OVER the course of the past decade or so, Pakistan has experienced so many disasters that helpful responses should have been in place by now.

Sadly enough, it seems that this is a polity that is loath to learn lessons. Consider, for example, the scene reported from Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital on Monday when hurt and distressed people were being brought in for treatment in the wake of the earthquake.

Patients found that the entrance to the accident and emergency department was choked with mediapersons and the DSNG vans of various television channels, all vying to get closest to the scene of tragedy.

Also read: Earthquake brings back horrific memories

This, sadly, is considered ‘action’ in today’s cut-throat world of competition over ratings and viewership. Inside the facility, doctors and nurses rushing to tend to the injured found cameras and microphones crowding rooms in which they had no business; further, considerable impediments were posed by the presence of large numbers of the general public and frequent visits by various VIPs.

Such was the disturbance that the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak, who himself visited the hospital, advised the media and the general public to stay away; his words were echoed by the district nazim, again as he was talking to the media at the facility.

Such a scene of counter-productiveness has become the norm rather than an aberration in Pakistan, whether the disaster is a bombing, an accident or any other incident. And it ought to be admitted that it is the electronic media that tends to lead in the display of such intrusive and impediment-causing behaviour.

Fierce competition leads to the employees of various media houses indulging in one-upmanship, always to the detriment of those affected by tragedy.

The situation could very easily be rectified, should media houses agree amongst themselves to respect the red lines and to rein in their workers. Will they though? Too often, they have proved that their commitment to Mammon surpasses that to humanity.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2015

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