مبشر لقمان صاحب کے کل رات کے پروگرام کو دیکھنے کے باد اس بات کا انداذہ ھوتا ھے کہ شاید لقمان صاحب پروگرام سے پھلے اپنا ھوم ورک کرنا بھول گئے۔ لقمان صاحب نے پھر وھی سات ھزار ویزاز والا سوال کیا جس کا جواب کئ بار دیا جا چکا ھے۔ اس کے الاوہ لقمان صاحب کی بات چیت سے کچھ یوں لگ رھا تھا جیسے وہ کسی وجھ کے تحت جان بوجھ کر پرانی خبروں پر چٹ پٹا مصالحہ لگا کر حاظرین کو پیش کر رھے ھیں۔
سب سے پھلے تو اس بات کی وضاحت کر دی جائے کہ نجم سیٹھی صاحب نے اپنے پروگرام “آپس کی بات“ میں امریکی ویزاز کے حوالے سے تمام سوالات کا بخوبی جواب دیا تھا اور سب تحفظات کو دور کر دیا تھا- اسی پروگرام کی ایک کلپ ملاحظہ فرمایں
دوم، پاکستان میڈیا واچ نے بھی اسی اشو کے حوالے سے ایک طویل مضمون چھاپا تھا جس میں باقاعدہ اعدادوشمار پیش کیے گئے۔اور اس بات کی کافی گھری وضاحت کی گئ کے کوئ بھی ویزا اسلام آباد سے اجازت کے بغیر نھیں دیا گیا۔واشنگٹن ڈی سی میں موجود پاکستانی ایمبسی کے فراھم کردہ حقائق ان تمام غلط فھمیوں کو بہت پھلے ھی دور کر چکے ھیں جن کا تذکرہ لقمان صاحب کر رھے ھیں۔ اسی پریس کانفرنس کی ایک کلپ ایک بار پھر ملاحظہ فرمایں
پروگرام کے آخر میں مبشر لقمان صاحب امریکہ میں موجود پاکستانی سفیر حسین حقانی پر یہ بھی بلا ثبوت الزام لگاتے ھیں کہ وہ مستقل طور پر امریکہ میں رھائش پزیر ھیں اور پاکستان کے “دشمن“ملک یعنی امریکہ کا ساتھ دے رھے ھیں۔ شاید لقمان صاحب کو دوشت اور دشمن میں اب بھی فرق نظر نھیں آتا۔
دراصل اگر بات کی تہ تک جایا جاے تو اس بات کا پتا چلتا ھے کے دنیا ٹی وی کی ایک اور مشھور اینکر مھر بخاری بھی اسی طرح کی غلط فھمیوں کو سنسنی خیز خبروں کا زوپ دے کر اپنے پروگرام کی ریٹنگز بڑھاتی ھیں۔ ضیا احمد صاحب اپنے ایک مضمون میں میں یھان تک لکھتے ھیں کے پنجاب گورنر سلمان تاثیر کا خون ان صاحبہ کے سر پر ھے۔ مھر بخاری جن کو اپنی اسی رپورٹنگ کی وجہ سے سمئا ٹی وی سے فارغ کر دیا گیا تھا آج دنیا ٹی وی پر اوربھی بھاری تنخواہ وصول کر رھی ھیں۔
اگر ان تمام باتوں پر غور کیا جائے تو ھمیں دنیا ٹی وی کی رپورٹنگ میں ایک کافی بڑا نقص نظر آتا ھے اور وہ یے ھے کہ دنیا ٹی وی چینل صرف اپنی ریٹنگز کی خاطر عوام کے جزبات سے کھیل رھا ھے اور بلا ثبوت لوگوں پر الزام تراشی میں مصروف ھے۔
Two items must be noted about the episode of Khari Baat of 4 July. First is that Mubashir Lucman repeats the old debunked visa conspiracy theory. Actually this claim that there are 7,000 Raymond Davis’s running around Pakistan is not only disproven but quite ridiculous also.
In February, Ambassador Husain Haqqani held a press conference where he opened the books for journalists to inspect and revealed that actually there were no increases in the number of visas granted to American officials, even providing clear data to prove the case once and for all.
