products as well as Natural Gas, CNG and LPG, as deemed just, fair and proper".
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry was also in the news, on the channels, on Sunday for the 12 hour long visit that he paid to the Karachi Central Prison, and ordered that proper facilities be provided to the inmates, and that there should be a salary raise for the jail staff which should bring them at par with the Punjab prison staff. He also directed the district and sessions judges to dispose off long pending cases of inmates, expeditiously.
The CJP visited the kitchen, canteen, mosque, and some barracks of the prison, and took notice of the sub-standard food being supplied by the canteen and kitchen management and ordered the cancellation of the contract of the food suppliers. He is reported to have reprimanded the medical officer of the jail for not providing proper medical treatment to ailing inmates.
And what may have created expectations among the general public is the fact that the CJP has set up a cell for the "eradication of corruption amongst court staff" and nominated Justice Javed Iqbal as head of the above cell. These are surely, signs that the society is changing.
MOTHER'S DAY: For all the overriding emphasis there has been on some very grim and grave national issues, there has been a considerable amount of programming on the theme of Mother's Day (10th May) by almost all private TV channels and right away it needs to be said that some of the programmes have been very strong in their emotional value.
I would like to believe that families in particular have watched the Mother's Day programmes, songs, commercial shows etc with keen interest and it surely does mirror the strength of family bonds and the unique unrivalled status of mothers and how much they mean to sons and daughters.
It was on the CNBC Pakistan that I saw presenter Nadia Naqi did a very shocking and sad programme on the theme of abandoned mothers in this society. She interviewed some of these abandoned mothers who had dropped by their sons or daughters at the Edhi Home in Karachi.
That Edhi's welfare work has so much depth and dimension in Pakistani society is something that does need to be repeatedly stressed, and appreciated. I saw two of such abandoned mothers briefly tell their stories, and it was evident that they came from reasonably well off family backgrounds.
Possibly upper-middle class families. One mother revealed that her family had dropped her there, including her son who was a major in the army. The sorrow in her story was very moving, and even Nadia Naqi (programme Awam Ki Awaz?) sounded disappointed that all this was happening in this society.
The other lady interviewed was very old, and disclosed that she had been dropped there on the condition that she would stay there for a few days, but in reality it had been about six or seven months that she was still there. Her daughter and son-in-law did visit her, but her son did not as her daughter-in-law was the cause of the domestic dispute. Details in this story also sounded life like, to have focused on forgotten mothers was a worrying aspect of the Mother's Day theme.
As a kind of unintended contrast to this, one found the Mother's Day programme on ARY Digital anchored by Dr Shaista Wahidy to be unconventional - she had her mother, her daughter and her brother anchor Sahir Lodhi on the same show.
It had warmth and it was so sentimental in parts that Shaista was moved to tears as she spoke of her mother, and Sahir's eyes were moist as he hugged his mother and kissed her on the forehead several times. The spontaneity of the show made it a rich and rewarding experience for viewers.
In The Nadia Khan show, (Geo) also there was an overflow of feelings and also some tears as Dubai based Nadia Khan regretted that she had not been able to visit her mother, and father for a year, in Pindi, and that they had not even seen her four month old son, Azaan.
He was there in the show, with his sister. Nadia's guests inquired why her mother could not come to the show, and she regretted (in tears) that her mother had problems in walking. And that her husband promised that he would come to the Valentine Day's show next year.
The guests in this show came from the veteran actress Nisho's family, ie her actress daughter, Sahiba, her husband, also an actor, and their children. The conversation was about the glory and meaning that came from mothers in our lives.
SAVE ENERGY COMMERCIALS: For the unrelenting severity of the energy crisis that has hit the country, and the load shedding that has had an all round impact on the domestic, commercial and industrial consumers,( as well as TV viewers obviously) one does wonder about extent to which there is energy conservation in the country. Add to this the rising cost of electricity, which inevitably raises other prices as well.
What is the reality of the energy conservation that different consumers are doing? What is their motivation to conserve, and what are the compulsions that drive them to overlook the goals of saving energy, and defy or disregard whatever systems are created to reduce the consumption of electricity. The Daylight Saving Time (DST) that has been introduced for a month now, (mid April) does not appear to be fully appreciated by citizens, who either seem amused or resentful of the "new time" in their lives.
It is in this context that there have been appearing TV commercials from Pepco suggesting, reminding, and persuading citizens to save electricity. Cut down by even a single energy saver, or avoid using electricity at certain peak hours, or and keep their conditioner cooling at reasonable levels. In one such commercial there is the noted social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi calling upon consumers to save electricity so as to enable the deprived sections of society to share whatever is available. The energy shortage in the country is here at least for this year. The much publicized promise that load shedding will end this year, December 2009, is not being heard as loud and clear of late. Will the government deliver? I am keeping my fingers crossed.
In another save energy commercial on the TV channels there are familiar faces of TV presenters, anchors and writers who are very emphatic about energy conservation. This could be a step in the right direction as far as convincing consumers to be careful with electricity use. Perhaps more such people joining in to stress energy conservation could also help, howsoever, modest be that influence. Would it help if politicians and other such opinion makers were to join in? But do such advertising slogans really help? Would it not be better if TV channels could really demonstrate in visual terms how these well known people are actually doing what they are practising. For the Pakistani viewer (citizen) has become very cynical of advice, and sermons of al kinds.
On the subject of electricity it is relevant to mention here the Benaqaab focus (on Aaj News) on the electricity theme. In my channel surfing I saw the familiar point of the theft of electricity being analysed -- and that this was an essential component of the energy shortage. And that this power theft was being committed by those residing in the affluent areas, and obviously the electricity companies were enabling this to happen. A question of the connivance of the staff. ([email protected])