Protesting media men observe ‘black day’

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

Like in other parts of the country, members of the Khyber Union of Journalists and those of Peshawar Press Club wore black bands around their arms on Sunday in order to show their resentment against the resolution passed by enraged and somewhat foul-mouthed members of Punjab Assembly against media persons who they said were trying to derail the democratic system by unduly playing up the issue of fake degrees.

The protest call was given by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists which called upon its members to boycott the sessions of senate and national as well as all the four provincial assemblies. The office-bearers of PFUJ said that media persons only held mirror to the society. Instead of getting furious or thoughtlessly frothing at the mouth in a schizophrenic manner, the parliamentarians holding fake degrees should hang their heads in shame.

The resolution was presented in Punjab Assembly by MPA of PML-N, Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel and it was passed by the house in the presence of Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who generally feels proud in describing himself as the "Khadim-i-Punjab" (one who has devoted himself to serve his province). At the entrance of the assembly building, some members shouted at and pounced upon the media persons.

Images of the scuffles carried so graphically by print and electronic media disturbed sections of the civil society. The result was that lawyers, students and people from other professions vowed to support the media persons. When the chief of PML-N, Mian Nawaz Sharif, felt the heat, he issued a statement from London, directing his brother Shabaz Sharif to go soft on media and, if necessary, shunt out MPAs like Mastikhel. Viewing the general mood of the newsmen, Shahbaz Sharif hinted at the possibility of getting the infamous resolution scrapped.

Looking at the emerging standoff between media and the parliamentarians, the common people recalled the good old days when media and parliamentarians coexisted amicably. Even if the demands of their profession required some sort of a confrontation, the combatants belonged to a slightly better breed that cared for traditional values. On both sides of the political divide, there were foes who hesitated in hitting below the belt.

Among the old-time parliamentarians, there were men like Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan and Mumtaz Daultana. Nawabzada Nasrullah had the lines of classical poets on his fingertips. When in a situation of confrontation in the assembly, he would recite the familiar lines: "Ijz-o-Niaz se to na aya wo rah per; daman ko us ke aaj hareefana khaincheaye!" If he found the politics to have become sour, he would immediately do the balancing act by attempting some crisis management and sweeten the mutual relationship by sending boxes of the delicious Sindhri mangoes even to his political foes.

In the print media, there were men like Nisar Usmani, Minhaj Barna and Hameed-ud-Din Burki, who weighed and judged the nuances in their dispatches. They filed perfectly-written stories and even the shrewdest of news editors did not think it proper to remove or add so much as a semi-colon in their prose.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, there were journalists like Murtaza Malik and Hafiz Sanaullah who were both committed to their profession. They were trained to call a spade a spade but all the same they were equally respected by traditional rivals such as Khan Abdul Wali Khan and Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan. In their time, they made scoops that created sensation but still they did not go to the extent of being part of the tehelka.com brand of journalism.

One can recall the days when senior journalist Iqbal Riaz used to be the bureau chief in Peshawar of daily Nawa-i-Waqt. Whenever Khan Abdul Wali Khan addressed a press conference in Bilour House, Iqbal Riaz made it a point to cover it personally. With his typically devastating satire, Wali Khan used to deride the publication that Iqbal Riaz represented: "Eternally opposed to the ideals of National Awami Party (NAP)", as his faction was then called, "is a Sanskritised Punjab newspaper which, if translated into English, means opportunism"! Except for Iqbal Riaz, every other person in the news conference would laugh himself out at the sense of humour of the Utmanzai politician.

No laughing matter, however, is the ongoing confrontation between parliamentarians and media persons. Federal Minister of Railways, Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, for instance, warned the general public to beware of such a confrontation. He wondered if the media persons knew that the timing of the gathering storm did not augur well for the beloved homeland and its nascent democratic system.

Just before the warning came from the minister, some of the MPAs in Punjab Assembly, overcome with emotion, wept and alleged that an unholy alliance of judges, generals and journalists had suddenly emerged against the people's representatives. They further alleged that the 'unholy trinity' was conspiring against the democratic system which already stood on extremely shaky grounds. Elaborating their point of view, the MPAs said that if the educational degrees were really fake why these were not verified during the days of General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf.

It was significant to note that when the fake degrees scandal was at its peak, PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif packed up and flew off to London to enjoy the pleasant English summer. As if this was not a surprise enough, the party MNA, Abid Sher Ali, in charge of looking into the fake degrees scam, also left for London. In a statement, however, he said that he had been planning the visit for a long time and his temporary absence from the country should not be interpreted as a tacit direction from Mian Nawaz Sharif to slow down on his vital probe.

As journalists observed Sunday as Black Day against the Punjab Assembly resolution, the fake degrees scam cast its menacing shadows on the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and Peshawar University where the employees were asked to submit their educational degrees to the concerned authorities. The flurry of unusual activities has been causing mixed feelings of mystery and amusement.