This conspiracy theory has been trotted out since being disproven whenever convenient, but no evidence has ever been provided that counters the data provided by the Embassy in Washington. On Aapas Ki Baat, Najam Sethi explained why this claim is nothing but misinformation.
So why does Mubashir Lucman try to bring up this nonsense? Unfortunately, it appears that it may have been more than an innocent mistake. At the close of the program, Lucman accuses Ambassador Haqqani of being an “agent” without any supporting evidence. Such allegations are not “news” or “analysis”, they are simply personal attacks that could be considered libelous. Such behaviour is both inflammatory and unprofessional in a journalistic context.
Neither is this the first time that Mubashir has stooped to inflammatory statements on his show. His coverage of the Mukhtar Mai case even drove one fellow journalist to write an open letter to Mubashir Lucman that termed his show “appalling” and “a vicious attack” on women’s rights that “feed the vicious cycle of prejudice against rape victims, making the fight for justice harder”.
Unfortunately, this type of behaviour is not isolated to one anchor on Dunya TV, but could be seen as part of a larger pattern.
It should be noted here that following the murder of Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer, Meher Bokhari came under severe criticism from fellow journalists for her sensational and inflammatory treatment of Gov Taseer leading up to his death. Some wrote openly saying that Meher Bokhari has blood on her hands and Bokhari was summarily sacked by Samaa TV owner Zafar Siddiqui who was upset that his channel had broadcast such a show.
They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and it was not long after being sacked by Samaa TV that Dunya TV came calling and offered even larger jahez for the tainted bride’s hand. This blog wrote at the time that such an event would send a negative signal to media.
If Meher Bokhari gets a raise following a large PEMRA fine, TV anchors will see her as an example of how to advance their careers: pander to the extremist gallery and exploit religious sentiments while shouting your way to the top. Media chiefs likewise will see that the government’s regulatory body is toothless and will ignore warnings and fines as they attempt to boost ratings by outdoing each other with more and more outrageous programming.
Sadly, this appears to be coming true as a disturbing pattern is emerging at Dunya TV. The channel appears to be rewarding anchors who make inflammatory and sensational statements, whipping up public sentiments based on emotion and not facts.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani was not ‘shell-shocked’, as reported in a newspaper report, when a poll he took during a lecture in Islamabad last week reflected anti-American sentiment among the audience, a statement posted on Pakistan Media Watch, a website devoted to fact-checking, said.
The website also placed a video of the ambassador’s exchange with students of National Defence University (NDU) in support of its assertion, saying the May 21 report in The Nation mischaracterised his speech about foreign policy and Pak-US relations.
“Nowhere in the video does one see a ‘shell-shocked’ or ‘speechless’ Ambassador,” the statement said, referring to the newspaper report. “Also, video clearly shows that the exchange was part of a broader, friendly discussion with NDU students about how foreign policy and specifically Pak-US relations should be considered with logic and reason and not emotions driving the debate.”
This is a good example for other media groups to follow. It is not unheard of that a news source will give incorrect information either intentionally or unintentionally and the reporter may be none the wiser. Even the great journalist make mistakes sometimes or are misled themselves. It is a sign of the greatest journalistic professionalism to admit those mistakes and offer corrections so that the readers will get the correct information. The Nation deserves recognition for issuing a correction. We hope other media groups will follow this example.
On 18 May, Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani arrived at National Defence University Islamabad to speak to students about foreign policy and Pak-US relations. A few days later, on 21 May, The Nation published an article titled ‘NDU audiences response surprises Haqqani’. This article, based on “sources privy to this lecture” described the Ambassador’s speech as following:
According to them, during the questions and answers session in post lecture time, Ambassador Haqqani stopped to ask the audience, “How many of you think that India is Pakistan’s enemy number one?” Reportedly, less than half of the audience raised hands in response. The insiders quote Ambassador Haqqani as rephrasing this question with slight replacements. “How many of you think that Pakistan’s enemy number one comes from within?” This time, some of the audience raised hands.
Perhaps disappointed with these ‘unsatisfactory’ answers, the ‘curious’ envoy, made a hat-trick of his queries by repeating the same question in the same tone with a final ‘modification’. “How many of you think that the US is Pakistan’s enemy number one?” he asked.
