Daily Times

The decade of the 2010s was quite eventful in the political history of Pakistan. Two elected governments completed their respective terms through a peaceful transition of the club of the rule. Notwithstanding, the ruling parties had been through a very bumpy road with the burden of their past of distrust, deceits and of them playing the fiddle to the establishment, which was witnessed in the decade of the 1990s.

When talking to my learned friends about the new social contract, I came to know that it had already been written and the 18th amendment was its proof. It was like throwing pebbles in the stagnant water otherwise.

But having all these trophies in the political chest of our country, thanks to the electronic media, a new wave of distrust on the political system emerged among the masses. Our electronic media mostly proved to be the house of false news. It didn’t follow the ethical norms, cherished in our print media. It muddled the genuine political will of the people with its onslaught of false news and divided people, not on political lines, but by creating new tribalism in the country. Either you are with us, or you got no right to have your say.

Two events in our recent political history are case studies for our researchers to probe the role of electronic media in our country. Where the conclusion might be the sheer confusion inculcated among the masses through electronic media.

We experienced the live broadcasting of riots during the crisis of Lal Masjid. Madrassas’ students with clubs in their hands were unleashed on the streets of our capital and people in far-flung areas of the country watched it live.

Our electronic media started playing the role of the economic hitman

At the beginning of the summer, a majority of anchors demanded a tough action to nub the evil in the bud. When the action was taken all clamoured of injustice and called it a brutal action. During the lawyer’s movement, Justice Iftikhar Chaudry was presented as an icon of freedom and the rule of law. Some journalists and lawyers benefited monetarily later after decorating a plume in their cap. When restored, Justice Chaudry ran a parallel government and, incognito, assumed the charge of the executive of the country. That itself would have been declared unlawful in any modern polity. But the electronic media presented him as a great saviour of our nation.

These two events help us conclude the electronic media strengthened the status quo notwithstanding its tall claims of being a harbinger of change to help the downtrodden.

Our electronic media also started playing the role of the economic hitman. Some journalists were given, by the unforeseen hands, the official files to bring out the stories of scams of our government officials. The stories would usually be about the half-cooked projects that had to go through the thorough bureaucratic process to ponder on the pros and cons of the projects. It stirred confusion in the society; delivering a message that our governments are corrupt and only interested to grind their axe. Recently, you might have watched one of the celebrities of our electronic media reprimanded by Tariq Bashir Cheema for airing the half-cooked story of a housing project in I-20 Sector, Islamabad. Such self-aggrandizing behaviour erodes governance and people, who surrendered their right to govern involuntarily by rejecting the concept of the divine right of some people to rule (if you believe in social contract theories of the genesis of the governments) then anarchy remains the only political tool for masses to unleash. Some of you may be taken aback that ‘anarchy is also a political tool’ but, unfortunately, it has been a political tool in the history of politics. I think one of the dilemmas of Hamlet, in the play Hamlet, was that his rebellion against his uncle would stir anarchy in the country, and it would crumble the façade of that state of governance. Hamlet himself was a beneficiary.

And now the fake news. “Fake news is news, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers (viewers).” A couple of months back, when Nawaz Sharif has hospitalised with acute immune disorder, an anchor on a very famous network claimed that Shahbaz Sharif was found “smuggling” the curry of trotters for Nawaz Sharif while the later was seriously ill. Ridiculous. But none dared to condemn the said anchor. Anchors also protect other anchors. It speaks of a new wave of tribalism in our society. Not to be disinformed is also a fundamental right of people, but this is deliberately violated on our electronic media. People trust you and you breach their trust. In recent Friday Times, a carton depicted the helplessness of people before the unbridled media and generating confusion among the masses.

Our irresponsible media is generating distrust against the order, that needs improvement no doubt, in the society and it can cause havoc in our society.

Will people from electronic media sit together to think about what have they done to society?

The writer is an English Language Instructor at Taif University, KSA