| January 31, 2006 | Tuesday | Muharram 1, 1427 |
The woes of cable viewers
Fire brigade becomes ineffective
BETWEEN the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and the several thousand cable television operators, some 25 million over consumers of electronic entertainment in this country are being provided with what must be one of the world’s worst cable services.
AFTER the division of the City and Sadar tehsil councils into four towns — Nandipur, Aroop, Khiali Shahpur and Qila Dedar Singh under the city district government, local fire brigade stations, which were already on the brink of disaster for lack of funds, have become ineffective and rolling stone between the two government functionaries.
ONCE when the mission of the Holy Prophet was still in its infancy, and he felt helpless in the face of stiff opposition from the chiefs of Mecca, one night he stood in the Kaaba, raised his hands heavenward praying, “Lord! make Islam strong with either of the two men, Amr bin Hisham or Umar bin Khattab.” Allah chose Umar to serve Islam and Amr bin Hisham to die as Abu Jahl.
Umar, the second Caliph of Islam was the son of Khattab. His mother’s name was Khatmah. He came of the respectable Adi branch of the Quraish.
In early youth, Umar got training in methods of warfare. He also learnt the art of public speaking. From the outset, he showed unusual courage and frankness of manner. Eager to learn, he was earnest and thorough in whatever he undertook.
Staunchly opposed to Islam and already angry at the spread of the religion, Umar held the Prophet responsible for splitting the people, when some new Muslim left for Abyssinia and resolved to kill him. On the way he met a friend who, on learning about his mission, informed him that his sister and her husband had gone over to Islam.” Umar went home in wild fury. He heard his sister reciting the Quran. He beat her and her husband, till she bled. But she defiantly proclaimed her faith.
His curiosity roused, Umar asked to see what she was reading and on reading it himself, felt a transformation. The changed Umar went to the Prophet (PBUH) and embraced Islam.
The first thing Umar did was to call together the chiefs of Mecca and declare before them that he had become a Muslim. Next he arranged for the Prophet to lead the prayers for the first time within the Kaaba. Because his conversion had made a major difference for Islam and Muslims, he was called Farouq.
Umar was so deeply devoted to the Prophet that he not only himself refused to believe it when the Prophet died but even threatened to kill anyone who said he was dead. Not till Abu Bakr had reminded him of the clear verdict of the Quran on the point did he come to himself.
It was in Umar’s time that Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt were conquered. But besides a conqueror, Umar is also credited for his strict enforcement of Sharia and personally adherence to it.
The anecdote about Umar’s entry into Jerusalem has remained as an immortal example of his total adherence to Islam’s principle of equity. Because he had only one attendant with him and only one camel to ride, they rode the camel by turns. It happened to be the servant’s turn to ride on the day when they were to reach Jerusalem. The people who had seen the pomp of great kings were stunned to see the Caliph of Islam walking while his attendant sat on the camel’s back!
Fully realizing his responsibility to his charge, Umar personally visited Iraq, Syria and Egypt when in the year 17 A.H., a great plague swept through those countries killing thousands of people. Reminded by one Companion about the divine admonition against knowingly putting one’s life at risk he answered that he was following another Divine Command.
Another memorable anecdote associated with Umar is about his letter. The Coptics were Christians, but they followed a savage practice of giving a human sacrifice once a year amidst a big festival in the summer. A beautiful maiden, dressed as a bride, was thrown into the Nile. People felt that the sacrifice was necessary to please the Nile, and get a big flood of water for their parched fields. If the Nile got displeased, they thought, there would be no flood and hence no crops.
The Coptics asked the Muslim governor’s permission to sacrifice a maiden as usual. He disallowed the savage act. It so happened that the Nile had very little water that year. Crops failed. Many of the peasants decided to leave the country. Amr bin ‘Aas, the governor informed Umar whereupon the Caliph sent a letter, addressed to the Nile.
It said:
“From the servant of Allah and Commander of the Muslims to the River of the Nile of Egypt. O Nile, if you flow of your own will, then do not flow. But if your flow is controlled by Allah, the Almighty, we pray to Him to keep you flowing.”
This letter was thrown into the river, as directed by the Caliph. The river overflowed its banks that year. Such a big flood had not been seen for years. The country was once again green with crops. The peasants were happy. The savage practice of human sacrifice came to an end for ever.
The examples how Umar practiced Islam in letter and spirit as an individual and as the Commander of the Faithful are too many to be compressed in a narrow space.