The ambassador was shell-shocked to see the ‘overwhelming’ response coming from the audiences in a reflection of anti-US sentiment.
Majority of the audiences, this time, raised hands in response to what Haqqani has asked. Stunned for a few moments, the speechless envoy than gathered his nerve to make this brief utterance. “Then I’m afraid you have lost already. The US will do whatever it wants to and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said to wind up the lecture.
Pakistan Media Watch has obtained video footage of the lecture from National Defence University Islamabad that proves this report is false and possibly defamatory.
After viewing the video of the lecture, it is clear that The Nation report is a mischaracteristion not only of the Ambassador’s question his reaction to the response also, but also misquotes his statement following the audience answer.
Ambassador Haqqani never said, “The US will do whatever it wants to and there’s nothing you can do about it”. Rather he said clearly that “If [the biggest threat to Pakistan's security] really comes from the United States then we’ve already lost, Ladies and Gentlemen, because you can’t beat the United States in a military confrontation and that is the reality which we have to accept whatever our emotions. Because, let us be honest, we do not have the means to take on the one military power in the world that spends more on defense technology than the next 20 nations in the world. So that is where I think we sometimes end up having what I call ‘emotional discussion’. I see it on Pakistani television all the time”.
The Ambassador then went on to continue speaking for the next 7 or 8 more minutes about the need to embrace a logical, reality based foreign policy to advance Pakistan’s interests and to focus on education and growing Pakistan’s economy as a realistic way to secure Pakistan’s interests for the future. After continuing his speech for this time, he then turned over the microphone and took questions from the audience as part of a longer discussion.
Nowhere in the video does one see a “shell-shocked” or “speechless” Ambassador. Also, he does not wind up his lecture following this question. Rather, the video clearly shows that the exchange was part of a broader, friendly discussion with NDU students about how foreign policy and specifically Pak-US relations should be considered with logic and reason and not emotions driving the debate.
Now that the facts are public, will The Nation publish a correction?
UPDATE
Dear reader @shahpak78 correctly notes that the report by The Nation may have violated NDU’s non-attribution policy which is stated:
“Presentations by guest speakers, seminar leaders, and panelists constitute an important part of University curricula. So that these guests, as well as faculty and other University officials, may speak candidly, the University offers its assurance that their presentations at the Colleges, or before other NDU-sponsored audiences, will be held in strict confidence. This assurance derives from a policy of non-attribution that is morally binding on all who attend: without the express permission of the speaker, nothing he or she says will be attributed to that speaker directly or indirectly in the presence of anyone who was not authorized to attend the lecture or presentation.”
Last year we ran a short series on ‘Wishful Journalism’ that included an piece about media predictions that Husain Haqqani’s removal was imminent. These predictions were eventually proven incorrect, and the Ambassador was given an extension of one year. As that one-year extension approached its end this month, the predictions were once again revived and several media outlets quoting mysterious and unnamed sources announced that Husain Haqqani would be removed from his post by May. Once again, the predictions proved incorrect.
Foreign Office on Monday clarified that Ambassador Hussain Haqqani will continue with his post at Washington.
In response to media reports regarding the replacement of Haqqani with another senior politician, the Foreign Office spokesperson termed these as “untrue”.
A section of press quoting sources had published that the government had decided to replace Hussain Haqqani with a politician who was also a former foreign minister.
However, the Foreign Office categorically said that Haqqani would continue with his responsibilities as ambassador in Washington.
It should be noted that the reports in Pakistan Today, The Nation, and Pakistan Observer were all based on anonymous ‘sources’. Why did none of these newspapers take the simple step of picking up the phone and calling the FO to confirm what their sources told them? It should also be asked if these newspapers will continue to use the sources that have misled them.
Another point to be raised is that the report predicting Haqqani’s removal included a restatement of the disproven visa conspiracy. As has been explained numerous times, the issuance of a large number of visas in one day was not done for “likes of [Raymond] Davis”, but for an official delegation from the US including Hilary Clinton’s staff and security. According to evidence provided at the Embassy press conference in February, these individuals were only in the country for 2-3 days.
