Highlights of the January 2007 issue
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A clock full of crunches
By William B. Milam
Next year may be a tough one for General Pervez Musharraf. He will face several political crunches and his choices will not be obvious or easy. Those related to the election scheduled for sometime during the year are already being discussed and analysed extensively in the Pakistani media. Will he decide to stay with the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ) and take the advice of its leader, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, to eschew an electoral alliance with the more moderate Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Benazir Bhutto?
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A rich vein of scepticism has grown around General Pervez Musharraf’s ‘wholehearted’ commitment to eliminate religious militant outfits and dismantle their infrastructure. Such scepticism has haunted the military regime ever since Musharraf reversed the country’s pro-Taliban, pro-jihad policy after September 11, 2001. Now, however, after many unsuccessful assassination attempts by religious zealots, heavy military casualties in North and South Waziristan and a deadly suicide attack on army conscripts in Dargai, that commitment appears to have been kept.
The explosion of independent television entities in the country has given rise to a unique set of investment and employment opportunities that have so far defied global trends and confounded both the architects of the media revolution and those actively engaged in it. Massive sums of money – perhaps more than the five billion rupees estimated by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) – have been injected into these ventures. This can be expected, since just start-up capital required for a television channel exceeds 60 million rupees, after which software costs and overheads add up to a combined sum of eight million rupees per month. Despite the costs, however, satellite television channels became major employers in the period between 2005 and late 2006. As recorded by Pemra, they threw their doors open to more than 50,000 workers. This is a significant jump from 30,000 that were on their payroll at the end of 2004.
“Beautiful doesn’t have to try,” declaims a deep voice as a little girl sits in front of a television set. Wide-eyed she stares at the screen which is filled with a brand new Jaguar, while mellow music plays in the background. When the ad finishes she stares at herself in a mirror. A few days later, she asks her father, “I want to make a lot of money. What do you think I should do when I grow up?” Stories such as these are the norm in this day and age.
Undoubtedly the society around us is changing — and rapidly. The middle and upper class lifestyle of today is consumerist, and loans, leasing and credit cards are important words in the vocabulary.
Down Memory Lane
Compiled by Nadia Jajja and Khadeeja Balkhi
Whether they were a handful or more, whether they were outstanding creative works or merely productions that won our hearts because there was no other channel to tune into, there are some PTV productions that will be etched in our minds forever. And the repertoire is extensive: from the 60s’ “Khuda Ki Basti”, “Alif Noon” and “Shama”, to the post-80 “Kaliyaan”, “Sunehray Din” and “Dhoop Kinaray”. Over the years, there are many who have departed, for instance Jamshed Ansari, Nanha, Mahboob Alam and Shahzad Khalil. In a bid to pay tribute to those evergreen PTV hits, the Herald takes a trip down memory lane with writers, actors and directors for some memorable times...
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The media explosion that we are currently witnessing also heralds the arrival of a new breed of celebrities. Quite anonymous and inconspicuous earlier, they have suddenly discovered fame, and in some cases fortune, by hitching a ride on the media bandwagon.
Unlike the stars of yesteryear who were film or television actors, in some cases outstanding directors and of course a politician or two who had made it right to the top, the new celebrities came from all walks of life (some of them might not even work for a living in the strict sense of the term).
The Wave Continues
By Hira Zuberi
At 11:00 p.m. on August 13, 1947, All India Radio made its last announcement. An hour later, at the stroke of midnight, Pakistanis tuned in to hear the newly-composed signature tune of the Pakistan Broadcasting Service (later Radio Pakistan) and Zahur Azar’s announcement: “This is the Pakistan Broadcasting Service, Lahore. We now bring to you a special programme on ‘The Dawn of Independence’.” Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s famous message to the nation was brought to citizens through the one institution that was the most accessible and organised — the radio.
“I don’t live off my writing”
By Asif Noorani
Like her or loathe her, it’s impossible to ignore Shobhaa De. The 14 books written by her, including fiction and non-fiction, sell more copies than those of any other Indian author writing in English. The critics who insisted that her books sold well because they were peppered with sex had to eat their words when her subsequent ‘clean’ publications also proved best-sellers. Cases in point are her absorbing memoir Selective Memory, written as she touched 50, and the newspaper columns she writes for one Dubai-based and three Indian newspapers. A number of her books have been translated into languages that include Italian, German, Turkish and Korean, and four have been included in the University of London’s curriculum.
Recently in Karachi for the launch of Nadya A.R.’s debut novel Kolachi Dreams, De was virtually mobbed by eager fans yet found the time to speak to the Herald about her personal and professional life.
Q. You visited Lahore 10 years ago but it’s taken you a long time to visit Karachi — even though Karachi is closer to Mumbai in more than one sense.
A. Yes, indeed it is — only an hour and 20 minutes away. It’s just that we cannot visit each other’s countries whenever we choose to. But I couldn’t have thought of a better time to be here than for the launch of Nadya’s splendid novel. Lahore was an entirely different experience. We were there at Salman Taseer’s invitation to attend the Cricket World Cup finals.
Into the labyrinth
By Shahbano Bilgrami
The past year has been quite exciting as far as English language publishing is concerned, with subcontinental writers more than holding their own
Unless you’re a stock market analyst, identifying trends in a field as fluid and unpredictable as publishing is notoriously difficult, particularly without the benefit of a few years’ hindsight. Although publishers are generally agreed that there are certain indisputable qualities to look for when presented with a manuscript – solid writing, organisation, plot – it is harder to predict how that book will do when it finally reaches its intended market. What distinguishes a best-seller from a modest earner? What constitutes a Booker Prize winner? These are questions with no easy answers simply because, like writing itself which is a creative activity, reading and the appreciation of literature are also deeply personal. Once a certain set of criteria is met, a lot depends on the reader’s individual taste and, of course, groups of readers constitute the fickle reading public.