From the Hijra onward, Hazrat Umar was actively involved in every significant development in the formative period of Islam until revelation of the Quran ended and the religion in its great essentials was complete. No battle was fought, no treaty negotiated, no administrative measure put in place, without Umar being consulted and his advice influencing the outcome.
Umar attained excellence in several fields — in government and administration, in statesmanship and political craft, in the management of armies and conquests, in Quranic scholarship and exegesis, in the Law and the principles of its information, and in devotion and servant-hood to God. It is difficult to measure, and therefore to state succinctly, the scale of Umar’s achievements.
Instead of facilitating viewers and encouraging the cable operators to improve and upgrade their services, Pemra has generally been more of a nuisance for viewers. Within a period of four years between December 2001 to December 2005, the ban on the popular Indian entertainment satellite channels has been enforced/reinforced three times.
Pemra’s fickleness in banning or allowing the relaying of the Indian channels, plus the frequent abrupt termination of cable programmes midway, the sudden disappearance of certain channels for days, and the often blur and noisy reception of some channels, all contribute to an exasperatingly unpredictable, irregular and poor quality cable service.
Established in March 2002, Pemra had inherited the ban on Indian channels from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. The latter, which had started issuing licences to cable operators in June 2000, had first instituted the ban on December 29, 2001 after the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament and during the height of the military standoff between Pakistan and India. At that time, many cable operators and even viewers supported the ban on account of nationalism.
The thaw in Indo-Pakistan relations in the first half of 2003, however, encouraged cable operators to start broadcasting Indian channels again. But on August 4, 2003 Pemra suddenly reinforced the ban, much to the annoyance of both viewers and cable operators. This time, the Indian hostility reasoning for the ban did not hold much water.
Cable operators tried to protest against the ban by blacking out all foreign and local private channels, but in vain. In January 2004 it was reported that Pemra had cancelled the licences of 23 cable operators and fined 67 others for violating the ban.
But with the subsequent warming up of Indo-Pakistan relations in 2004, Pemra eventually relaxed the ban and cable operators started relaying Indian channels again. In December 2004, it was reported that an opinion poll conducted by Pemra in collaboration with several private and public sector universities had showed that 46.35 per cent of viewers preferred to watch foreign (read Indian) channels, 35.34 per cent preferred local Pakistani channels, while 17.06 per cent were in favour of banning cable television altogether.
Then suddenly on December 21, 2005, Pemra slapped a ban on some 35 foreign channels, most of them are Indian channels. In hindsight, this latest ban was expected given the passage of the Pemra Amendment Bill 2005 by the National Assembly in May 2005. The amendment bill increased Pemra’s discretionary powers by giving it arbitrary powers to exempt licence holders from certain provisions and to cancel the licence of a broadcaster at will.
Pemra’s two major reasons for the latest ban — non-payment of landing rights by the banned channels and the fact that channels that run counter to the country’s social, cultural and religious values ought to be banned — are contradictory. If these channels are against our cultural and religious values, then they ought to be banned whether or not they have paid the landing rights.
Other contradictions abound. Some local private channels have recently started showing some of the dramas, movies and music programmes from the now banned Indian channels. Cable operators are allowed to broadcast Indian movies and songs on their own channels. English language channels which by the same definition would all the more so run counter to our social, cultural and religious values have not been banned. And Indian movies, songs and award shows are readily available on rent and on sale from videocassette and VCD/DVD shops.
Although the Pemra chief has denied that the latest ban has been instituted for the advertising benefit of Pakistani satellite channels, other reports suggest otherwise. In fact, cable operators in Sindh, who went on strike on January 19-20 terminating almost all cable transmissions, had also temporarily stopped the transmission of two private channels owned by a local media group which was accused of lobbying in favour of banning the popular Indian channels.
How much freedom of the electronic media there is in Pakistan is evident by the fact that Pemra can ban at will any channel any time without giving any consideration to the feelings and opinion of viewers. They are also at the mercy of the cable operators who decide on what channels they would relay to the subscribers and when they wish to terminate or restart the channels.
In other more developed countries, it is usually the customer who decides and chooses what channels he wants to receive and watch. Viewers are usually either given the choice of choosing from various programme packages (with certain channels bundled in one package) or they can choose channels on an individual basis a la carte, i.e., only buy those channels they want to receive.