Media has proven exceptionally bad at predicting the future. Thankfully, this is an unnecessary role. Actually the people would be much better served if the media stuck to its proper role of reporting the present and doing so based on facts that have been verified and not anonymous rumours.
When the US under President George Bush decided to invade Iraq, a well documented propaganda campaign was undertaken in which the American people were convinced that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 attacks – a piece of misinformation that was necessary to justify the invasion of Iraq. The propaganda tactic used was a simple one – repeat the misinformation enough, even after it is disproven – and enough people will either believe the lie or be confused about the issue that space will be available to promote a political agenda.
Ahmed Quraishi’s latest column for The News uses this same neocon propaganda tactic of repeating a claim even after it has been disproven.
A third issue is the role of President Zardari, his interior minister and his Washington envoy in facilitating the entry of hundreds of US operatives into Pakistan over the past months. It is clear that the US government and CIA rely on proxies to further its agenda in Pakistan. This must come to an end. The personal interests of individuals in the Pakistani government must never trump national interest. The Oman meeting indicates the goal now is to sweep all these urgent issues under the carpet in the name of saving Pak-US relationship.
But Ahmed Quraishi does not stop with simply repeating disproven conspiracy theories, he goes a step further by making unfounded smears against unnamed government officials. Suggesting that “individuals in the Pakistani government” are putting personal interests above national interest is a straw man type of argument. If Ahmed Quraishi has some evidence of a government official putting personal interest above national interest, why does he not name the individual and the instance so that it can be investigated? Actually, this appears to be nothing but an attempt to smear the names of individuals while side-stepping liability for defamation lawsuits.
Ahmed Quraishi is not the only person repeating this misinformation. The claim is also repeated by Dr Raja Muhammad Khan in a piece that was published in both Pak Observer and Daily Mail on the same day. But this “Dr Khan” does not even get his facts right from the first two sentences. According to Dr Khan’s column, Raymond Davis, “now works for Xe, commonly known as the Blackwater”. This is false. It has been reported that Raymond Davis was once a special forces soldier who then worked for Xe and left some time ago. He now works for Hyperion Protective Consultants.
But this is not the only error in Dr Khan’s column. He raises the common talking point that the Embassy in Washington issued 400 visas to US nationals in two days, but he does not explain that the majority of these visas were issued for a state visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staff and security before a July 2010 visit. According to the Embassy, these American officials were only in Pakistan for 2-3 days.
Dr Khan quotes the number per the Embassy that “approximately 3,555 U.S. diplomats, military officials and employees of allied agencies were issued visas in 2010”, but as it was explained last month, most of the US officials and contractors were only in the country for three months each, so the total number of US nationals in Pakistan would be 1/4 to 1/3 of the total number of visas issues during the year. This means that at any given moment there are probably 1,000 or fewer US officials in Pakistan.
This number should also be viewed in context. Since the 1980s the number of US diplomatic visas has been roughly the same. During the Cold War when the CIA and ISI were working together to support the Afghan mujahideen, the largest CIA station in the world was in Pakistan. During this time under Gen. Zia, as many as 780 US diplomats were listed in the Islamabad Diplomatic List. Dr Khan claims that “there have been no worthwhile voices on these expansionist designs of US in Pakistan from various circles”, but the truth is that there are no signs of expansionist designs.
In addition to the factual errors of Dr Khan, it is also curious that he concludes his article with the same smear that Ahmed Quraishi uses. Dr Khan says, “The broad criterion should be that, our personal relations and personal gains should not govern the national interests of Pakistan.” Was this some mere coincidence that both Ahmed Quraishi and Dr Khan are writing the same smears, or is this a case of talking points being provided to guide the writers?
It seems there is even more to the story. After some additional searching based on phrases used by Dr Khan, some very curious facts came to light.
On 28 February 2011 at 1:10PM the following comment was posted to an article on the website of Express Tribune by someone named ‘Abdul Rauf Hashmi’:
Who is Spying on Whom?
