By Agha Iqrar Haroon
You can find several real stories in which scientists or science students blow up their laboratories after accidentally creating something other than what they wanted to produce. Two of the most-read accidents in labs that appeared in news are the blast in Hardenhuish Academy in Chippenham (Wiltshire) and the University of Tokyo.
In Hardenhuish Academy in Chippenham South West England blast, a student was carrying an experiment in a fume cupboard and he by error disposed of material to the wrong fume cupboard that was an organic waste bottle, resulting in an explosion of the bottle and injuring him seriously.
These two incidents lesson us that “disposing of” at the end of the experiment is a very sensitive and critical step another lesson is that scientists must know what they are doing. The most important lesson is that an accident is imminent when the experiment goes wrong.
In Japan, scientists blew up their laboratory after creating the most powerful indoor magnetic field ever – by mistake. The news indicated that researchers at the University of Tokyo managed to accidentally make the strongest controllable magnetic indoor field in history, which blew the doors of their lab out. They were testing a new energy generator system when the experiment turned almost double intense as they expected.
Chemistry and Physics students and teachers shared these accidents with each other as a signal of caution that one must be extra careful by disposing of material at the end of the experiment and to gauge the impact beforehand when creating energy in the experiment lab.
These two incidents lesson us that “disposing of” at the end of the experiment is a very sensitive and critical step another lesson is that scientists must know what they are doing and what would be the intensity of their experiment. The most important lesson is that an accident is imminent when the experiment goes wrong.
Practitioners of physical sciences understand any experiment can go wrong at any time therefore experimenting cannot be stopped and must go on having the risk factor in mind.
“Project Imran” needed a hybrid cadre of “analysts, experts, op-ed writers, television anchors, v-loggers, bloggers and journalists, therefore, doctors, engineers, bank employees, saleswomen, salesmen, public relations officers and retired military and civil bureaucrats were collected to form this cadre.
We have a list of experiments that went wrong. Creating One-Unit and using force in former East Pakistan by Field Martial Ayub Khan and Gen Yahya Khan directly or indirectly helped in creating Bangladesh. Forget the debate that 33,000 Pakistani soldiers become prisoners of war or 96,000 because the “surrender of soldiers” is itself an act that is not quite acceptable among professional armies. Jihadism of Amir al-Mu’minin Ziaul Haq went wrong resulting in radicalization and terrorism spreading to every corner of the country and also resulting in the spreading of bori banh lashay (dead bodies stuffed in gunny bags) in Karachi for over 30 years. Enlightened Moderation of the Chief Executive of Pakistan Gen Musharraf gave us the trophy of Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan and now we are facing the results of “project Imran Khan” which is spreading toxic fumes that are already engulfing the entire society. I fear that toxic fumes would remain in the atmosphere as scientists are not shunning off and have decided to abandon the experiment locations stating that they are not ready to do more experiments. We must not blame political scientists in uniforms for what results in their experiments left because I strongly believe that they had good intentions to produce something good for the larger good of society. Nonetheless, as a timeworn journalist, I have several reasons to request political scientists in uniforms to clear liability what their latest experiment —project Imran has done with the media scene of the country.
“Project Imran” needed a hybrid cadre of “analysts, experts, op-ed writers, television anchors, v-loggers, bloggers, and journalists, therefore, doctors, engineers, bank employees, saleswomen, salesmen, public relations officers and retired military and civil bureaucrats were arranged who took over 70 percent of airtimes on television screens and over 60 percent space in newspapers and thousands of fake online media outlet were created which followed guidelines and narrative of the engineers of project Imran. We have seen that over 60 percent of the hybrid media cadre that we can call “Paratroopers” have already joined “Revolution Imran Khan” although this cadre was created only for “Project Imran Khan” and the rest 40 percent have become “neutral” for the time being. Some of them I saw sitting with bona fide journalists in the “Orange” Enclave at the command changing ceremony at GHQ on November 29.
Since this project has seemingly been abandoned I believe the mess that was created in the media scene should also be cleaned by those who spread it. At first place, all retired military officers who are writing articles in newspapers should use their full names as they use in everyday life like Col (retd) A or B instead of writing only written by Mr. A or Mr. B because let the reader know what mindset and training are behind the content that is published. A reader has every right to know who the writer actually is.
In the second phase, former military men sitting in important Think Tanks should also use their full names while serving there. Students, academicians, and general visitors of such think tanks should know with whom they are meeting and what is his or her professional background. I understand that project Imran was a serpent with thousands of heads although the majority of us believe that it was just a political project but I have my gut feeling that it was a huge project having thousands of political and social dimensions and hundreds of set targets to achieve.
In the third phase, engineers should send messages to owners of media outlets and offices of foreign media houses in Pakistan that persons who were “referred and suggested in past” are now independent people and media outlets should take their own decisions for keeping them as analysts, writers, bloggers, experts, etc. I am hopeful if it happens, over 60 percent of “referred and suggested” would face the dusk of their careers soon.
An article titled “Panic is not the solution” published in daily Pakistan Today in early July 2022 rightly indicates that factory-made media experts under the guise of journalists were launched with technical/tactical support and were told to discard all old norms and formulate new norms, were cursing, slurring, puns, and even dirty jokes became normal on family TV channels. They were spoon-fed information that must not be made public and invited to high-end meetings. As a result, their credibility was established as seasoned journalists. I believe that these so-called “seasoned journalists” would try to sustain their social positions because their stakes are higher than we can understand and this attempt to be “relevant and well-informed” could damage institutions who engineered them because they would become the first source of fake information and kite flying. Ignorance can be a blessing and disastrous at the same time so house cleaning is a must if we are really serious to mitigate the damage that has already been done by project Imran.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk News Agency.
