Changing perceptions about Pakistan

The emergence of an independent judiciary and a free media in Pakistan are indeed epoch-making developments. So are the strides taken towards ensuring gender equality and emancipation of women through a number of administrative and legislative measures that strengthen Pakistan's credentials as a progressive Islamic country? These factors can go a long way in projecting a soft image of Pakistan and remove some of the misperceptions that exist about Pakistan at the international level.
To achieve the foregoing objectives, Pakistan will have to upgrade and restructure the existing PR mechanism at the international level. Our press sections abroad unfortunately are poorly staffed and under-financed. Apart from this, we do not have any presence in the important capitals of Central Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Australia. Viewed in the backdrop of these imperatives, the three-day Consultative Conference of the Press Officers, organised by the External Publicity Wing of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in Islamabad recently, was a timely and imaginative step to deliberate on the much-needed initiative in this regard. Information Minister Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, while addressing the concluding session made a commitment that the government would spare no effort in upgrading and restructuring the working of the External Publicity Wing and the press sections abroad and strengthening the process of capacity-building of the press officers through language training courses.
Some of the major recommendations made by the forum include: institutionalising the consultative forum, organising exchange of visits by the senior Pakistani journalists abroad through the press sections for interaction with the media personalities of host countries, opening of new press sections in the areas identified above, public-private partnership in projecting a soft image of Pakistan, production of the publicity material in consultation with other ministries and extensive use of the social media at the national and international level. It is hard to take issue with these long-awaited commitments and the desirable initiatives identified by the forum.
Pakistan badly needs to enhance the outreach of its public relations mechanism and hence opening of more press sections in the identified areas should be given top priority. The proposal for organising visits of senior Pakistani journalists abroad has a considerable merit as their interaction with their counterparts can help a great deal in repudiating the misperceptions that exist in the minds of the leaders and forums that shape the public opinion. Public-private collaboration in the domain of public relations will not only help in improving the quality of the effort but would lend more credibility to it. The institutionalisation of the consultative forum can also contribute to re-evaluation of the PR efforts periodically and effecting necessary changes in the adopted strategies.