Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Despite increasing criticism on social media, state institutions are still in denial over what happened at Bahria Enclave, Islamabad.

So far, no FIR has been registered by the Islamabad Police. The Islamabad commissioner is also reluctant to launch a formal inquiry.

According to the information available on social media and the subsequent reports in a segment of the electronic media, two people were killed and dozens of others were injured after a stage collapsed during the recording of a private television’s programme at Bahria Enclave, Islamabad.

Initially, the incident was overlooked by the media due to fears of corporate damage. However, after increasing criticism on social media, some of electronic media talk shows discussed the issue. Several newspapers then also reported the incident.

Theoretically, media blackout refers to the censorship of news related to a certain topic for any reason. There are some corporate interests of media houses linked with market forces ie advertisements, political and ideological alignments, which force them to decide before reporting. The recent blackout of Bahria Enclave incident was triggered by fears of losing advertisement revenue from the Bahria Town. However, the silence of state institutions ie the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration and the Islamabad Police is highly questionable.

Questions such as these stand out: Is there any interest of state institutions attached to Bahria Town? If media does not cover an incident, then are government departments not obliged to take action? Why an official inquiry was not ordered by the Islamabad commissioner, who gave written permission for the event? Why did Islamabad Police not register an FIR against the organisers of the programme?

Commenting on the incident, a senior lawyer said; “It is the duty of government officials to promptly respond to such incidents and inquire the circumstances and factors behind them.” “It is strange that there is no official word from the district administration about the total causalities in the incident. All we have are rumours,” he said.

When contacted Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Capitan (r) Mushtaq Ahmad confirmed that no formal inquiry had been launched into the incident so far.

“Nobody has contacted us about the incident so far. According to our information, four people were seriously injured in the incident. One of them later expired,” the Islamabad DC said, while asked about the number of causalities.

Operations SSP Sajid Kiani avoided responding to requests for comments by Daily Times despite repeated attempts.

On the other side, a social activist, Jibran Nasir, criticised the role of the mass media and government institutions. “A number of families are in contact with me and they are ready to knock at the doors of government departments for justice,” he said. “However, we are worried about how the police and administration will respond to us at a time when the Bahria Town is spending a lot of money to sweep the whole incident under the rug. I request the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice of the incident,” he said.