From Media House Power to Khaki Power—What is resolve?
By Agha Iqrar Haroon
Islamabad: Two journalists of one Media House –Ahmed Noorani and Umar Cheema of Jang Group of Publications are of the view that they are getting threats via twits and emails from some people who have id as “Khaki Power”. I am also following such twits as I added both in my account. Yesterday’s threads of their twitters were full of abusive comments, threats, warning etc etc.
Social media is a real danger as it is faceless and clueless. Finding IP addresses is not very simple as Noorani and Cheema believe. Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) constantly uses twitter accounts but intelligence agencies have not able to trace them. TTP constantly posts comments and videos on facebook pages and there is no possibility of tracking them out through IP addresses. So, one should understand this fact with open mind that our intelligence agencies are not capable to track such people who harass others on social media. There is lack of training, resources and equipments. I remember that one student of Air University Islamabad in early 2000s sent one threaten email to the then President of United States and he was instantly picked up as his IP was traced down and he was poached. US has world best Information Technology system therefore it can reach anybody it wishes to reach but Pakistan or other countries of developing world do not have such capacities and capabilities. Moreover making 100 accounts on twitter with dubious identities is not complicated for one single person. You can find more than one account of one name and who knows who is who on social media. Young boys chat with women and men by making a female Id and Rs. 1500 mobile telephone sets available in market can convert a male voice into a female voice so one should accept that social media and information technology is a jungle of deception and distortion.
Umer Cheema had been physically abused by certain people— real people with real faces and identities. Hamid Mir got real bullets (1 or 5 or 6 is a useless discussion). Another staffer of Geo top anchor Iftikhar Ahmed has been stopped on a busy road of Lahore and got death threats from real persons. But who are they?? This is very difficult to ascertain.
There are currents and undercurrents in Pakistani society. There are several groups trying their best to destabilize Pakistan, targeting armed forces (physically and morally), harassing and killing important people of almost every strata of society including doctors, generals, soldiers, lawyers, engineers, journalists and even teachers. Whole society is in panic, terror, horror and deformation.
Certain powers wish to accelerate infighting of all groups with each other to make Pakistani society more vulnerable for disintegration. In this foggy and cloudy situation, institutions must avoid trust deficit and talk to each other directly and physically instead of through twitters, emails, articles and press statements.
This is not an issue of Geo-ISI or Hamid—ISI contra. This is not a matter of infighting of Media houses—this is an issue of “Anarchy vs Resolve”. One can blame that Geo and Jang want to become a parallel Government within State and this media House wishes to appoint everybody of its likeness at every important position and place of the country. One can blame this media house plays with stocks exchange. One can blame this media house work for Israel, India and every possible power that wishes to disintegrate Pakistan but nobody ever blames Jang and Geo officially that this media House wishes to install its will on governments and institutions. I think this is a time when allegations and claims should be placed officially but with decency and there should be a dialogue instead of harassing workers of any group because we are journalists and majority of us lives honest and simple life and we are far away from power games of our owners. In one dark morning, Geo threw 27 workers (including me) out of job. Journalists who were thrown out of Geo television without assigning any reason are more than 600 in last 3 years and that all was done on the name of right sizing. No government or private institute came forward to support us against this illegal sacking. Most of these journalists are still jobless. PEMRA did not even read our applications. No court of law heard us seriously because all power lies with that media group. People should differentiate staffers from Institutions. A journalist has to follow what his/her boss directs him— Why you are harassing staffers? And why you are harassing journalists who are writing and reporting correctly? If State considers that Geo is becoming “Impossible to handle” then State should talk to its owners instead of harassing its workers and staffers.
I wish some sane people come forward and invite all stakeholders to sit on table and share their fears and vendetta against each other instead of become a victim of vulnerability for conspiracies against all of them— rather against the State of Pakistan
