TV THOUGHTS: Is our electronic media viewed as villainous or sinful?: Charisma and lure of the Sania-Shoaib story

For all the options that are available on this somewhat memorable March 31st Wednesday night, with a variety of stories and developments that will shape the mood and the direction of the country in the days ahead, one would like to focus on the images that came from the live telecast of the trouble that erupted at the well-known private Jinnah Hospital in Lahore.
Briefly stated, the doctors were shown the beating up media persons, and the smashing of their cameras and the policemen on duty were as helpless as the hospital administration. This was on the Geo, Express and Aaj News channels... with the first two channels reporting extensively and live, as it appeared that their staff was involved, and whose video cameras had been damaged.
The reason for the ugly scenes, which were violent and scary to say the least, were provoked by the death of a patient, which the media had reported had died of doctors negligence. Therefore, the media promptly went to the Jinnah Hospital to report the tragedy, which had apparently already created unrest at the level of the family and friends of the deceased. That a couple of similar incidents in Lahore's hospitals has taken place in recent months is a fact that one could keep in mind.
As viewers one did not know much of the actual detail, but what was repeatedly telecast was the fighting that was taking place between the doctors and the media - with the latter being thrashed in many ways. There is so much to read in this violence in a hospital. Doctors are educated people, and belong to fairly affluent sections of the society. The media personnel are also educated and come from well-to-do backgrounds in most cases. One assumes that the socio-economic profile of patients at such hospitals is also indicative of their economic well-being.
Then what is the problem? Why is there this an expression of anger and beating up of one another - and why is the media being targeted. Even the lawyers have been doing this - beating up the media to mention an instant example. Or it is the police that is uncomfortable when media reports on their misdeeds and their performance. Is this kind of violence symptomatic of the maladies that Pakistan's socio-political and socio-economic scenario present. What is wrong with the country, and how are its rulers able to get way with everything they want to is a subject that is frequently being discussed on the media. Is the media viewed as a kind of villain, in some quarters now?
Wednesday evening was one when there were significant developments being anticipated and were taking place. There was news coming out from the Constitutional Reforms Committee about the agreements that had been reached on the 18th amendment draft, and which had been signed as well. There were celebrations with firing in the air from some parts of the country, over the renaming of the NWFP as Pakhtoonkhwa-Khyber, and the appointment of judges to the proposed judicial commission, also, was another settled matter.
Earlier in the day, there was news that the process of the reopening of the case of money laundering against President Zardari had been initiated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had been informed by the NAB chairman that the Swiss Courts had been asked to revive the case. And the Swiss Prosecutor General was reported to have said to Reuters that President Zardari enjoys immunity as President of Pakistan.
On this day, took place this incident in the Jinnah Hospital and the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also took notice of it. He has done that in previous cases also, and what has been the outcome? One is inclined to go along with the question that was asked in the Capital Talk (Geo News) show on Wednesday night.
That if there is all this good news about agreements and from the Supreme Court, what is the eventual and positive impact likely to be on the life of the common man? The Jinnah Hospital Lahore incident and the Jinnah Hospital suicide bomb blast in Karachi in December 2009 do not point in any healthy direction. The maladies, its causes and cures have not been understood fully, if at all?
Sania-Shoaib story:
Regardless of the enormity of the national issues that the news and current affairs channels in the country had on their checklist for Tuesday 30th March, it was the Sania Mirza-Shoaib Malik theme that seized all the time and the attention. It seemed that there was nothing more important than this romanticised, glamorised story, in which the forthcoming marriage (later next week) of the two sports celebrities is scheduled to take place. It was also a breaking news when channels reported that the Indian and Pakistani visas issue had been sorted out. It remains to be seen whether Sania will be able to visit Sialkot for which she will need a special permit, as her visas, at this stage (Wednesday night), is limited to Lahore and Karachi only. For in reality, she remains an Indian national and he, a Pakistani.
After their marriage, their present plans are to settle in Dubai. I am reminded here of another larger complex, and somewhat saddening theme of divided families that has been a harsh reality for the last 62 years. This one adds to the number of course, celebrity status notwithstanding.
So many little details kept trickling in, and even major news bulletins on major channels focused with passion, poetry and music on what was presumed to be a good omen for Indian- Pakistan friendship. The optimism, and the buoyancy that this cross-border, romance-turning into reality seemed to have no media limit and one cannot recall a similar instance, getting this kind of unrestrained, joyous coverage. And the channels seemed to be as happy telecasting Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik photographs, as indeed were viewers enthusiastic about switching channels to see where they could get maximum news, and photographs from.
While channels like Geo were also interpreting the romance of the sports celebrities as a sign of " Aman Ki Asha": there were channels like Express news, to mention one example that looked at the theme in retrospect and in perspective.
There was the recollection of cricketer Mohsin Hasan Khan (now Chief Selector Pakistan Cricket Board) who married the noted Indian actress Reena Roy and whom the late President General Ziaul Haq had described as "a daughter in law of Pakistan". That was another face of the India- Pakistan cricket diplomacy and the late President 's patronage and fondness of music and cinema, both. That marriage withered, but before that, Mohsin Khan became a film actor also - and in vain.
There was also a reference to cricketer Sarfaraz Nawaz's marriage with Rani, one of Pakistan's leading actresses, which also didn't survive the test of time One is reminded here of the marriage of the famous test cricketer Waqar Hasan (when A. H Kardar was the skipper) who wed film actress Jamila Razzaq, a leading lady of her days, which marriage flowered as the years went by.
