Islamabad, Pakistan: This is difficult for the human mind to accept any unusual information immediately because the human mind works through old experiences— what we call “relatability”.
For a propagandist, the creation of “relatability” and “appropriate perceptive level” are prerequisites before floating some unusual idea/information/conspiracy theory. For this purpose, several techniques can be used including the “repetition” of unusual and unaccepted information. The cunning propagandists float separate ideas/information and then join them through conceptual blending techniques and then this process creates a new idea that has a certain level of “acceptability”.
In a recent attempt, an Indian based television channel WION claims that “Pakistan is said to be supplying 155mm shells to Israel amid its war with Hamas”. The channel used an X message as the only source of its story. This story has two operating propositions for conceptual integration. The first proposition is “supplying 155mm shells” and the second is “to Israel”. 155mm shells represent weaponry therefore it makes blending that Pakistan is providing weapons to Israel. A normal mind in Pakistan cannot accept this blending because of several available facts including that Israel has the world’s best weapon producers and suppliers standing behind him in Gaza therefore why does Israel need weapons from Pakistan? In the first instance, one can think there is no relatability available in the minds of the Pakistani public and the Muslim world for this blend so the public would rightly reject this fabricated story. However, things are not as unpretentious as one can consider.
This new propaganda strike over Pakistan is linked with a fairytale kind of story already published in September 2023 by the US-based “Intercept” online platform that is run by Indian origin Sumi Aggarwal who is the Chief Strategy Officer and editor of “Intercept”. That fairy tale published in September 2023 interlinked Pakistan, IMF, and the Ukraine War without providing any credible information and had only a bundle of allegations. The theme of the story was the “provision of 155mm shells” to Ukraine. Now one can understand that this fabricated story was base-material as a “relatability factor” for providing the mental acceptance for the newly invented story. Intercept claimed that Pakistan produced state-of-the-art 155mm shells and exported them via a third country to Ukraine.
PTI which has the strongest appearance on social media platforms has gone too far again and its X handlers are creating doubts among the masses by reposting and promoting WION’s fabricated story
“The Intercept” published a cooked story under the title of “U.S. HELPED PAKISTAN GET IMF BAILOUT WITH SECRET ARMS DEAL FOR UKRAINE, LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL on September 17, 2023, with base-material that was already published. The original story titled “Pakistan, Ukraine, And The Race For Third-Party Ammunition” written by Elisabeth Gosselin Malo was published on October 6, 2022, in “The Drive” open source. Both the stories discussed the Pakistan-Ukraine military hardware trade which has never been a secret because even the State Bank of Pakistan statement shows Pakistani exports to Ukraine and both countries have a long history of artillery hardware trade but the trade had nothing to do with Ukraine-Russia conflict. The third party of the story was the British Royal Army which too has half a century-old history of military trade with Pakistan therefore there is nothing “secret” and nothing regarding the “leaked document”. The story of Elisabeth Gosselin was also based on assumptions offering nothing credible and tangible thereby both stories were agenda-driven and fairytales.
To keep the matter afresh, Voice of America published an interview of interim PM Kakar on November 17, 2023 (just two days ago) with the headline “Pakistani PM Denies Arms Sales to Ukraine”.
The critical review of recent events and the unfounded story published by WION provides numerous possibilities and all these possibilities are quite alarming for Pakistan
The relatability factor was that Pakistan could export such shells to anybody via a third country. Now this anybody is “Israel” in WION’s story. The second part “Israel” could be out of the acceptability minds of people living in Pakistan because everybody knows that Pakistan has strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza at every level as well as raised its voice at every forum and Pakistan since its independence has a very bold and clear stance against Israel and even does not accept Israel as a state. Moreover, Army Chief Gen Asim Munir has also expressed his support for Palestine, and in a special meeting with the Palestinian Ambassador, he strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza and said that all the responsibility for the tension in Gaza is due to Israel’s occupation, human rights violations and the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque. In these circumstances, it was not easy for propagandists to create acceptability and relatability factors but the stupidities of certain elements within Pakistan are helping anti-Pakistan elements to provide relatability for such propaganda.
Unfortunately to say that PTI which has the strongest appearance on social media platforms has gone too far again and its X handlers are creating doubts among the masses by reposting and promoting WION’s fabricated story. Furthermore, propagandists got fertile land for relatability and acceptability factors because the state-run radio and state-run television recently got trapped in spreading fabricated and baseless information about Pakistan and certain important Muslim countries. The fabricated contents broadcast and transmitted are so objectionable that this is inappropriate to reproduce here even as a reference.
Should we accept that Zionist and Indian lobbies are getting indirect (if not direct) support from political factors like PTI and unwise and reckless professionals sitting in Pakistani state media?
Such outflow of baseless information helped to create “relatability” that Pakistan or any other Muslim country could support Israel with weapons supplies because fabricated questions in state-run television included that so and so Muslim countries were providing weapons to Israel and state-run radio aired a fictitious news that formed acceptability factor that Pakistan could help Israel. The critical review of recent events and the unfounded story published by WION provides numerous possibilities and all these possibilities are quite alarming for Pakistan. No one has any doubts about the love and support of the people of Pakistan for the people of Palestine but propaganda in the media can sow doubts in the minds of the public through fabricated lies and propaganda against Pakistan.
Should we accept that Zionist and Indian lobbies are getting indirect (if not direct) support from political factors like PTI and unwise and reckless professionals sitting in Pakistani state media? It would be inappropriate to level charges against PTI social media managers and those who provided opportunities to enemies for creating “relatability” sitting in state-run media of being anti-state but an impartial investigation is surely needed to check all these dots that draw a straight line.