Let there be end to the era of special protocol for US spying network in Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan must investigate all those responsible for the flaws in the visa issuance process and reprimand them on their act. The broad criterion should be that, our personal relations and personal gains should not govern the national interests of Pakistan. The sovereignty, integrity and national pride of Pakistan should be kept in the forefront, while developing our relationship across the national frontiers.
Let there be end to the era of special protocol for US spying network in Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan must investigate all those responsible for the flaws in the visa issuance process and reprimand them on their act. The broad criterion should be that, our personal relations and personal gains should not govern the national interests of Pakistan. The sovereignty, integrity and national pride of Pakistan should be kept in the forefront, while developing our relationship across the national frontiers.
Further searching reveals that this same article by ‘Dr Raja Muhammad Khan’ first appeared on the website Opinion-Maker.org, the website of “virtual Think Tank” named ‘O.M. Center for Policy Studies’ which chaired by Major Raja Ghulam Mujtaba.
Major Mujtaba also serves as Islamabad Editor for VeteransToday.com, which is the website of one Mr “Gordon Duff”. Mr. Duff describes Major Mujtaba’s relations with the ISI in an interview of September 2010.
Well, I only knew one group in the world that I could con into reading (chuckling) 90,000 pages of documents. So, I called our editor in Islamabad, Major Raja Mujtaba and had him forward my request to Brigadier General Asif Haroon Raja who forwarded it to the head of Pakistan’s ISI, and the ISI assigned a group of analysts who, going through the 69,000 pages of documents — I would almost rather have Brigadier Raja on the phone with us here — and that can be arranged and probably should.
But one does not even have to go that far. Just look at the Board of Advisors for Major Mujtaba’s own ‘Think Tank’ called “Opinion Maker Center for Policy Studies.”
Dr Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema of National Defense University who founded Defense & Strategic Studies department in Quaid-i-Azam University
Mr Tarik Jan author of books including Universalizing the Abrahamic Tradition, Towards the Universal Islamic State, and the editor of Pakistan’s Security and the Nuclear Option
Dr Tahir Amin of Quaid-i-Azam University
Brig Asif Haroon Raja
Maj Gen Parvez Akmal (Retd)
Maj General Muhammad Tahir (Retd)
Dr S. M. Rahman is Secretary General FRIENDS founded by General Mirza Aslam Beg
Mansoor Malik who worked on F-16 Aircraft Weapons System for PAF
Col Bakhtiar Hakeem
Air Commodore Khalid Iqbal
Also, who else should show up on the ‘About Us’ page of Opinion-Maker.org but Ahmed Quraishi himself. Perhaps there is no coincidence that he and Dr Khan have reached the same conclusion?
According to his bio on this website, Mr Quraishi “has been commissioned for public policy outreach projects as a consultant, serving mostly government clients in the larger Middle East region”.
But all of this information only raises further questions. Who is this “Dr Raja Muhammad Khan”? His bio on the Opinion-Maker.org website says he is Associate Professor with National Defence University Islamanad. Now he is also writing for websites with links to military and intelligence officers. Was this investigated by Jang Group when they published over 20 stories by him since 2009? The same question must be asked of The Nation which has published columns by him as well. Why did these newspapers not inform their readers of the author’s associations?
It also raises the question whether journalism has become the favourite retirement hobby for our military and intelligence officers. It seems that there is virtually no end to the number of “Think Tanks” that are paying retired officers to write ‘analysis’ that ends up spread in newspapers and websites. Also, who is funding all of these websites and newspapers that are proliferating throughout the country? Surely all of these Generals are not donating their time for free.
Unfortunately, the answers to these questions must wait until another day. But one thing is clear, Pakistani media is infested not only with conspiracy theories, but with propaganda rings that seek not to inform but to manipulate. As long as this is the case, media freedom is only an illusion.
When I posted about the death of the Visa Conspiracy I wondered who would be the first person to dig the grave and drag the rotting corpse back out for one final blow. I must admit I was surprised, though, to see it not from one of the usual suspects but from CM Shahbaz Sharif’s media consultant Raoof Hasan. And yet, there it is in black and white for all the world to see, a political operative on the pages of Pakistan Today blatantly trading on the name of the Chief Minister Punjab and hacking away at the smelling corpse of a conspiracy theory only long since dead and buried.
