Courtesy Teeth Maestro
Kashif Abbasi, from ARY One World was invited to an interview with ABN Chicago to discuss the role of Political Talk shows in creating Political Awareness among the Pakistani masses. It is definitely worth listening at least to the first hour of the show
The discussion was to revolve around the following points
1. Discuss the positive aspects of these talkshows. Are they creating awareness in villages autaaqs and deras.
2. Discuss the negative aspects. What do the anchors do when they are 100 % sure that the guest is lying. Dont you think that it gives a wrong impression to the viewers.
3. Are these shows politically motivated, do the anchors have a hidden agenda that they want to push.
4. Are there some anchors who tend to lose partiality. How can the anchors address this. Also sometimes,the anchor speaks most of the time and takes over the guests. Sometimes it is the other way round for example Kashif Abbasi interviewed Hussain Haqqani and the guest took over him.
5. Role of media in the Civil Society movement
6. Are these shows trying to ease out tensions between India and Pakistan or they are being Hawkish. Also sometimes we discuss sensitive issues of national security on TV,is it good. Does the anchors follow blogging sites and pakistani bloggers ?
7. Also why the TV Anchors use Urdu / English mixed language in the Talkshows. If we see Indian Talk Shows they speak very heavy Hindi although some of these terms are difficult to speak but still they use and they dont replace that with English for the sake of convenience.
That’s like asking the devil why he’s evil.
All TV Talk shows/News Analysis features in Pakistan at present are merely entertaining programmes. I give my comments itemised below:-
1) The TV channels which are showing these Talk shows in Pakistan are only availble on Cable and by monthly subscriptions only. Some neighbours do share lines but they are for watching Indian movies only. Also only educated class watch these channels and parties like PPP, Maulana Diesel Party, ANP have never been popular among educated class in Pakistan. In villages and rural areas these programmes have no impact at all. Our stupid and jahil AWAM only wants to vote for PPP and in Sind, PPP will keep winning for another 100 years. And Dr Shahid Masood programme is only a Monkey show now.
2)Anchors can’t do anything because They know that if they will overstep their mark either the transmitter will be switched off by MQM or even they before get home tonight their wives and sisters will be kidnapped by MQM—-with the blessings of PPP.
Take for example, Babar Awan , and the anchors know he is totally lying but you can’t ask him harsh questions otherwise the TV station will shut down completely. People like Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Sherry Rehman, Farzana Raja, Naheed Khan, Safdar Abbasi, Rehman Malik are always lying. It does not leave bad impression because ever since Dr Shahid Masood accepted the golden hand shake from Sherry Rehman, general public just watch these shows just for the sake of passing time and then commenting on Websites like PKpolitics.
3)There are no political gains to be made because these programmes are never watched by our villagers or people watching at panwala shops. Also people like Hamid Mir,Kamran Khan and Talat Masoodalways ask soft and easy questions. For example in todays 02 Jan, ‘Aaj Kamran Khan ke sath’ He was mentioning that there were protests against Gas and Electricity Load shedding. But the disappointing thing was that Kamran Khan said that these are merely protests against Load shedding and these are not protests against Zardari. Kamran Khan never raised the issue that why PPP Govt has dropped the Kala Bagh Dam Project. And moreover he did not emphasised that PPP Govt is doing this because PPP wants ANP’s votes in Presidential Elections and in March Senate Elections.
I feel only Javed Ch and Kashiff Abbasi do ask some pinching questions. Remember when Kashiff Abbassi said to Farzana Raja that it is the ARY Admin who prepares the agenda for the show and not PPP.
4) The scripts of Hamid Mir show, Kamran Khan’s show and Talat Hussains show are OK’d by Sherrey Rehman before they come on Air. And the point that Hussain Haqqani somehow overcome Kashif Abbasi is due to the fact that Hussain Haqqani is enjoying a very lucrative post and he has to defend Zardari very strongly. The media has never asked Hussain Haqqani why the bloody hell He (Hussain Haqqani) and our Rep in UNO were entertaining Bilawal Bhutto when India was putting forward the Security Council resolution. And our TV anchors do not ask any questions from Haqqani that what the hell is he doing about Drone planes daily attacks. It is agenda which matters. Once the PPP Govt is gone the same Kashif Abbasi can clean bowled him in one minute. I would say that even person like Mushahid Hussain is very sharp when Mushahid Hussain used to defend Musharraf. And don’t forget Sheikh Rasheed and Tariq Azeem were also outclassing some of these anchors. And equally sharp is Farooq Sattar of MQM. It is the agenda and the motives and intentions of the person you are interviewing matters. When MQM killed 42 people in Karachi on the arrival of Ch Iftkhar, no anchor could outclass the counter attack of MQM.
