| 23 March 2004 | Tuesday | 01 Safar 1425 |
'My daughters are calling me back to Mumbai'
In view of the enormity and gravity of the threat to our national security due to the low ranking of Pakistan in a hypothetical "global perception index" about nations, a Pakistani response to the media world war has to be urgent, multi plistic, collective and bold in concept, operations and finances.
We are fortunate today to have the military and nuclear capacity to deter aggression against our territorial frontiers. Regrettably, we do not have the media capacity to deter the media world war against Pakistan.
To pose the situation in such terms is to exaggerate - but only just a bit, and with the best of intentions. So weak is our presence in global media that we need to dramatize the condition as a virtual war.
When it is proposed to respond to the media war on Pakistan in commensurate terms, the intent is obviously to engage in a non-violent and peaceful manner! To formulate a framework in terms of war is to stress the seriousness of the situation, and not to succumb to paranoia. We have not so far used the media as weapons for a benign war waged across the world.
The first and fundamental response has to be an acknowledgement at the highest levels of state and government that the existing picture of Pakistan projected in overseas media needs correction and improvement on an emergency basis. Such recognition will only be evident if it is accompanied by a decision to take all possible measures at, if necessary, substantial cost.
Just as a critical decision was taken in 1974 to develop nuclear weapons capacity to balance the Indian threat and to deploy all the required organizational and financial resources for this purpose, so too today, 30 years later, there is need for equivalently highest priority to be given to this subject. A substantial sum should be allocated. Timelines for tasks should be defined, targets for achievement set and all stops pulled out.
Second: the response has to be multiplistic, not solely in the media sector. Only when comprehensive measures are taken to conduct and support ijtihad, repeal outmoded and discriminatory laws, restore full democracy, improve governance, re-distribute the benefits of economic growth to reduce poverty, demilitarize the civil sectors, devolve real powers to the provinces and promote new standards in education with new curricula will there be credibility in our attempt to project a better image for our country.
Measures for most of the above institutional reforms require a medium and long-term process. Their effects will only be visible in about 3 to 10 years. But forceful action in each area has to be taken immediately so that the efforts for genuine change are instantly visible.
The responsibility is shared and collective. While the government takes the lead and suggests actions that can be taken by the other elements, there is an obligation for our political parties, our corporate sector, our civil society, our own media and overseas Pakistanis to contribute towards rectifying the situation. They can use their individual initiatives yet keep to the broad strategic aim of building a better image for the country.
One necessary component of the cross-cutting strategy is for the higher education commission to give new incentives, grants and scholarships for scholars and students in international affairs, security studies, regional cooperation, conflict resolution and peace-building.
We should be as generous in this respect as the HEC has recently been in its support to scholars in science and technology, including grants for their overseas studies.
With our extraordinary heritage of the Indus Valley civilization, the rich diversity of our ways of life, the universalist Sufi and peace-loving dimensions of our faith we possess a treasure of values, art and culture to project to the world and to world media.
From opening "Pakistan Centres" at central locations in, say, 10 leading cities of the world to serve as permanent forums for our cultural exports, to sponsoring exhibitions of our artists and painters to arranging concerts for our exponents of classical and contemporary music, we can do so much more to focus attention of overseas nations and overseas media on the creativity and talent of Pakistan.
Teams as well as individuals possessed of skills in international communication in different languages could work as "good guerillas" on commando missions travelling out of Pakistan every day throughout the year to meet overseas media, to participate in conferences and seminars, to visit campuses and interactions with professional groups. They would supplement the resources of our overseas embassies and be able to speak with far more freedom than the officials can.
To monitor sites on the World Wide Web through which considerable misinformation and disinformation are circulated about our country, we need to establish an Internet Rapid Response Unit that works round-the-clock in three shifts staffed by well-educated, well-paid, IT-savvy, subject specialists.
They would immediately counter allegations and charges against Pakistan with rebuttals, correct versions and innovative IT-relevant interventions.
As a medium and long-term initiative, we need to support the launch of at least one autonomous English language 24-hour radio channel and a similarly autonomous 24-hour TV news channel that covers the globe and is preferably based overseas. There is also a need for channels in languages such as French, Chinese, Spanish, and others.
News channels are very expensive projects requiring tens of millions of dollars to operate. But using a combination of techniques, and networking/distribution options it could be possible to make at least one or even multiple channels financially viable.
