Daily Times

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Tuesday said the urgency of effective narrative in the modern age had given great importance to the information sector, becoming more important with the rapid advancement and spread of technology.

A few years ago, it seemed that the information domain was becoming less important, but suddenly with the ‘huge outbreak of technology’, it turned out that information was now driving everything in the world, the minister said while addressing to the closing session of the Margalla Dialogue 2021, arranged by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).

Citing the example of the Viking member of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who used to raid different areas in Europe from the 9th to the 11th century, Fawad said the morality of war in the past was nothing more than attacking and plundering a land. He also gave example of Nadir Shah who invaded India and left it after loot and plunder. Likewise, the East India Company also came to the sub-continent and then returned after World War II, he said while pointing to substantive changes in war morality after the Treaty of Westphalia and Second World War.

After the 1950s, he said there has been no annexation in the world except of Kuwait when it was invaded by Iraq, but it also had to leave Kuwait due to the change in ‘war morality’ resulting from the international law developed in the aftermath of World Wars I and II. He said in the traditional sense, the United States conquered Afghanistan in three hours when their Air Force entered Kabul and defeated the Taliban in 2001, but could not deliver a replacement in Afghanistan.

Fawad underlined the need for understanding the principals upon which Pakistan was established. Quaid-e-Azam while laying those fundamentals before the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947 when he said that Pakistan was established with keeping the political interpretation of Islam in mind. He cited Allama Iqbal who said that a political entity would be created in the North Western India which would be comprised of a Muslim majority. Allama Iqbal envisioned the creation of a political entity in North Western India as he foresaw the situation of Muslims in United India as it is today under the BJP rule, the minister added.

Fawad said Quaid-e-Azam made the Resolution of Pakistan in line with the interpretation of political nation state given by Allama Iqbal.

He said some mistakes including expulsion of foreign correspondents from Dhaka were committed at the time of the ‘Fall of Dhaka’. It was assumed that the foreign correspondents would narrate our side of story while staying at India, he added. Till 1969, the Minister, said Pakistan was the third largest film-maker country in the world having second number of cinemas in the world. In 2005, the country had faced massive decline in the film industry and not a single film was produced. Likewise, this year up to two films were produced, he added. How would the world know our story when the film industry was in crisis and there are no TV dramas, music and culture, he noted.

All the mediums have been damaged, he said underscoring the need to strengthen the institutions to ensure effective presentation of the state narrative.

He said when the Taliban regime came to an end in Afghanistan and Hamid Karzai assumed the office, the TV channels of different countries started operations there, but Pakistan did not sponsor a single channel there. Pakistan should have developed a soft power in Afghanistan at that time, he said while drawing comparison with India which was providing massive aid to TV channels.

Currently, there are been 143 channels in the country, including 50 foreign ones and thousands of YouTube’s, he said adding despite the presence of a huge media the false propaganda has been launched against Pakistan that media was not free in the country.