After announcing that Raymond Davis “is not a diplomat and does not enjoy immunity” (who knew that Raoof Hasan is not only media consultant to CM Punjab but also serves as the new Foreign Minister?), Raoof proceeds directly to energetically flogging the conspiracy theory.
There are scores of other Raymonds roaming the roads of Pakistan. Most of them have entered the country on the basis of special visas granted by the president’s man in Washington – one Mr. Hussain Haqqani. The choice diplomat has been taking pains to explain that all visas to the Americans were issued with due authorisation. That does not exonerate Mr. Haqqani from culpability. It only proves that there were others involved in the scam also!
As a reminder, here is the press conference of Ambassador Husain Haqqani that Mr Raoof Hasan is referring to:
Yes, the Ambassador did “explain that all visas to the Americans were issued with due authorisation”, and he did so by opening the books and providing the facts and data to journalists. One might request that if Raoof Hasan is going to contradict the Ambassador’s evidence he would please provide his own evidence of these “scores of Raymonds roaming the roads of Pakistan”. If he could provide some actual IDs, then surely we can have them declared ‘persona non grata’ and removed before they do any harm. If he cannot provide any IDs then could it be that he is simply making it up?
Raoof Hasan
According to Raoof Hasan, the streets are crawling with Raymond Davis’s and the halls of power are packed with conspirators. Raoof Hasan knows this, but he cannot provide any data, any facts, or any actual names of the invaders or the conspirators either. But no matter, he has learned well the lesson of the master media manipulator: “All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
Raoof’s response to Ambassador Haqqani’s opening the books and providing evidence that buries the dead horse once and for all is actually rather pathetic as well. According to Raoof, if the Ambassador has proof that all visas were issued with due authorisation then it only means that more people must be involved in the conspiracy! No amount of facts will matter because Raoof Hasan has made up his mind. Please. This is not serious analysis, it is political hackery only.
What is most curious about this bit of paranoid propaganda, however, is that it is attributed to Raoof Hasan not as ‘political analyst’ which is his usual by line for articles in The News but as ‘media consultant to the Chief Minister, Punjab’. It must be asked then if Shahbaz Sharif is aware that Raoof Hasan is trading on his name and this the official position of Shahbaz Sharif and the Punjab government also?
Whatever the answer, one question remains. After the evidence is provided, why did the editors at Pakistan Today agree to run such a piece that clearly ignores facts and data only to promote a discredited conspiracy theory invented to cause fear in the public? When Arif Nizami decided to launch his newspaper, there was some question as to whether he would provide a fact-based alternative to the paranoid Nazariya-e-Pakistan content of uncle Majeed’s newspaper. That is something certainly needed. What is not needed is another media group promoting paranoid conspiracy theories.
It was said by Hermann Goering during the Nuremberg Trials,
“The people don’t want war, but” they “can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
The Germans told that Jews were invading, the American right-wing tells the story about Muslims, and the British even used to tell their children that Napoleon Bonaparte was stalking the streets. Here, certain elements here have been telling the story that the Embassy in Washington has been granting countless visas to Americans with no security checks. It’s all part of the same strategy to create fear and suspicion in the minds of the masses which makes them easier to control. The actual evidence, however, tells a different story. It turns out that the Americans are not invading after all. As for the rotting corpse of the Visa Conspiracy, let us finally bury it once and for all.
The Visa Conspiracy states that the Embassy in Washington has been giving out visas like sweetmeats to every American Rambo who comes calling. Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani who has been at the center of these conspiracies held a press conference providing Embassy data on issuance of visas to journalists so that they will be armed with the facts and not the talking points of political operatives.
An APP report in Daily Times on Friday quoted the Ambassador as directly challenging claims in the media that the Embassy in Washington had issued visas without following proper authorisation.
“The embassy has not issued any visa without proper authorisation,” he stated, rebutting media accounts. The critics, he added, have not been able to bring to light even a single instance in which a visa was issued without following authorisation.
But the Ambassador did not stop with simply making denials which of course the conspiracy wallahs would simply ignore. Rather he opened the books and provided the data which proves beyond any doubt that the scare tactics being used are simply ghost stories and nothing more.
