Daily Times

Video footage of the unprovoked attack on SAMAA TV makes for extremely uncomfortable viewing. The incident occurred when he, along with other journalists, were filming Nawaz Sharif leaving Parliament House. Ali reportedly came in the way of the latter and this was sufficient for two private security guards belonging to the former Prime Minister’s security detail to run after him with the express intent of inflicting serious injury.

Of course, those who physically manhandled the journalist must be brought to book. But this does not address the issue of collective responsibility. For in the chain of command sits the head of PMLN security. Thus members of the fourth estate deserve to know what instructions, if any, were given in this instance. That being said, the bottom line is that the buck stops with the elder Sharif; or else the PMLN president, Shehbaz. At the very least, Nawaz should have stopped when informed of what had transpired.

The biggest hurdle to Pakistan’s fledgling democracy is the political elites’ readiness to throw the working-class under the proverbial bus to save their own skin. There is no sense of internal accountability; no system of checks-and-balances. Instead, each party rules the roost as if it were heading its own personal fiefdom. Even the ruling PTI has not gone beyond pledging strict action against the guards in question. This will simply not do. What is urgently needed is for Parliament to establish a code of conduct for all private security detail working for political parties; outlining a clear chain of command as well as areas of ultimate responsibility.

This must be done at the earliest. For who knows where this incident would have ended had it not been filmed. *

Published in Daily Times, December 18^th2018.