Letter From Lahore: Media has field day

The political turmoil in the country since elections on October 10 has been so great that it has created the ideal situation for columnists, analysts and the new breed of suited anchormen starring on cable television channels.

Virtually any theory and all kinds of conjecture can at the moment find space in newspapers and on television.

It is thus hardly surprising that people are left somewhat bemused as one established writer informs them that the PPPP and PML-QA have sealed a deal, while another, writing at times in the same paper, insists that the MMA is set to link up with a major party and enter government.

Rumours of a national government, of the release of Asif Ali Zardari, of the return of Shahbaz Sharif and of secret meetings between Musharraf and leading politicians only add more zest to the stories being churned out.

These are spiced up still further by the new laws being churned out almost by the day, with law ministry minions kept busy on their typewriters by the demands placed on them.

Evening newspapers in Lahore meanwhile blaze with accounts of covert meetings in unusual spots across the city.

On Thursday, one paper maintained that Makhdoom Amin Fahim had, mysteriously, met Mian Azhar - appropriately enough at a cafe close to the Lahore Zoo.

Another insisted that Hamza Shahbaz, the son of Shahbaz Sharif, was seen driving around near the Model Town area, in a car with Qazi Hussain Ahmed of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), presumably discussing the country's political future, while a third held that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was working out 'government making formulas' with military leaders in the serene surrounds of the elite Gymkhana Club, located along the Mall Road.

In the current climate, the truth behind such accounts is hard to ascertain, and it is clear that the Urdu-language tabloid press in particular is taking maximum advantage of this.

Other newspapers too are not far behind, and hawkers report accelerated sales from virtually all spots in the city as people try to keep track of the convoluted process of government making.

The new television news channels, notably the Karachi-based 'Geo' network run by the Jang Group of newspapers, have derived maximum benefit from this heightened interest in political events.

The delay in the formation of a government, and the doubts over who will lead it, mean that the field is open for multiple interviews, breaking news and discussion programmes.

Its deft handling of events as they unfold means that in this scenario, Pakistan's latest cable channel, and the first to focus on current affairs, has already found a following among those glad to break away from the PTV-monopoly.

Other channels, such as Indus and the London-based ARY Digital, have also capitalised on the situation, providing a welcome change from the mundane recitation of dated news put out by the official network.

Certainly, some of their blunter interviews have exposed the inexperience of the country's politicians and administrators in facing anything but the sycophantic TV hosts of PTV.

In many cases, what should have been sedate discussions have been converted into virtual comedy shows, with retired generals, veteran politicians and prime ministerial hopefuls animatedly banging fists on tables, launching virulent attacks on their rivals and generally exhibiting their lack of skill in handling tough questioning.

With the thick mist hanging over government forming now beginning gradually to clear, the media frenzy will inevitably start to die down in the weeks ahead.

Many however predict that political affairs in the country will remain volatile over the foreseeable future, given the mixed mandate obtained by the parties, and as such even if there is a temporary calm, it seems likely that the storms whirling through the pages of print and on television for those with access to cable, will once more begin to rage before the tenure of the present parliament reaches its end.