Daily Times

In Pakistan the media is becoming an integral part of our society. It helps portray social problems, economic issues and the political situation of the country and the whole population.

There are approximately 140 channels on television in Pakistan some of them are regional, national, international, and overseas channels. Amongst these is an important segment of morning shows which is telecasted every day. I believe that morning shows should aim to diversify the knowledge of women who live within the four walls of their homes and aren’t exposed to many things.

I always question whether these morning shows are providing knowledgeable information or whether they are just they are just talking shops.

Now a days, these morning shows are simply confusing people in society. There is a very strong competition and race between channels for the high Television Rating Points (TRPs). Just to highlight for my readers that on 3rd May 2017, PEMRA issued a notification to all the morning shows of Pakistan regarding the content development. Some of the points which PEMRA highlighted, are; selection of topic must be done with prudence and sensitive issues must be avoided, guests should be knowledgeable enough to talk about the chosen topics, topics like black magic should be avoided, and personal and sensitive relationships shouldn’t be discussed on these programmes. Anything that is contrary to our societal values shouldn’t be chosen as a topic, guests shouldn’t be made to do anything on set that they might not be comfortable with, the personal lives of famous personalities should not be discussed and any such discussions which might hurt the self-esteem of guests should be avoided. However, not a single channel is obeying the PEMRA set obligations.

Women who are house wives prefer to spend their most of the time on these morning shows which directs their thoughts only on the host’s dressing, makeup, hair color and jewelry. Instead, these shows must teach these females about how to become a better wife and an excellent mother. Morning shows are a complete waste time these days. They focus of adult and vulgar issues. This has not only made it difficult to watch these shows with families but also it has had a huge negative impact on the minds of the audience and culture.

Most importantly, the guests on these morning shows are also only displaying their boutique dresses and speak in pseudo English. By doing this they are impressing and catching the eye of lower middle-class females and creating family issues. But sadly, slowly and gradually our culture is vanishing because of excessive information about fashion beauty, cosmetics and designers dress.

There should be different segments in these morning shows for discussion; motivational and inspirational people can be invited as role models, to raise awareness on different topics

In my opinion there are tons of topics that can be aired on television instead of diminishing thoughts and increasing day dreaming which leads towards frustration, jealousy and intolerance in our society. There should be different segments in these morning shows for discussion; motivational and inspirational people can be invited as role models, to raise awareness on different topics like career counseling, students issues, youth problems, drugs abuse, human trafficking etc. To educate the nation about rights, interfaith harmony, peace building, discriminations, gender discrimination, entrepreneurship and so on, there should dialogues on different taboo topics.

The issue of marital conflicts is a huge focus of these shows. Every other day they invite a woman who is tired of bearing the brutal behaviour of her husband and she lets everyone know her story. What is the benefit of all this? Absolutely nothing; these issues not only brain wash the audience, but they also create a feeling of depression among them. In my opinion, Pakistani morning shows must be focusing on core issues of the society, and these shows must act as a grooming tool for the audience.

The writer is a socio-political activist based in Sindh. She is working to steer out Pakistani young women especially in Sindh from the clutches of injustice, discrimination and oppression. She can be reached at sairaahmedali088@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, November 15^th 2017.