Information ministry did something historic this 23 March and it totally went unnoticed

How many of you knew that Waqar Ali composed two national songs that were released on March 23rd by the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage across national TV channels? Though the melodious songs ‘Pyar Ke Hum Diye’ sung by Faiza Mujahid and ‘Pakistan Hai Mera’ sung by Javed Bashir managed to get many people behind them, they still went largely unnoticed.

The song ‘Pyar Ke Hum Diye’ is such a melodious composition by Waqar Ali – one wouldn’t expect anything less from a musician of his stature. It is written by lyricist Farooq Qaisar and is sung by Faiza Mujahid. The beautiful song also has moving video with the message of hope, progress and a bright future. One can see the children starring in the video reaffirming their resolve to be a part of something amazing, where everyone plays a part.

The 2nd song ‘Pakistan Hay Mera’ was also composed by Waqar Ali and is another great composition. It is sung by legendary Javed Bashir who also did an awesome job. The lyricist for this song is Sabir Zafar who, I have to say, did an impressive job.

ISPR has a better liaison with media outlets — both online and mainstream — to distribute its songs well ahead of the occasion. These songs often trend and go viral on the social media for days. What is it that ISPR can pull off that the ministry can’t when the songs they produced are equally good?

It also features some of the infrastructural development work that has been done by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government but above all it features the message of hope. It is the first mainstream song of its kind where the need for equality – with no strings attached – among people belonging from different faiths and their festival is acknowledged. I mean do you know any other song with lyrics like Eid ho chahay Holi, Chahay ho Baisakhi, Koi Imam Zaman, Koi Bandhay Raakhi, Hindu Muslim Sikh Esai, Apas main hon bhai bhai, literally, whether it’s Eid or Holi or Baisakhi…whether someone is a follower of the Imam (AS) or ties Raakhi, Hindu Muslim Sikh and Christians should be brothers?

The video starring Adnan Siddiqui and Noman Masood was equally beautiful as it also featured people belonging to different faiths. Overall, it was a message of hope and peace which we desperately need at times like this.

Overall, the composition, singing, lyrics and video direction…everything worked for these two songs. Then what went wrong when the songs and the music videos did everything they were supposed to do? What’s the recipe of getting songs viral and making them noticed?Did these song fail to get their due attention because these didn’t feature the chest-thumping war songs released by the ISPR? It could be. Do we as a nation respond more to the war songs as we take pride in our war machinery and military? It could be but not in entirety.

Songs produced by the ISPR have a better liaison with media outlets – both online and mainstream – to distribute their songs well ahead of the occasion. These songs are often trending and go viral on the social media for days. What is it that ISPR can pull of that the ministry can’t when the songs they produced are equally good?

I’d say the ministry is also to be blamed for its utter and sheer incompetence when it comes to distribution side of communications. Their efforts are obviously not well organised and coordinated. The digital presence is horrendous. If you look at their website and virtually non-existent social media presence, you’d be utterly disappointed too. Their digital section brands itself as ‘Cyber Wing’ and pretends it knows what it’s doing but it obviously doesn’t work. It took someone like me who has been working in the digital media for over a decade an hour looking for these songs online and even then I couldn’t find them on the ministry’s digital presence and instead found them on social media pages of the production company behind the songs.The Facebook page is titled “M o IB NH & LH” and everything there is all about the acronyms. If you go to the video tab on their Facebook page, you find yourself lost in the endless world of meta-data disaster and yet you can’t find what you’re looking for.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the recruitment of the digital media staff was done on nepotism basis instead of merit. How else does one explain sheer incompetence like this one? Dear ministry, your digital presence is appalling and just doesn’t work. Lose it, get a new one or accept the fate of getting your message lost in the clutter forever.

The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at me@farhanjanjua.com. He tweets and instagrams @FarhanJanjua

 Published in Daily Times, March 27^th 2018.