The following charts have been made available which show the data of visa issuance since 2007.
If this is an invasion, it’s going to take a thousand years. Actually according to the US Embassy in Islamabad, there are 700,000 Pakistanis in the US. And let’s not forget the terror that was struck into the hearts of our media when it was threatened to take away their own visas to the US!
This data finally puts to rest the Conspiracy Theory that has been beaten to death by Abdul Zahoor Khan Marwat, Shireen Mazari, Ansar Abbasi, and Ahmed Quaishi. These so-called journalists should be quite relieved as they can finally rest their arms which must be exhausted from beating this dead horse for so long. Obviously they never had any actual data to back up their claims, but simply relied on ‘reports’ from unnamed sources, if these sources even actually exist. Real reporting is not inventing stories to scare people, it’s doing careful research to identify facts and then presenting those facts to the reader so that he can understand the world around him. Now that we have buried this conspiracy, let’s have more real reporting, please.
For the second day in a row, The News has featured incomprehensible coverage of President Zardari’s trip to the US for the memorial of diplomat Richard Holbrooke.
The meeting between President Barack Obama and President Asif Ali Zardari has taken place without a formal agenda and no official brief account of the bilateral ties was readily available to the visiting president that could help him in the talks.
But on the front page of this very same newspaper on the very same day featured an article titled, ‘US to find new ways to strengthen Pak Democracy’ by reporter Sami Abraham that details the talks between US President Barack Obama and President Zardari. This article details the President’s schedule and the topics of discussion as per the interview of the Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani. The newspaper even featured a photograph of this supposedly ‘mysterious meeting’ between President Obama and President Zardari.
Why did The News not give Muhammad Saleh Zaafir same access to the interview of Ambassador Husain Haqqani so that his name would not be attached to a bizarre article on page 4 that is easily answered by reading page 1?
It should also be asked why The News continues to print such bizarre accounts of President Zardari’s trip to the US. As we noted yesterday, the same newspaper had printed an article filled with easily disproven inaccuracies.
When our leaders are visiting foreign dignitaries and officials, the people have a right to know how their nation is being represented. From the front page story by Sami Abraham the people were given an inside view to what would normally be a very private meeting. So why did The News introduce confusion by then on page 4 terming the meeting ‘mysterious’ and saying that nobody knows what was said?
If this was an error on the part of editors, Jang Group should conduct internal discussions to find out how it was able to happen so that it can be prevented in the future. If it was an intentional act of some employees to case a negative light on the nation’s leaders for a purely political agenda then those employees should be disciplined for failing to uphold the standards of professional journalism.
Whatever the cause, this is the second day in a row that The News has offered unreliable and confusing reports to the people about high-level international meetings. We deserve better.
Talat Hussain, a man who has (or should I say had) a reputation for being at least bearable among the insufferable lot of TV anchors, has done it again. The anchor, on his struggling-for-rating program “News Night with Talat” recently attacked Husain Haqqani, ambassador of Pakistan to US questioning the ambassador’s loyalty and motives.
He took a couple of Haqqanis quotations out of context from Bob Woodward’s book “Obamas Wars” and directly attacked Haqqani saying that these types of comments should make us reconsider the type of people representing us. Talat Hussain has picked up two things that Woodward has quoted the Ambassador as saying in the context of Pakistan and US relations; one where the Ambassador talks about “carpet merchants” and the other where the Ambassador talks about the need to “woo a woman” and importance of giving an engagement ring.
The first quote which Talat talks about out of context as directly taken from Woodward’s book, is as follows:
He [Haqqani] also warned that the Pakistanis would always ask for the moon as a starting point in negotiations. He compared it to the salesmanship of rug merchants. “The guy starts at 10,000 and you settle for 1,200″ Haqqani told the Obama team. “So be reasonable, but never let the guy walk out of the shop without a sale.”
It is important to mention here that ambassador Haqqani was talking about how people and nations negotiate. Each side always starts with a long list of issues and then as you keep discussing and negotiating you come down to the bare essentials. And what is important, as the Ambassador emphasizes, is that you need to know what it is that you want. One also needs to make sure that you never let the negotiations break down so much that you have to let go of the one or two absolutely essential items that you need out of the negotiation.
