Intellectual
Dishonesty
By Dr. Misbah Azam
Phoenix, AZ
The Lal Masjid episode is still not over and
with every passing day more questions are surfacing
than the answers. It is encouraging that most
sections of the media and the civil society are
keeping the pressure on the government to get
those answers which all Pakistanis – living
at home or abroad – would want to know.
Once again the government is staying on its traditional
course of hiding the truth and resorting to cover-ups
in its usual clumsy way, as it has done before,
especially after the assassination of Nawab Akbar
Bugti and the reference against the Chief Justice
of Pakistan. The top leadership of PML(Q), barring
a few noticeable exceptions, is trying to avoid
the tough questions posed by commonplace people.
However, I have to say with regret that a section
of the media – especially the Urdu media
is -- intentionally or unintentionally -- trying
to glorify Mr. Ghazi and his actions. It is very
unfortunate that some of our very senior journalists
and TV talk show hosts are constantly portraying
the operation against the Lal Masjid as the war
between “Haq and Batil”.
For example, in a senior journalist’s column,
I do not remember any mention of foreigners in
the Lal Masjid but when the tape of last conversation
between Mr. Tariq Azim and Mr. Ghazi was played
one could hear Mr. Ghazi talking about his foreign
comrades. Regretfully, the respectable journalist
put a spin and called the foreigners as “kids
from foreign countries”. Not only that,
he started playing up in his column Mr. Ghazi’s
claim about the so-called “liberal and secular
extremism”. In lots of opinion pieces in
the top new papers some well-known columnists
argue that the Lal Masjid students did not kill
anyone; all they wanted was to purge the society
of the present ills. I would like those respectable
writers to remember that this is not entirely
true:
1) The trouble started on July 3, 2007, with some
students trying to occupy a nearby government
building. Within no time a fierce clash took place
between the armed seminary students and security
troops when some students opened fire at the Rangers
during negotiations at the main entrance of the
mosque after a protest demonstration by the Talibat
of the Jamia Hafsa. In the firing, Lance Naik
Mubarik Hussain and Lance Naik Ghulam Abbas of
the Panjnad Rangers sustained multiple bullet
injuries and were shifted to the Federal Government
Services Hospital (FGSH). Mubarik died during
surgery while Abbas was reported in critical condition.
2) Then the spokesman for the Lal Masjid administration,
Maulana Abdul Qayum, told The News International
(not the government agencies) on Tuesday that
suicide bombers of the Lal Masjid had been granted
permission to find targets on their own and strike
wherever they choose. Some students of Lal Masid
after a fierce gun battle with the law-enforcing
agencies on Tuesday set the building of the Ministry
of Environment on fire causing loss of millions
of rupees to the national exchequer. Valuable
vehicles of the high officials of the ministry
were burnt while vehicles parked outside the building
were severely.
3) Before that, the students were involved in
kidnappings and attacking businesses and burning
shopkeepers’ properties, depriving them
of their means of bread and butter.
All this was done by the students of the Lal Masjid
at the behest of the Ghazi brothers.
The government’s argument about not giving
Mr. Ghazi and his comrades safe passage is understandable
but to be sure more time could have been given
to Mr. Ghazi to back off. The government too is
to be blamed for the crisis from its beginning
in early 2007.
As stated earlier, the media’s role was
not all that commendatory during the crisis. Mr.
Ghazi was constantly shown involved in unnecessary
debates and philosophical arguments on different
TV channels. The TV channels intentions could
have been good but with over-exposure Mr. Ghazi
became more intransigent in his demands which
made Ch. Shujaat’s job of negotiations more
difficult.
Sustained media pressure is very healthy since
it forces the government to open up and reveal
the truth about what really happened. However,
the media carries a huge responsibility on its
shoulders. Its members are not justified in imposing
their personal likes and dislikes on the viewers
at the cost of objectivity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
