According to a newspaper report dated last Wednesday CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry directed the PTA chairman to stop showing highly objectionable advertisements of phone companies on television. "We think that several advertisements of phone companies are vulgar and shameful" he said "and they cannot be watched while sitting with families. It does not matter how modern we have become, but we cannot ignore moral values".
It was time someone in the high up took notice. Thank you Chief Justice for taking strong notice!
Quote from Spotlight column I cannot resist the temptation to quote from the Spotlight Column published in this paper on 6 March titled "Media is courageous and effective in politics but encourages loose morals". I had pointed out as follows: Particularly in point is the way it (the TV Media) shows men and women in plays, films and ads and many events on screen which has the potential to encourage promiscuity and loose morals. Film scenes and ads increasingly show females in increasingly nude states. Some plays as well as graphic coverage of some events on the screen are equivalent of lessons in seduction, robbery and murder.
Sexual excitement such exposures arouses results in sex-related crimes which are becoming more common and more desperately cruel, with no care for the devastation caused to the life of wiling or unwilling victims and their families. Here is where the TV channels have an obligation to the people to lay down voluntary self-restricting guidelines, which must be followed and the red lines should never be crossed. Whether the TV Channels fulfill this obligation on their own or not, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan would have every right, nay obligation, to move strongly in the direction indicated by the norms of an Islamic or aspiring-to-be Islamic, country.
While we are grateful to CJP Chaudhry for his directive to the PT Chairman, we are not very hopeful that precipitate action would follow in the short term. Moral values are taking a distant second place behind lust for power and financial gains of an openly fraudulent type, especially among our privileged classes.
Nato supplies resumption versus drone attacks cessation! America has begun to twist our arms in order to get Nato road supplies moving again from Pakistan over land into Afghanistan. Our rulers have been already softened enough to appear nearly ready to oblige the super power. A look at the recent statements by (lame duck) PM Gilani and Defence Minister Mukhtar are enough testimony to this. They are saying no more and no less than what President Zardari must be asking them to say. As everyone knows, he pulls all the wires. Our leaders are looking for some kind of face saving formula which would provide an escape from the charge of total capitulation a la Musharraf.
American blood versus Afghan blood Apology by US at the top level and cessation of Drone attacks are being sought as pro quid quo. An apology appeared a possibility at one point but more recently it is being held off, if straws in the wind are to be believed. As for Drone attacks, they have rather increased in frequency recently and the US is adamant that they would continue. The idea of killing terrorists or those perceived as terrorists without any thought for innocents, sure to be killed, also appeals to the American aggressors as precious American blood is not at risk. When a house is blown up from several miles by an unmanned aircraft, the action might well be based on unverified spy reports but the risk is taken nevertheless because only Afghan blood is involved.
Carrots and sticks America has intensified its carrot and stick approach as the date (21-22 May) for the crucial strategy meeting on Afghanistan in America approaches. At one time it was said that Pakistan could refuse to attend the meeting until its basic demands were met by the US. It now seems that in the first place America might not invite Pakistan to attend, unless it allows the resumption of Nato supplies! Invitation is thus seen by the US as a concession to Pakistan. Conflicting reports are in the air about this. Hillary claimed al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was in Pakistan and "vowed to keep up the pressure on Islamabad to find other 'most-wanted' militants". The possibility of doing another Abbottabad is not ruled out by other American officials. The latest affront is Senator John Kerry's threat of unilateral action in Pakistan.
Our Achilles' heals Economy is a soft spot for Pakistan's corruption-ridden Government. With inflation rising steadily, with power shortages leading to daily riots, with the budget deficit and foreign debt ballooning out of control and with massive interest payments on foreign loans fritted away in corruption becoming due, the rulers are vulnerable to financial blackmail. A US congressional proposal would halt preferential trade with Pakistan. $400 million under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) had not been received till now as the fiscal year nears its end. Without that the current deficit for 11/12 is projected to rise to an unprecedented 7.3%. A US Congress House appropriations panel for foreign aid is sitting on $800 million to Pakistan for training and equipping Pakistan's military in counter-insurgency tactics. Our potentially rich country has been reduced by its corrupt and inept rulers to the state of a wounded animal lying in the jungle totally at the mercy of any predators that may come round to devour it. Who or what will provide salvation? (owajid@yahoo.com)