In prolonging his Darna, Imran Khan is applying British picketing and PR techniques that some fringe political parties and pressure groups in Britain use to attract the media attention. In such cases the number of protesters is not important but the focus is on dramatic announcements and stunts, which are staged for the media circus during a protest or public event. Green Peace is famous for staging such stunts. However, Imran’s non-serious drama can’t last without the support of the media circus, and the patronage of his not very ‘hidden’ masters. It is outrageous to see how a small minority is blackmailing the government, democratic institutions and almost all political parties. So far the role of Pakistani media, particularly of few TV channels (Express news, Dunya TV, ARY and few smaller ones) is completely non-professional. They are ignoring major and important stories. Not very long ago relatives of the missing persons had staged a long march from Baluchistan to Karachi and Islamabad but that March did not get enough coverage in the media. Many positive and important developments are taking place in and around Pakistan but most of the air time is given to an old and bazaar stunt in Islamabad. Very little attention is paid to hardships that Islamabads residents have been facing due to the so-called Darnas. Unfortunately, the media are a party to this stage drama, they are subjective and biased. Hours and hours of air time is given to two groups who have nothing new to say. It is no longer a story but every night speeches of Imran Khan and his bedfellow Tahir-ul-Qadri’s are imposed upon the audience as the day’s main news. This can happen only in Pakistan where media houses also take cue from the same quarters which are pulling strings of Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri. In my view, this is a manufactured crisis where some powers want to: 1.Punish the Prime Minister for exercising his legitimate authority in internal and external affairs. 2.Traditional power centers in Pakistan are afraid of accountability as they do not consider themselves answerable to anyone. They have been managing Pakistan by the use of force, intimidation and secrecy, and also by lies & manipulation. 3.Consolidation and growth of democratic system will eventually reduce the role and authority of such Powers. Consequently, they will not be able to peruse hidden agendas. Perhaps the fear of losing power forces traditional power centers to create crisis every few years with the aim to maintain the control of the political system often through stooges. 4. Democracy means peoples’ right to rule without dictation, pressure or patronage. Pakistan has not reached to that stage as the Pakistani military, civilian bureaucracy and their pet politicians do not believe in the civilian supremacy. To them the people of Pakistan are no more than a herd of sheep. Now let us take a look at some other developments/incidents to understand the current puzzle. a.Few weeks ago, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UAE Muhammad Asif Ali Khan Durrani agreed to restrict his activities/movements. A lower level officer of the Emirates foreign ministry called the Ambassador and gave him a charge-sheet. The Ambassador was asked to sign a paper. He did that. b.Allegedly, the UAE had guaranteed a safe exit to retired General Pervez Musharraf. c.Interestingly, news reports claim that retired General Pasha works for the UAE government. Pasha is one of the known supporters of General Musharraff at the same time he is also an ‘adviser’ of Imran Khan. The UAE role is strange because Saudi Arabia and UAE are in the same American basket and Nawaz Sharif is a Saudi poodle. Why the UAE is going out of the orbit is a million Dollar question. While Qadri exchanges lollypops with the Canadians, his co-actor Imran Khan never loses an opportunity to please London, which is one of his major sources of ‘donations’. Britain is reforming Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s education sector as well. As compare to Canada, Britain is a bigger foreign player on the Pakistani political chess. Imran Khan is connected to the British establishment through a relative of his ex-wife. At some point, I may write about this connection.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 14:53:46 +0000