One thing which has been very noticeable that comparing to Imran Khan this Hussain Haqqani is nothing. In reality, Imran Khan takes control over all TV hosts, but at least Imran Khan is sincere. Khan does not have to back anyone. However this remain to be seen that if ever Imran gets any Govt post then how will he react. And please don’t forger that Imran Khan was approached befor PM post was offered to Shaukat Aziz.
And to certain extent Maulana Diesel also defends Zardari very effectively. His command over Urdu, Farsi and Arabic sometimes outplays most of our Anchors——but then again, Maulana Diesel’s agenda is to cover up Zardari and Kala Bagh Dam.
5) The media has played no positive role in the Civil Society other than calling Bhutto Family Shaheeeeeeeeeeeeed. I can particularly mention the show ‘Deadline’ of Mazher Abbas who frequently praises Benazir in a very stupid and a shoddy manner and keeps calling her shaheeeeeeeed.
6) Our media played no part in the recent developments. Our media in the recent tussle between the two countries gave an apologetic style of presentation. Because when the Govt was playing on the backfoot then the media couldn’t do anything. There were no briefings from ISPR and Rehman Malik was as always talking nonsense and MQM told TV’s not to say anything without clearance of MQM and ‘Bhatta Collectors’ name must be mentioned in every Talk and News show.
7) A mix of English and Urdu is quite alright so that every body can understand. Even if high class Urdu is spoken our Jahil PPP voter AWAM will not understand anything. Let Indian Channels speak heavy Hindi we should use common and easy Urdu, with some English mix so that our public can get some education. It is the job of people like Hussain Haqqani and Wajid Shamsul Hassan to project Pakistan abroad.
Dr Shahid Masood is bloody useless. And other anchors should stop calling Bhutto’s Shaheeeeeeeeeeeeeeed. In fact display of Benazir picture on live TV shows should be banned.
Please Notice that Kashif Abbasi said when they talk against MQM they get big pressure.
at 36:00 the caller from Michigan asked Kashif Abbasi point blank about the most fatal flaw in our political system (IMO) , namely, Lack of Internal Democratic Cultures within major Political parties
I am not satisfied by Kashif’s gool-mool answer. His excuse was that in these circumstances, the personalities are too strong blah blah blah…
Well, the whole point is that “these circumstances” exist precisely BECAUSE there is no internal democracy! (and therefore a democratically elected leadership within the parties)
And 9 years of dictatorship is no excuse either. All the more reason for parties to organize themselves … the leadership was in exile (safe) and they could freely communicate with the party cadres.
What I’m trying to say is that Benzir was no Aung San Suu Kyi!
But still, none of the major parties, PPP, PML-N, PTI etc tried to be internally democratic. Only JI and MQM are quasi advisory-council based systems (not fully democratic) … and FASCIST to boot!
The two forces which actually brought Mushy to his knees were the Journalists and Lawyers and both have democratically elected bodies.
Coincidence?
@ shafi
YOU are dead wrong about talat hussain, which because of sheer ignorance, you called talat masood.
Did you watched yesterday live with talat?
I hope you will watch it know and see , how he demolished AZ, NS, AYW, MQM and talked about responsibility of govt regarding human requirements.
I have to agree about hamid mir and kamran khan. Specially i would say hamid mir has dissappointed alot by being too soft .
Kashif abbassi need to read alot t take on people like haqqani.
Regarding rural population you should not use below the belt remarks. They are not JAHIL AWAM.
Getting MA BA, MSC PHD does not mean educated. We have so many jahils on this forum , who claim to be Phd , DOCTORS, Engineers computer wizard. But when they talk , they are rubish and worse than illeterate person.
JAHLIAT is state of mind , which has nothing to do with education.
We have very educated JAHIL technocrats, lawyers.
Point is education plus social awareness and better family values.