If you’ve ever been on the streets of Saddar where rug merchants are trying to sell their merchandise, you can see that they start their sales pitch from an outrageous price and come down to a much more reasonable one. That is what the norm traditionally is for selling rugs. It is a noble and respectable profession that helps people provide for food and shelter. Talat Hussain was not only taking Haqqani’s words out of context here but was also belittling rug merchants by implying that selling rugs was beneath any respectable individual and that using such an example is shameful.
The second quotation that Mr. Talat Hussain talks about clearly out of context, from Woodward’s book where the ambassador talks about “wooing a woman” is:
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani, a key go-between, tried several times to explain to the Obama administration how to court Pakistani leaders, comparing the dynamic to “a man who is trying to woo a woman.” “We all know what he wants from her. Right?” Haqqani said in a meeting with Jones, Deputy National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and the NSC’s Gen. Doug Lute. “But she has other ideas. She wants to be taken to the theater. She wants that nice new bottle of perfume,” Haqqani told them. “If you get down on one knee and give the ring, that’s the big prize. And boy, you know, it works.” Haqqani said the “ring” was official U.S. recognition of Pakistan’s nuclear program as legitimate.
It’s actually quite clear that the ambassador was explaining Pakistan’s complaint against US and using an example Americans can understand. Did you notice how Talat partially explained the ambassador’s statement and left out the part about presenting of the “ring” to the woman being wooed and the part where Husain Haqqani says that the ring represents America’s public acceptance of Pakistan’s nuclear status? The ambassador was defending Pakistan’s nuclear program and trying to help Americans understand how important it is for Pakistan’s security and existence and that Americans need to accept it and learn to live with it. Listening to Talat Hussain, though, a viewer would come away with a different impression than the truth.
Talat Hussain conveniently pulled out the complete opposite meaning of what the ambassador was trying to say and started implying that Pakistan is a woman and US is a man, bringing forth his sexist nature, trying to rev up his listeners emotions without real reason.
On Hillary Clinton’s latest visit to Pakistan, our ill-informed anchor who was working for Aaj TV at the time, wanted to embarrass Hillary by proving that she was wrong and U.S did not give Pakistan enough money compared to Kyrgyzstan. He kept insisting that U.S. was paying Kyrgyzstan $640 million as rent for a military base in that country. Hillary corrected the self-righteous anchor but Talat Hussain insisted he was correct. Hillary Clinton remained polite and did not pursue the whole debate further but as it turns out, Talat was incorrect and had little regard for facts.
It is also important to point out that not too long ago Talat Hussain in his column in the Urdu daily Express News targeted the famous Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie in his shameful effort to attack the present civilian government of Pakistan. He caused an uproar among most of those people who read it not because of the just the message he was trying to get across, but in how he viciously maligned Angelina Jolie’s character to build his case. His article was condemned by majority of his readers and what he actually ended up doing was show to the public his own bigotry, his sexist attitude and his own racism (he actually called Jolie’s children as “rang barangay yateem bachay” or multi-colored orphan kids). He also showed how some hypocrites in the media write in one style for the Urdu-reading public and maintain quite a different persona for the English readership.
Playing the Machismo card to rouse the emotions of viewers is the strategy of drama serials, not series news programmes. And playing fast and loose with the statements of government officials is a style of ‘hit-and-run journalism’ that may score a short-term boost in ratings but does long-term damage to national security by giving other nations the impression that we do not even respect our own representatives so why should they. All of this together suggests a disturbing trend in Talat Hussain’s reporting – a willingness to sacrifice the truth for some cheap ratings.
A third issue is the role of President Zardari, his interior minister and his Washington envoy in facilitating the entry of hundreds of US operatives into Pakistan over the past months. It is clear that the US government and CIA rely on proxies to further its agenda in Pakistan. This must come to an end. The personal interests of individuals in the Pakistani government must never trump national interest. The Oman meeting indicates the goal now is to sweep all these urgent issues under the carpet in the name of saving Pak-US relationship.