Such channels should be independent of government control and reach out to their targeted audiences across the world in the idiom and the milieu of their audiences. The quality of their content has to be competitive with the finest.
As cinema contributes a significant part of the content of TV, our own policies towards the Pakistani cinema sector should change from that of neglect and discrimination to encouragement and patronage. The censorship policy should shift from tolerating crude vulgarity in dance sequences to enabling social themes to be presented with candour and colour.
Advertising is the only element which can be applied in the short-term. An appropriately large sum needs to be invested in the 20+ OECD countries i.e. the most prosperous countries in the world, for buying space in their print media, time on their electronic media and signs in their outdoor media to convey content about Pakistan which is shaped and controlled by ourselves rather than such content being subject to editorial discretion as in their news and comment columns.
The name "Pakistan", and lively colourful messages associated with this name need to be seen throughout the year for a few years on TV channels and other media across the globe.
Such messages could focus on Pakistani exporters who add superb value to clothes sold at Bloomingdale's in New York or at Harrod's in London or at Sogo's on the Ginza in Tokyo.
Where we need to spend, say, tens of millions of dollars per year to conduct an effective defence against the media world war and open our own "fronts" on terms favourable to us, we spend only about one and a half million dollars on buying time and space in overseas media to project aspects of our country.
This sum reflects the estimated total expenditure on advertising in overseas media by the government and by all Pakistani public sector and private sector organizations, most of this on items like tender notices, not on image-building campaigns.
It is at a point such as this that the pleasure of counting our foreign exchange reserves as being over $12 billion become almost meaningless when none of this amount is being used to defend the state and our society from an overwhelmingly negative assault by global media. Seen as investment rather than as "expenditure", money spent on initiatives listed above will help generate rewarding returns.
One essential step in our response to the media world war is to delegate the media parts of this multiplistic task to a "special operations group" created for this purpose. It would be grossly unfair to expect the ministry of information and broadcasting in its present form and resources to handle this work with the speed and efficiency required. The ministry already has enough to do.
Serving as official spokesman for the government of Pakistan it has its hands full dealing with our own internal media, specially print media. It also oversees the undesirable function of approving the placement of government-controlled advertisements in print media, amongst several other functions. To expect the ministry to do justice to the new task is misplaced.
A complete break with conventional practices and procedures is required. While observing the essential norms of integrity and transparency in the use of resources, particularly of funds, only the "special operations group" working with a clear mandate and minimal length in lines of communication between the head of state and head of government can shape an effective response.
Periodic reports should be presented to a parliamentary committee to seek approval and convey progress achieved.
Those individuals selected to serve in the special operations group may number not more than 6 to 7 of acknowledged professional acumen in communication sectors and in international affairs. They should be paid handsomely to justify they being willing to move away from their existing and successful careers for at least two to three years.
Apart from preceding suggestions, there can be several others too. Some attempts are already being made from time to time. What is needed now is a new vision and vigour. In 2004, a Pakistani response to the media world war has to be initiated and conducted with a new single-minded determination. Will the actions required be initiated?
'My daughters are calling me back to Mumbai'
And so there is cause for great celebration! India and Pakistan are resuscitating the near collapse in relations. The Wagha border in Lahore has become the latest haunt of reunion for many.
Indian celebrities arriving for the cricket season have given an attack of hysteria to our glamour impoverished people. And the game of cricket itself has become a strong axis of friendship by reaching people in a way that should put politics to shame.
Everybody is happy. Everybody is rejoicing. Everybody, except Fatima Bibi: an Indian national serving a jail term well past her sentence at the Kot Lakhpat Jail, in Lahore.
She was not booked for espionage neither was she convicted of drugs trafficking. She was arrested and sentenced for one year under the 14 Foreigners Act, which meant that Fatima had illegally entered the Pakistani soil. Fatima has already served her sentence of one year and an extended term of four for her crime of 'great scale'.
But Fatima is lost somewhere in time. She does not realize how long she has been holed up in jail. All she remembers is that it has been very long - far too long to calculate time.
Behind the thick walls of the Kot Lakhpat Jail, she cannot see the easy cross-border flow of Indians and Pakistanis. Her insular world does not let in the sound of the cheering cricket crowds.