What will be the future of the Hydrebad-born, Sania and Shoaib Malik of Sialkot remains to be seen, though the astrologer on Geo on Tuesday night (9pm bulletin) anticipated challenges and difficulties as Sania is mercurial by nature and Shoaib a comparatively steady person by nature.
That this instantly popular story has become a world-wide media subject, and taken both India and Pakistan by storm is obvious. That the euphoria of the romance made some viewers and politicians etc look for implications that could help build better India-Pakistan ties in the future was something that was rather far-fetched. But given the magic that was being woven into the scenario by the media, this naïve hope was understandable.
Indeed, Tuesday evening was all about the two young sports celebrities, and one even felt that Pakistani audiences, now so weary in their yearning for good news, were transported into other fairy tale worlds, enabled so easily by the Indian and Pakistani film songs used to dramatise (glamorise) the marriage-to-be - I must mention that immortal Noor Jehan rendering "Wey Mundiya Sialkotia ... Terey Mukhrey tey Kala Kala til Wey". And with tennis star Sania Mirza, both photogenic and charismatic in a very Indian sense, imagination running riot, enhanced viewer thrill.
But Wednesday evening, with so much happening in Pakistan's own political and social worlds, the Sania-Shoaib story got dented somewhat as details of the latter's first marriage with another Hyderabad Deccan girl (Ayesha Siddiqui, also a friend of Sania's?) became public again. Ayesha Siddiqui's father spoke to the Indian media and gave details of the marriage. The Nikah of which took place on the phone several years ago. This is a marriage that has been denied by Shoaib's brother-in-law Imran Zafar Malik.
What lies ahead on this troubling front, which some channels have described as Shoaib's second marriage, or Sania becoming a second wife, is increasing the news value of it all. It seems that despite the many worries, anxieties and frustrations that are invariably found on our news and current affairs channels, this forthcoming wedding is set to be a mega-event, especially in both the countries to which the bride and groom belong.
Sindh CM in Frontline
I would like to believe that for most urban viewers in Sindh, Kamran Shahid's interview in Frontline (Express News, Urdu) with the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah must have been a kind of eye-opener. A sort of cultural shock in which the contrast between the poverty and deprivation of cities was compared very sharply with the poverty and the misfortunes of the backward and rural areas in Sindh. This is an important theme, which perhaps isn't receiving the media attention, or the societal concern that it merits. And in all this, what is being lost is time and opportunity before it becomes too late. I would like to believe that the poor can wait that long and not indefinitely. The world has changed and the media is contributing to the impatience of rising expectations It is no more great expectations in a romanticised context.
What was very significant in the interview with the soft-spoken, humble Syed Qaim Ali Shah was that he was shown footage of some actual miseries of that the people of Thar (it appeared), which were shot for the interview, and he seemed to be surprised - but only to some extent. He said that he already knew the problems of that area - and even suggested that perhaps Kamran Shahid was seeing rural backwardness for the first time. The Sindh Chief Minister accepted the shortcomings, failures and promised inquiries and effective action in the shortest possible time.
In one case there was the distressing sight of an artificially created water, that was being used by men and animals for drinking purposes - but that very water also contained garbage, sod sorts. A little boy was shown drinking the same polluted water with his hands - and the interview also showed images of potable water as it is consumed in developed urban areas in Sindh.
In another instance, the footage telecast highlighted, in many ways, the absence of adequate or rather any medicare reflected in a clinic /dispensary tha had been closed for two years, but which had a register with fake entries. The clinic was supposed to be operational on paper. It reminded viewers of the problems of ghost schools and ghost medical facilities, which is a constant feature of development work that is there only on paper. In reality, that money is allocated to the corruption sector!
A very noticeable feature of the conversation between Qaim Ali Shah and Kamran Shah was that the former was very gentle and accommodating despite the provocative manner in which Kamran Shahid was framing his questions.
Thrashing school boys I must mention here the images that were telecast in the 4 Man Show recently, in which a school teacher in a village was shown thrashing (caning) school boys for some conventional reason. The cruelty of the exercise was difficult to watch - but the fact that school children are given a sound beating by school teachers is something that is an integral part of both rural and urban schools. I wonder whether it is possible to launch a regular campaign of some kind to convey to school teachers, in relatively backward areas, that school boys and girls ought not to be treated with cruelty. But then one also realises that in a society where violence and cruelty are prevalent in so many forms, and on so many occasions, that even attempting this is asking for too much. In the other column that I do on Wednesdays, I have spoken in some detail and with concern about the way there is violence that we have in Pakistani society.
In passing, one could mention this week's news story on the TV channels in which a lawyer slapped a civil judge and the furore that took place, with civil judges going on strike and the Lahore High Court taking suo moto notice. Eventually, the lawyer apologised - unconditionally. This impatience, and this violence that I am referring to is taking place, both in the educated and the uneducated population in this society.
The way the country's police treats under trials and individuals arrested for crime and confined to the lock up has been highlighted a great deal in recent weeks. The Punjab police was the subject of much of the focus, and the footages telecast. Which, of course, made one wonder about how resourceful had been the private channels to acquire that footage. Also, to wonder is the fact that when torture takes place in police stations etc, there is someone who is filming it as well. [email protected]