July 13, 2019

Curbs on press expose Pakistan’s view on media pluralism

topic:	Humans
located:	Pakistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

Since his inception as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the sportsman-turned-politician Imran Khan has been widely seen as the apple of the powerful army’s eye.

This was mostly in the backdrop of a simmering tussle between the former premier Nawaz Sharif – who was seen to be challenging in the last days of his tenure the hegemony of army over literally all key internal and foreign affairs – and General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff.

With time, the encirclement of politicians and numerous u-turns by premier Khan on a number of issues, evidently in favour of the army, further proved the allegations of him as being a ‘selected’ premier as true to a greater extent.

In such a chain of events, a number of private news TV channels went off the air in the country after airing interviews and short news clips of politicians – mainly from the opposition – including former president Ashf Ali Zardari. It was not an isolated incident but arguably the most brazen example of state high-handedness aimed at controlling the follow of information and silencing dissent.

After snatching the independence from the local media, the state forces in Pakistan last year moved on to ban foreign media outlets in a clear bid to make the situation vague for the masses so that the audience may be supplied with selective interpretations. This ban was connected with the popular Pashtun Tahafuz (safety) Movement, an indigenous movement by the ethnic Pashtun minority in Pakistan against forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other forms of persecutions and discrimination. The Voice of America’s Pashto and Urdu services remains banned for covering the PTM.

The country’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, last week faced humiliation at the 'Defend Media Freedom' conference in London for the increased censorship in Pakistan. The Pakistani official was even called a "censorious thug".

Now, such harsh criticism from the international audience at a neutral venue should prove as an eye-opener for the ruling quarters in Pakistan. It clearly demonstrates that by any standards and away from personal enmity or political differences, the dictatorial tendencies by the government in Islamabad would only lead to further isolation of Pakistan on the global stage.

The Reporters Without Borders’ Asia-Pacific desk has already underlined that the recent curbs in Pakistan are an absolutely unacceptable violation of the principles of media pluralism and independence.