Fatima has no idea of the changed political atmosphere, which has allowed the Indian cricket team to play here after an interval of nearly 14 years. For her, the people-to-people contact is her daily communication with the other inmates. It matters not that trade will soon begin between her country and Pakistan.
She is a woman living in an abyss from where her voice remains unheard. Her sobs are drowned in the political rapprochement celebrations where each country is trying to outdo the other in cramming its container of 'confidence building measures'.
But, none of them are ready to take that crucial step for Fatima which could mean the difference between living and dying a painful death. Perhaps, the misery of one woman is far too less a price to pay for political heroism and a slick victory at the hustings.
Each night Fatima cries herself to sleep. And each night she has a recurring dream that her three daughters are calling her back to Mumbai. "She has related this dream to me several times.
Everybody at the jail feels for her, wants her to go back," says Rehana Yasmin, in charge of the woman's ward. "Please do something for her! Tell her embassy to take her back otherwise she won't survive for too long," presses Rehana.
Fatima is a shy and quiet woman. Unlike the other prisoners she keeps mostly to herself. It is only with Rehana Yasmin that she gives in to her emotions. "She's more like a mother to me than a prisoner. I'm the only one with whom she talks freely," says the female ward's in charge.
When Fatima is brought for the interview to a small white-washed, cemented cubicle, serving as a special area for visits, her eyes instantly light up. "Am I going back to Mumbai?" is her first question. But just as soon she realizes that the call to leave her cell is not for her release. The light is gone from the eyes, leaving in its place a blank, distant look.
Fatima's life was not always an account of tragedy. She lived a happy life with her husband, Abdulla, and three daughters at Worli Nakha, Mumbai, before he was shot in the 1992 Hindu-Muslim riots.
She had to sell her house to support herself and her daughters, shifting to her sister's house in the same area. Fatima's sister, Jameela and her husband, who was an imam at a local mosque, were already raising their huge family of seven and could not bear the additional burden. Jameela and her husband advised Fatima to spend the money from the house in finding work as domestic help in Dubai, while they looked after her three daughters.
Fatima went there, found work and got married to Ramzan, a widower working as a salesman at a cloth shop. Ramzan and his mother encouraged Fatima not to leave work after marriage, making her believe that her monthly earnings were being sent to her family in Mumbai. They were not!
A few months into the marriage were enough for Fatima to find out what was happening. She started pleading with her husband to send her back to India. That was when the beatings and the physical abuse started.
"My mother-in-law and husband would both hit me whenever I asked to go back. In one of the fights, she burnt my hands and face with a burning rod," says Fatima. Her scorched chin and left hand still bear the marks.
In the middle of the story, Fatima falters. "My memory has gone bad. I don't remember names and places. I don't even remember the place I lived at in Worli. All I know is that there was a dargah nearby," apologises Fatima, brushing aside a lone tear escaping from her eye.
With shoulders hunched, she goes away into that world of oblivion. Cupping her head with both her hands, Fatima shakes her head several times to recall the depressing events leading to her imprisonment.
Her story is completed by Rehana Yasmin who explains that her husband and mother-in-law finally bought a ticket for Pakistan. "She thought that she was being sent home to India."
Fatima never reached home. Instead, she landed at the airport in Islamabad where she was immediately booked under the Foreigners Act. An FIR (no: 16/99) dated July 21, 1999 was registered against her and she was sent to the Rawalpindi Central Jail. She was sentenced to one year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 100. A year later, Fatima was shifted to the Women's Jail, in Multan, and on Feb 2, 2001, was brought to the Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore.
Jail Assistant Superintendent Noor Hasan Baghaila said that theoretically Fatima's jail term is long over. "Through the Punjab government's special branch, her case is now with the interior ministry and will be disposed of by the Federal Review Board. The FRB consists of three justices of the Supreme Court. Now, it is up to the FRB to review her case," explains he.
Rehana Yasmin hopes the case is reviewed before it is too late for Fatima. "She is epileptic and near madness. Of late her fits are becoming frequent. We're giving her medication, but that's not the only thing she needs. She needs to go back to her children," says a concerned Rehana.
Fatima gets up to leave the room. The heavy double iron-doors leading to her cell are opened and she disappears from sight. Should she hope for that much-cherished, much-fought for right - the right to freedom? After the trumpets have died, will her government make an effort to wipe her tears?