THE State of Emergency — is now truly in a state of emergency. The longstanding and all-enveloping uncertainty has led many a Doubting Thomas to conclude the state should be officially anointed thus.

Islamabad, the city that gives us our biggest political and military tremors, stayed true to form last week. At least, you had been warned in this space about the capital’s long nights only days ago so hopefully, there are no complaints on that score.

But descending into a black hole from a position of information glut is a brand new. So much a part of our lives has the enterprising independent electronic media become that it seems we are living in a vacuum without it after the PCO regime pulled the plug.

Such a Godzillavian move is inconceivable in this day and age but that hasn’t deterred the authors from moving to smear their own professed ‘enlightened moderation’. Their brand image of moderation is, perhaps, the filtered material dished out by that inert state worm called the PTV.

The majority of people whose source of reliable and real-time information remains the independent electronic media but who cannot afford to buy satellite signal courtesy the dish have now been forced to go back to the tried and detested relic (khabarnama) on state TV that boasts one reliable feature: its inanity, which can put most to sleep.

So all those insomniacs who could not resist the temptation of tapping into an enchilada of independent channels can now finally, go to sleep.

Seriously, one has to admire the innovative bent of this nation’s techno-savvy human resource for finding alternative ways to reach out information-starved members of the general public.

Video streaming is not new, even in Pakistan, but now it has become a virtual godsend for the Net-capable, who simply cannot reconcile with the printed word for company. Moving images are central to their access of news content.

But like the majority of my compatriots, I remain as old- fashioned as them about wanting my share of the action on the tube, not YouTube or video streaming. It just does not carry the same excitement.

Last weekend when the wounds of emergency were still fresh, yours truly received a call from a friend in London, who wanted to inquire about the latest in Islamabad. When I excused myself on account of the black horizon, he sympathised before volunteering to provide the update — thanks to the availability of Pakistani channels there as well as international ones. He promised to keep me posted about what was happening in my backyard — from London!

Since last Saturday, crews of half a dozen foreign television networks and newspapers have visited the Islamabad Bureau of Dawn News to inquire about the blackout, its aftermath and our wellbeing.

Everyone had commiseration to offer but also plaudits for what they saw as courage under fire. To her lasting credit, one American journalist frankly admitted to shame over the Bush Administration’s failure to do the right thing in response to the emergency move, and which, she agreed had brought Islamabad to the edge of precipice.

The prelude to the actual declaration of emergency was like an accident waiting to happen for some hacks like us in Islamabad, who had got inkling beforehand.

To get to the denouement, a colleague of mine got in touch with a senior minister, who happens to be the current regime’s “unofficial” minister of information, a night before the strike.

Initially, the minister tried second-tier contacts to elicit the desired information, but rang up his boss directly when he failed. The boss confirmed that the plan was in the works but wouldn’t divulge the time. Minutes later, the boss called back to urge the minister, who cannot resist throwing the dice, not to share information about the surprise he was going to spring on a hapless nation.

So we had a fair idea about the extra-constitutional step even if it was superseded by (wishful?) thinking that better sense would prevail. After all, Condi Rice had successfully dissuaded Musharraf from the emergency recipe two months earlier.

Only this time the determination of the General to throw the last punch that he had promised ruling party members in Islamabad following the restoration of the chief justice was greater.

Not surprisingly, the punch has taken in its ruthless sweep the electronic media as well. Both the judiciary and the media have been the harbinger of a near-revolution this year for an agog — and inspired — nation that has watched their unprecedented rearguard action in their respective roles against abuse of authority by the executive.

The deposed chief justice and his brother judges remain under virtual house arrest in Islamabad and largely incommunicado. In a poignant reminder of the suspension of the constitution, the area around the Constitution Avenue remains off limit to the lay citizen.

As for the media, the government is reported to have assembled special information officers to monitor 21 Urdu and English newspapers including Dawn following the promulgation of a harsh new ordinance.

Not content with taking the channel(s) of public communication off, they appear keen to play the sleuth-hound with the print media given that each of the 21 papers have been assigned a separate big brother!

Never mind midnight invocations of Abraham Lincoln on a limb, it is the great founder of this nation, who must be turning in his grave.

The writer is News Editor at DawnNews. He may be contacted at kaamyabi@gmail.com