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| PAK media ban on banned bodies,Hafiz Saeed eye-wash | |
By Manzoor Ahmed
The ban in Pakistan on any coverage by the electronic media of banned militant outfits and their leaders including Hafeez Saeed is yet again an eyewash. It is in keeping with Islamabad’s oft-repeated ploy of fooling its own people and the world community.
It follows the undertaking given to the United States, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was in the US last month. The important thing to note here is that while any country, any government worth its name seeks to conceal any such action on undertaking or under pressure from a foreign power, Pakistan does not shy away.
Indeed, the Information Ministry issued the directives in line with the joint communique issued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and American President Barack Obama during the PM’s recent trip to Washington DC.
The communique stated: “The PM apprised the president about Pakistan’s resolve to take effective action against UN-designated terrorist individuals and entities, including LeT and its affiliates, as per its international commitments and obligations under UN Security Council resolutions.”
Not surprisingly, the US released within one of week of Sharif’s visit, $ 100 million to facilitate ‘stabilisation’ in the troubled FATA region where the Pak army is battling militants of the Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan.
In a circular issued on Monday to satellite television and FM radio licensees, the authority strictly directed them “not to give any kind of coverage to any proscribed organisation including Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation [and] Lashkar-e-Taiba in breach of obligations under UN Security Council Resolutions”.
Appended to the notice were the names of 60 banned organisations — including the LeT — and another 12 that have been placed on the watch list by the government.
The UN Security Council Resolutions have been there for long. The Pakistan Government has separately banned some bodies and placed some of them “on watch.” Why has it taken so long to impose the media ban?
Then, why is the ban only for the electronic media, that is the satellite TV channels and the FM radio? A majority of them are privately run. But why the print media, the web sites and the social media have been left out? No explanation or clarification is either sought or given.
In an editorial, Dawn newspaper calls the order by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulating Authority (pemra) “illogical and perverse.”
The order, which cited legal provisions in the Pemra Act and the Electronic Media Code of Conduct pertaining to incitement of hatred and glorification of violence to shore up its argument, also stated that the JuD and FIF — which are on the government watch list — are iterations of the banned LeT.
Questions that betray the intentions of the government and sections of the media that are teaming with sympathizers of militants and especially, Hafeez Saeed, are that should the charity work done by these bodies also not be given any publicity? The bleeding heart peace-nics are working over-time to ‘kill’ the ban.
The banned organizations get hyper-active in the event of a natural disaster in Pakistan. They quickly mobilise their cadres to fan out across affected areas to undertake disaster relief. Their work and experience among the people and their experience in grass-roots activism gives them an advantage over government agencies in terms of effectiveness.
This is once again being witnessed in the aftermath of the earthquake that jolted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of Pakistan last month.
Reporting the relief activities cannot in any way be regarded as incitement to, or glorification of, violence. But actually it perpetuates the role of these bodies at the grass-root level.
Dawn editorial advocates that “rather than banning the media from covering them, groups with violent antecedents should not be allowed to engage in any activities; and especially not in disaster relief because the victim-and-saviour situation is eminently tailor-made for ideological propagandizing.”
Militant bodies in Pakistan have a record of changing names to escape and obviate the ban. More and new groups have emerged with new names and continue their activity, first keeping a low profile and them going all out towards sectarian violence and militancy.
That is exactly how Hafiz Saeed, who founded LeT, has since formed a ‘charity’ called Jamaat-ud-Dawa and then, FIF. Saeed says he never had any connection with LeT.
The US has had a bounty on Saeed’s head, but he has been moving about freely holding meetings and inciting people to militancy.
His security has been beefed up after ‘threat’ coming to him from “a foreign agency.” This is nothing but a ruse by the government, especially the Punjab Government, for which Saeed is a holy cow.
Dawn makes a telling point: “In the case of the LeT alias JuD alias FIF, this group is indelibly associated with the Mumbai massacre. The hands-off policy that the state applies to it, not to mention the glacial pace at which the trial of the accused — who belong to the LeT — is progressing, is not in the country’s long-term interest or regional stability as a whole.”
(The author is a Kashmir based Freelance Journalist)
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