Fanning flames of unrest in Pakistan

As Pakistan's ruling alliance battled continuing pressure in the past week to send the army to take charge of the country's southern port city of Karachi, it was left to the Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan to urge the media to show maturity in reporting what has clearly become the bloodiest period of unrest in the country's business heartland.

The theme is not new. In the past too, Pakistan's regimes have faulted the country's media for unnecessarily fanning the flames of an already aggravated situation. In the past decade, as Pakistan's media has opened up at an unprecedented pace, thanks to the arrival of privately-owned TV channels, the authorities at times have found it hard to deal with this free flow of information.

The profound impact of Pakistan's free media can be easily seen across the country's urban and rural heartlands. In sharp contrast to the past when end users in remote locations often had to wait till the evening before the morning newspaper landed at their doorsteps, privately-owned TV channels have clearly changed this reality. It is probably the emancipating effect of private TV channels that illiterate and sometimes even bare-footed Pakistanis, locked at the bottom of the economic pile, have found it well within their reach to keep themselves abreast of the latest news. Thanks to TV screens hooked up to cable and satellite TV dishes, now selling at a fraction of their price in the past, that flow of information takes place across Pakistan as never before.

Politicians like Awan have probably found it hard to adjust to this fundamentally new reality in Pakistan, given their frequent penchant for targetting the media especially during times when the authorities find themselves under attack. The case of recent events in Karachi has clearly demonstrated the government's sheer ineptitude in tackling what has become a monumental challenge.

It is probably a testimony to a lack of self-confidence among the authorities that decision-makers from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani downwards to Awan herself are resisting calls for handing over Karachi to Pakistan's army. This follows demands from a number of stakeholders, notably Karachi's key businessmen, seeking an army intervention to stem what has clearly become one of the bloodiest periods in recent memory.

While the resistance to an all-out army intervention is justified on the grounds that this will weaken Pakistan's democratic framework, the reality is indeed that the authorities probably fear what has become a growing outcry on the streets of Pakistan. A failing government which has simply been unable to begin tackling some of Pakistan's worst challenges, now finds itself at the centre of harsh criticism. To many Pakistanis, a failing structure of government is of no use to anyone. To others, what is the logic of having a so- called democratic structure which presides over the continuing demise of some of Pakistan's most vital fundamental interests?

Low level of confidence

Aside from the turmoil in Karachi, Pakistan faces a multitude of challenges, including, but not confined to, an economic one. The government has simply failed in its three-year rule to even begin setting the pace for taking Pakistan on the road to long overdue reforms, that will begin improving the lives of ordinary people. At the same time, nepotism and cronyism, according to conventional wisdom, has rapidly increased, thus undermining Pakistan's already weak government.

The combined effect of what is going on in Pakistan today has led to a further erosion of an already weak level of popular confidence in the ability of the country's rulers to improve its outlook. This has only compounded the effects of the widespread uncertainty across Pakistan, caused in no small measure by the country's continuing security challenges thrown up by its ongoing fight against militancy. Tragically too it has been the failure of Pakistan's present-day ruling alliance to unite the country just when such unity is critical to combating the multifarious challenges on the horizon.

In this background, it would be a colossal tragedy if indeed Pakistan's media began paying heed to calls from policy makers like Awan to toe the official line. On the contrary, Pakistan's news organisations and its community of journalists will only do well to ignore such calls and continue doing what they do best, which is simply to report the truth. Eventually, if the government collapses under the weight of its own incompetence and ineptitude, that would simply be a consequence of its growing list of failures and not the media's role in shaping Pakistan's increasingly open and robust society.

Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.