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Bringing Clarity In Collective
Pakistani Thinking
Pakistani TV channels are doing excellent
job. They have played pivotal role in moving the wheel of
history forward in Pakistan. They have made major impact on
Pakistani politics, culture, society and collective Pakistani
thinking.
However, still there is room for improvement.
So far what Pakistani media has done is it has brought the
issues of governance, politics and culture in the forefront. It
has also very successfully highlighted the issues of people of
Pakistan such as poverty, hunger, health care, uneven economic
levels of the people and shortages of water and power supply.
The people who are highlighting these issues
are politicians of government and opposition parties, mullahs of
different brands, representatives of legal bodies and prominent
journalists.
So far it is so good. We needed all these
efforts to move the wheel of history forward in Pakistan, which
has started churning in slow motion, but it is not at the level
where it can create necessary impact to alter the fundamentals
of Pakistani society.
Thanks to these TV channels, we all know
where the problems are and what the problems are. Also, we have
somewhat the idea of the forces behind these problems. We also
know how serious or non-serious those forces are about resolving
these problems.
Regardless of this advancement, the people
are still confused. They really do not know where the
socio-political explosives are hidden in the system which keep
exploding time to time and making the situation worse than
before.
We suggest, in order to identify those
explosives, TV channels should give at least one hour of twenty
hours of their time to identify those explosives and help find
ways to confine and get rid of those explosives.
For example, the people discussing issues of
Pakistan and Pakistani people are either politicians, or mullahs
or journalists or in some programs, we directly hear peoples’
opinions about various issues.
The problem with this scenario is that
politicians, mullahs and journalists have their agendas. They
either use these media interactions to enhance their parties’
agendas, to cover their leaders’ misdeeds, or put down their
opponents. Mullahs and journalists are not any different. They
support or oppose certain views. In most of the cases, those
views are either pro government or anti government.
What is missing in this whole scenario are
the members of various disciplines or experts of the relevant
fields of Pakistani academia.
For example, there are many sound Pakistani
intellectuals who are working in Pakistani universities or
foreign universities in various fields.
Media channels should arrange their series of
lectures on fundamental issues to bring clarity in Pakistani
mainstream thinking.
For example, instead of politicians or
mullahs or journalists, the political scientists such as Rasul
Bux Rais and Hasan Askari Rizvi should talk in series of
lectures about the hidden explosives in the Pakistani political
system.
They should explain to the people if
Pakistan’s name should be Democratic Republic of Pakistan or
Islamic Republic of Pakistan. They should explain to the people
when we have the clauses in the constitution of Pakistan like
“The sovereignty belongs to Allah” or “no law can be made
against Quran and Sunnah”, what kind of complications such
clauses generate in the system. The politicians, the mullahs,
and the journalists should shut-up and listen to these experts
and their suggestions on these matters and then try to improve
the system in the light of their suggestions.
We do not need emotional responses on these
issues, emotional responses from mullahs or politicians who
subscribe to mullahs ideologies to keep them in line for their
political purposes. These are serious matters. The life and the
death of the sate, the well being of the citizens of the state,
depend on the resolution of such matters.
These are just couple of examples otherwise,
there are many more explosive mines in Pakistani socio-political
system which keep exploding time and again and make us cry about
extremism, terrorism, suicide bombings, bloodshed and so much
other nonsense.
I appeal to the management of GEO, ARY and
all other TV channels to dedicate 1/24 hour of their time for
Pakistani experts to deliver series of lectures on fundamental
issues which deal with collective Pakistani thinking.
Highlighting the issues is great service, but
creating clarity in collective Pakistani thinking is the way to
move forward socially, culturally, economically and politically.
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