Daily Times

In an Urdu travelogue, the 19th century literary giant Maulana Muhammad Hussain Azad writes that on a cold winter night, a pack of wolves that had hunted together earlier sits in a circle on the snow. The beasts watch each other carefully for any signs of weakness. The moment any wolf falters from injury, fatigue or sleep, the rest pounce on it. Azad wrote that the Farsi idiom “gurg aashti” — the brotherhood of the wolves — has its origins in this cannibalistic animal behaviour. Biologists today know that more Alaskan wolves die from the bite of their more vicious canine brothers than those killed by humans. The media houses in Pakistan have not acted very differently over the past month.

Just days after assassins nearly killed television anchor-cum-journalist Hamid Mir, a veteran and ostensibly liberal columnist, lamenting the allegations against the country’s intelligence agency, wrote in the same media group’s English paper: “And the ISI was so good at what it did that this dreaded agency, the stuff of legend, victor of Afghanistan and Kashmir, bungled its job and failed to get its man.” An otherwise reasonable writer seemed to be citing Hamid Mir’s survival by the skin of his teeth as a defence that the ‘pros’ could not have botched the hit! The flashing of the intelligence service chief’s picture, a bad editorial judgment, did manage to bring out a curious patriotic certitude in even the most tolerant of voices. The more venomous ones went baying for blood. The competitors to Hamid Mir’s employer group sensed its weakness and pounced on it with a vengeance. The howling and hounding is mounting. The hunt is on.

The media group besieged today has also had some very dubious practices in its editorial portfolio. From persecuting the former Human Rights Watch Pakistan director, Ali Dayan Hasan and leading Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir to harrying intellectual and political dissenters like Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy and Professor Husain Haqqani, the group’s journalists have tried to trample over anyone who did not fit their ‘patriotism’ bill. The Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP’s) leadership remained their favourite piñata for the whole five years it was in office. When journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad was found dead in May 2011, apparently from torture, an otherwise liberal anchor/journalist of the group under discussion had the nerve to say on his talk show that those who allegedly tortured Shahzad know their vocation and perhaps “did not intend to kill him”. Human Rights Watch had called for an inquiry into the ISI’s role in the Saleem Shahzad case and later expressed dissatisfaction over the inquiry commission’s report.

The question then is: should anyone shed a single tear for the media group under fire today? The answer may not be easy unless one considers that the assault seems to be twofold. The media group is but one and perhaps the smaller target. The bigger and actual target in this proxy war seems to be the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government. Snap polls may be the immediately desired result but upending the democratic dispensation appears to be the ultimate goal. There is a method to the mullah-media madness. They are going after not just one media group but are targeting freedom of expression and directly challenging the democratic system. The voices demanding that media group’s scalp for a lapse in its editorial judgment are also the ones pushing the old establishment theme that the successful completion of a government’s term and democracy are not synonymous. The discourse is getting more rancorous by the minute and blasphemy allegations are being thrown around recklessly. The PML-N’s cardinal sin apparently is to stick to its guns on General Pervez Musharraf’s trial and certain foreign policy issues while the only sacrilege committed by the impugned media group perhaps was airing that photograph on April 19. The so-called red lines were crossed and the powers that be seem keen on swift retribution. They want an eye for an eye without realising that adding blasphemy charges to the poisonous mix could leave everyone blind.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief, Imran Khan, has virtually become the Joseph McCarthy of Pakistan, labelling every dissenter as disloyal and a paid foreign agent. If his former darling, the ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was the bane of the PPP government’s life, Imran Khan is playing the same part against the PML-N. Justice Chaudhry had started a slew of campaigns against the PPP without any material results other than keeping that government in perpetual gridlock. Apparently, Imran Khan is being prodded to pull an Iftikhar Chaudhry on Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif. Imran Khan recently fumed against that media group at a press conference and spoke of an allegation against him without actually saying what the charge was or rejecting it outright. His tirades serve a dual purpose. In addition to Imran Khan’s seemingly personal beef with that media group, the PTI is assailing it for being in cahoots with the PML-N. The PTI’s position is in sync with how the establishment apparently perceives the PML-N’s handling of the post-April 19th events.

The script seems to want to make an example out of the embattled media group, the PML-N or, potentially, both. Perhaps nothing short of shutting down the media group — even if for a day — may quench the thirst for revenge. If a line was crossed in airing the photograph, a new one has to be drawn in the sand it seems. Never mind the orchestrated blasphemy charges — and now there are multiple — that have put thousands of that group’s employees in harm’s way. The zealots of all denominations are dutifully ganging up against the beleaguered media group but those ratcheting up the bigotry seem to ignore that it will be impossible to dial it down. The PML-N has adopted a rather hands off approach to the events, which, if left unchecked, can snowball into something that the incumbents may not be able to handle. The PML-N should not pretend to be an innocent bystander as hardly anyone is buying that. The assault against the PML-N seems more vicious, tenacious and better orchestrated than what the PPP faced at a similar stage in its stint. Something beyond just the brotherhood of the wolves is afoot. A government of the day does not have the luxury of masterly inactivity. The PML-N needs to be seen in the driving seat, and fast.

Postscript: The Charlie Foxtrot in the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) over some of its members trying to suspend the media group’s television licences and ordering its offices sealed indicates a rocky road ahead for the PML-N too.

The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com and he tweets @mazdaki