On October 22, 2019, when the world was making history on Indian administered Kashmir, Pakistani media went on a silent, complete blackout. After months and months of lobbying at the US Capitol, “the big day” had finally arrived – a special hearing on human rights in South Asia – a briefing primarily on Kashmir. That day, I called a media house in Pakistan and told them that it is going to be a big day for Kashmir and the world will see India on his knees. Then, during the briefing, I sent relevant media houses all live-feed links and supporting material so that they could air the relevant news. But, while I was sending them tickers, video clips, and related news items I realized that they are not even paying attention to it. I started flipping all Pakistani tv channels, none of them are airing any tickers about a historic briefing on Kashmir.
In any other day, if Alice Wells, US Assistant Secretary of State, says a couple of sentences on Kashmir, all media houses, in Pakistan, will act like a stampede to break the news, TV talk show’s participants will be jumping left and right to prove their point that world is very concerned about Kashmir. But on October 22nd, when Alice Wells was making strong statements like “we recognize de facto administrations on both sides of LoC” and “we have urged Indian authorities to respect human rights and restore full access to services, including internet and mobile networks”, none of the TV channels were airing anything live.
In the recent past, people of Pakistan have witnessed hours long live transmission of MQM’s leader Altaf Hussain’s speeches on all major TV channels. These speeches had no timetable, prior agenda or structure to follow yet all aired live. On the other hand, briefing on Kashmir had high profile participants in which 14 congressional leaders (11 Democrats and 3 Republicans) appeared in the first panel and six congressmen in the second panel. The hearing had a well-planned, time-limited agenda that was given ahead of time, but no one in Pakistan aired it live.
For decades, it has been a policy of National Television of Pakistan (PTV) to give special coverage to Indian administered Kashmir but on the hearing day, PTV and PTV World were surprisingly quiet which gave a message to the world that it was Pakistan’s state policy to not air anything during the briefing. Even though strong statements from bipartisan congressional leaders, in favor of Kashmiris, were coming throughout the session, people of Pakistan were completely kept in the dark. At one point, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson locked Robert Destro (assistant secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor) by asking “In Jammu and Kashmir, do you see this as a humanitarian crisis?” and Secretary Destro responded “Yes, it is” later he said, “it’s a disaster”. For the current news affairs perspective, it was “breaking news” because a higher official from US State Department declared Jammu and Kashmir a place with a grieve humanitarian crisis, but again, Pakistan media kept its silence.
Next Day, on Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan invited senior journalists from all media houses to discuss Kashmir and related issues. During hours-long discussion, Pakistani premier expressed his frustration about lack of media coverage in Pakistan on Kashmir. He also mentioned repeatedly that Kashmir has good attention from international media all over the world but, in Pakistan, our media is focused primarily on domestic issues. Also on the same day, in Washington, Pakistani Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan invited Pakistani “key” journalists who are based in Washington to discuss the Kashmir hearing held at US Capitol and later, Ambassador gave them some statements about Kashmir. I sent an email to the Embassy of Pakistan seeking comments on this media blackout during the briefing, they never responded to my email.
The October 22nd hearing was led by a Congressman, Brad Sherman, who is also chairman of the Indian Caucus. For many, it seemed a conflict of interest on Rep. Brad Sherman’s side as he is part of the Indian Caucus, but people close to him say that he stood with American values and spoke out about injustice and human rights violations in Kashmir.
Whoever decided to downplay Kashmir’s cause on the hearing day played a major role to ruin the selfless efforts of Kashmiri Americans and Kashmiris in Jammu and Kashmir
To make the hearing successful, many unsung heroes spent days and nights to engage Kashmiri Americans across America and asked them to go out and meet their congressional leaders, show them the realities of Kashmir and encourage them to come to the Kashmir hearing. The strong statements like “how are we getting sources of Information?”, “To what extent is this a result of the BJP and RSS, particularly RSS,.. ultra-nationalist sentiment, driving this effort and this assault in Kashmir?” and “What are we doing to combat that and help them recognize that this is not an appropriate way to behave in a democracy?” were the results of months of team efforts done by Kashmiri Americans, Pakistani Americans and Indian Americans. The day when their selfless efforts should be recognized across the world, Pakistani media turned his face away.
In October, Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar expressed his concerns about the Indian on position in Washington saying, “We need more firepower to counter Pakistan in the US” a reliable source has confirmed that India is spending some serious money for public relations (PR) in Washington now. Across America, there were more than 350 articles and news reports on Kashmir in August alone. It is because of international media, which has created such an eye-opening awareness, that the Indian Prime Minister has taken a European parliamentarian’s delegation to Kashmir. But unfortunately, Pakistani media failed to show its strength when it needed the most.
The censorship and self-censorship, in media, is a common phenomenon in South Asia, especially in India and Pakistan. The climate of fear, practicing self-censorship to save job and lives, abduction in broad daylight and brutal bullying on social media are common across the region but why it was decided to turn down the Kashmir coverage on a crucial day is beyond anyone imagination. It is like, you work all year long for the final exam and on exam day you just don’t show up. There were a few report packages aired on tv channels in late-night news bulletins as just another international report.
In my opinion, whoever decided to downplay Kashmir’s cause on the hearing day played a major role to ruin the selfless efforts of Kashmiri Americans and Kashmiris in Jammu and Kashmir.
The writer is a technology expert who is working with US government based in Washington DC