I agree that 90% media is sold.
Mr zardari, sharif, asfand yar wali and altaf should take seriously the govt and issues related to the human requirements, other wise a civil war is highly expected.
Good luck for our country.
@ Ghost of TK
You are right about Internal democracy in parties.
But dont you think , this should start at evry social unit, which ofcourse is a single family unit. Which is run by a mini dictator.
Change has to start from micro level and also political parties should start elections from grass root leading to the top.
Wishing a saad rafiq leading PMLN or raza rabbani leading PPP
@Muhammad Usman: I agree with your observation regarding the Pakistani Family Unit. It is setup around the concept of Absolute Power of the parent and Absolute obedience of the children/women)
We are so used to bowing to authority that it doesn’t seem odd to us that the same family (Bhutto’s, Sharifs etc.) is leading a ‘democratic’ political party through decades of ’struggle’. This phenonmenon is present elsewhere to some extent, ie; Gandhis and Mujibs in other parts of subcontinent.
But I think that a political party is not as simple a unit of organization as a family unit in Pakistan. A party has leadership, it has manifestos, it has membership and has certain goals to achieve.
A political party, especially the one that espouses democratic principles, has it incumbant upon her to ‘walk the walk’ as it were by internalizing and following the very same practices it wishes to bring about in the society at large.
I think our political parties, instead of eliminating the obedience to ‘dictatorial behaviours’, actually feed upon such blind-followership engendered in their members by the family unit because the members are drawn from the same society and are therefore susceptible and vulnerable to such exploitation.
So, the onus is on a Political Party to make sure it doesn’t act like the ‘lowest common denominator’ of a ‘family unit’ but rises above it and educates its members, and through their educated behaviour the population at large.
The education system also will help in this regard with the right kind of syllabuses and well-trained teachers especially civics …Actually, we don’t have that subject anymore… we have munh-kala pakistan which only serves to jingoize and indoctrinate students, but in the long run the behaviour patterns it fosters are lethal for our nation.
@ImranKhanforpm: That is certainly good news! Care to inform us on how exactly this is being done? Are the grassroots leaders being elected by the membership?
A little blurb on this to support your claim will be much appreciated!
Will Imran Khan be elected as party chief through a party delegate convention sent from all organizational units of the party throughout the country?
much appreciated!
why you conclude for civil war in case failure of the politicians you are mentioning?
Why don’t we think of the new leadership?
why we have restricted our thinking only abt these dishonest & cheaters.
Start talking & discussing abt those who are doing something or willing to do. Bring new people on board, highlight the “FOR HIRE” discuss him & the others like him.
You cannot do a wrong thing to correct a wrong doing.
Un democratic, dictatorial and uncivilized solutions are not welcome.
Educated need to be really educated ather than giving PHd
If some one can question any political leader on this forum, why not ask PTI leadership.
I dont care if A B or c i sgoverning this country.
My concern is country should be governed as it should be.
I wish ther e is no civil war. If a new leader can prevent this , he or she is welcome, if coming through democratic and legal way, not through a judge or jurnail
Again the same thing, I am asking you guys to support PTI or spread its message BUT asking that why you are concluding that failures of the dishonest/corrupt gernails/politicians mean the civil war.
Its a direct contradiction to democracy, failure of state & failure of dilvering by crooked gernails & the puppets raised in their corridorz are entirely two different things.
Democracy is not with NS, CV (Converted bhutto), or IK but with WE(including me & u).
So writing in favor or against any one of them for watsoever reason is not going against democracy but promoting democracy, giving ourselves to think & express too wat we feel abt the leaders in the field.
Democratic norms don’t need NS, CV or IK but they do need democratic norms in order to lead.
@ asif
Tell us how a leader say like IK will come in power.
palestine HERE
@Muhammad Usman
it is indeed very unlikely that Imran khan comes into power but its not impossible… if true democracy prevails and if we dont witness another martial law, there is a chance… He wont come into power straight away but he might start off by wining a noticeable number of seats to be in a position to negotiate his terms and at least get a ministry… it is very likely that he might become a part of a coallition with PML-N along with JI…If we had not had a 9 year rule of musharraf, things would have been different by now because when musharraf took over, people were not happy with nawaz sharif and zardari was in no position to even contest the elections for another 5 years…
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