Lies and Half-truths in the WoT

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Ignorance takes a front seat​

By Nasser Khan

ALL is grist that goes to the US mills. The July 21, 2008 issue of Time magazine carries a picture of a conventional government-run school with the caption, ‘A madressah in Peshawar. The authorities say some madressahs breed militants’.

The picture attempts to complement a feature warning of rising radicalism in Pakistan. It shows miserable struggling schoolboys in their black militia uniforms taking exams under the watchful eye of invigilators while sitting cross-legged on the pebbles-strewn surface.

This is not an unimportant episode in the war against terror. Whatever is reported in the US media is taken at face value. One can, therefore, hardly afford leaving such serious matters to chance. The attention of the editor of the magazine was drawn towards this glaring incident of misreporting with a request for a correction but it remained unheeded. They say in Pashto that lies may destroy several villages before the truth is revealed.

The picture could send a very bad image of the wretched students and their city to the outside world despite the fact that unlike their peers in the US these boys may never have indulged in a shooting spree in any institution of the land.

Unfortunately, however, ignorance is all-pervasive or perhaps the truth is being stifled for ulterior motives. Imran Khan, the chief of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, was recently heard on a private television channel putting forth a bizarre rationale for the ongoing insurgency in Swat. Mr Khan argued that militancy was the natural reaction of the people of Swat against the non-implementation of the promised Sharia in the area. Nothing can be farther from the truth. To draw such conclusions and to then stick to them vehemently is to do so at great cost not only to the facts but also to the memory of scores of innocent victims who have fallen prey to militancy.

The six districts and one provincially administered tribal area of the defunct Malakand division constitute 40 per cent of the territorial area of the NWFP. Of the over 20m inhabitants of the province, approximately 30 per cent, or more than six million, live in the Malakand region. Significantly, these figures make Malakand the Balochistan and Punjab of the Frontier in terms of area and population respectively.

Since cricketers are fond of statistics, Imran Khan needs to correct his information. In the beautiful vastness of Malakand, the insurgency is restricted to Matta and a few surrounding areas in the Swat district where some hardened militants have entrenched themselves. The rest of the area of Malakand and its six million people — minus 1,000 or so — are merely bearing the brunt of the orgy.

Many confuse the present insurgency with the Sharia movement launched by Mullah Sufi Mohammad in the 1990s. Can Imran Khan be excused for being so ill-informed? The old mullah subsequently made a laughing stock of himself by leading thousands of people armed with sticks and axes across the border into Afghanistan to fight the US-led forces.

A youthful mullah called Fazlullah, said to be the son-in-law of Sufi Mohammad, is leading the present insurgency that erupted more as a reaction against the storming of the Lal Masjid in Islamabad. Before that, Fazlullah had catapulted to fame courtesy his sermons on an FM radio station through which he is said to have deprived hundreds of households of their prized belongings. But people in the know of things believe, and the people of Malakand testify to it, that Fazlullah is the make-believe face of alien forces. People in Swat keep pointing out that they have not heard of any of the deceased militants being owned by the locals or buried during solemn funeral rites in the area.

Despite a larger following, the Sharia movement led by the old patriarch, Sufi Mohammad, was by and large peaceful. Sufi’s misadventure caused very few casualties and negligible loss to state property. On the other hand, the present-day militants are focusing on eliminating barbers, video shops, government servants and of course girls’ schools and colleges. In an apparent attempt signifying ‘mea culpa’, Sufi Mohammad can now be seen unsuccessfully trying to cool down tempers. But the level of fear has reached such a pitch that it has pushed the voice of reason to bottomless depths. None of the very highly educated past and present parliamentarians of the religious right have come out in defence of their alma maters.

The worst example of ignorance, in fact of deliberate disinformation, makes barbers central to the war on terror. On a lighter note, the attacks on barbers’ shops show the level of utter frustration among the militants that has brought them down from the dizzying heights of the Twin Towers to the mud-built shacks of barbers in the Frontier. In more serious terms, it portends the disastrous lengths to which the militants are prepared to go to paralyse normal life. If nothing else, this aspect of the militants’ benighted zeal should have alerted those who have been calling for a dialogue with the ‘holy warriors’.

The Frontier is at the crossroads. British chronicles of the times in the area are replete with examples of engagement with tribesmen in the rough terrain of the province. But none of those skirmishes could be likened to the ongoing eccentric hostilities. Statistics showing the number of widows, orphans and the maimed, whenever they are made available, will go a long way in shaming the perpetrators. The landlocked province of the Frontier has a very high rate of unemployment which is worsening from year to year as has been noted in census reports. By depriving thousands of self-employed people of their livelihood, the militants seem to be working according to an agenda designed to swell their ranks.

The government needs to take stock of the situation from this perspective and come out with a tell-all story. Lack of verifiable information helps the cause of militants as they succeed in enlisting the sympathies of less caring people and their leaders. The government must step in and equip people with the kind of information that would help stem militancy. Truth is the weapon that the government should not hesitate to use.

DAWN - Opinion; August 13, 2008

 

[dr.umer]

People build their opinion mostly through print & electronic media everywhere in the world. Responsibility not only lies on the shoulder of govt but also on media. Unfortunately media in Pakistan is bias in most of their opinion towards facts. I am not talking about weather news but news of national significance. Our media lacks the moral courage to show such mistakes of international press to the people of Pakistan. Truth is surely a weapon govt should equip people with but again intentions matter. As far as i can see, only power struggle is the aim of Govt & allied media parties are waiting for bounty of this power war on the basis of their efficient reporting. National interest & image of Pakistan in international community is their least concern.