Apart from being able to choose not to subscribe to “indecent” channels, existing technology has also made a number of controls available for subscribers to counter indecent content in those channels which they have subscribed. Cable subscribers in many countries can either block particular channels with a few remote control clicks or they can even block individual programmes by date and time, or even by rating.
Whether the ban on Indian entertainment channels is due to social, cultural and religious reasons or it is being done to recover Pakistani advertisers going to the Indian channels, banning of these channels is no better than the recommendation to ban ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations by the Punjab Education Department. Such bans only serve to depict us as a nation that is highly intolerant of healthy, wholesome competition.
No doubt ours is not the only government in the region which is banning some cable channels or the other. Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan have also been trying to ban certain channels, specially the Indian channels, while neighbouring Afghanistan has banned cable television altogether.
But given the upbeat picture about media freedom in Pakistan which our government has tried so hard to portray, and the unprecedented thaw in India-Pakistan relations, Pemra’s latest ban seems out of sync with these recent developments. Besides, viewers have gotten used to choosing the channels they like to watch — mainly the Indian channels — and therefore being deprived of this entertainment would cause considerable resentment and discontentment.
If viewers cannot get the entertainment channels that they want to watch through the cable operators, they might eventually resort back to the satellite dish, which was the popular way television viewers here accessed foreign channels before the cable operators came into the picture.
Since the fire brigade system has gone under the control of the District Coordination Officer after the city tehsil council division, but the district administration has declared Khiali Shahpur the ‘mother town’ directing the transfer of former city tehsil council’s funds to the same town. However, the town administration is not willing to take control of the fire brigade stations and has asked its staff to pursue the district administration for their requirements.
According to reports, only three of the 11 fire brigade vehicles are in working condition while the rest are in a state of disrepair. While the entire staff of the two fire brigade stations — Chowk Nian and Sialkot Road — are worried about their salaries. Citizens have protested over the prevailing situation and urged the authorities concerned to revamp the fire brigade system on a priority basis as people have to face heavy losses when fire catches their houses or factories.
THE season of marriage ceremonies is in full swing in and around the city before the fall of Muharram while some jubilants at the risk of lives and property of others resort to aerial firing and display fireworks. Besides, feasts are being served at marriage halls despite the fact that a ban has been imposed by the apex court. The district administration and police have failed to implement the court directives in letter and spirit.
Citizen councils and some former parliamentarians allege that the government has failed to implement the marriage ordinance and ban on kite-flying. They are of the view that higher courts should take suo moto notices for violating ban and direct the government and police to ensure implementation of court orders. They also suggest that the government should permanently impose ban on offering meals in marriages, display of fireworks, aerial firing and kite-flying.
THE city district government will establish two satellite hospitals for providing better health facilities to patients while veterinary dispensaries will be set up at the union council level besides promoting education during the current fiscal year. This was stated by District Nazim Chaudhry Fiaz Ahmad Chattha while speaking at the first city district assembly meeting here the other day. He said that Rs44.655 million had been allocated for the education sector, Rs19.438 million for health and Rs115 million for education reforms programme. The meeting was presided over by District Naib Nazim Jamal Hasan Manj while all nazims of union councils participated in it.
The district nazim said that Rs5 million more expenses would be for 503 new vacancies in the DHQ Hospital and Rs1.747 million for 31 new posts in the Excise and Taxation Department. He said that Rs18 million would be spent on sewerage and water supply. In addition, he said around 131 water courses would be bricklined while government had released funds for the purpose. He urged the council members to put up development schemes which would be constructed on priority.
The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Gujranwala, will construct a triple-storey model examination centre at a cost of Rs120 million at the board complex where some 3,000 candidates could take examination simultaneously. This was pointed out by board chairman Col Masudul Haq (retired) while speaking at a briefing in his office the other day.
He said that all examination centres of the city would be shifted to the model examination centre to facilitate candidates and vigilant staff while better facilities, including car parking and waiting rooms, would be provided to candidates and their guardians. He further revealed that the Punjab government had given an approval of this project.
Mr Haq said that the Punjab University and Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, could hire the centre for the examination purpose. The private sector would also have the facility to organize certain events. He said the board administration had already got completed three projects — installation of turbine for providing potable water, a generator and a one-window operation at the board complex while provincial Education Minister Mian Imran Masood had been requested to inaugurate these projects shortly. He said that construction work of roads would also be started in the next phase.