Nazia Nazar
A few international newspapers, magazines and media channels claimed that Pakistan military establishment was behind closure of TV channel of Jang/Geo media group. Propaganda in this regard is continuously being carried out by hostile elements to distort the image of Pakistan’s Armed Forces. On 10th April, New York Times (NYT) quoted Geo television network having said that “it has been forced off the air by cable operators in most parts of the country, in a move widely seen as being forced by the military as it flexes its authority over civilian institutions.” Apart from NYT, Gulf Times, Qatar Tribune, News Bharti, Timenow.com, First Post, The wire, Financial Express, Khaleej Times, Zee News and Voice of America have carried almost identical news, which appears to be an orchestrated campaign against Pakistan and its military, stating that the military hand is suspected behind this development.
“We are off the air in 80% of the country,” New York Times quoted Mir Ibrahim Rahman, the chief executive of the network, as having said on April 6. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority has even put out a notice seeking smooth transmission of the channel, denying any hand in the blockage. After having been informed that most of Geo’s transmission has been suspended and channels have been blocked, the Chief Justice was quoted as saying: “Except God, no one on Earth can block transmission of Geo channels unlawfully.” But the chief justice had also questioned the high placement of Geo on the ads distribution lists and objected to Geo getting the highest number of government advertisements from the ruling political party. The real problem is that people at large do not agree with the news coverage that castigates the military, as they hold armed forces in very high esteem.
The entire nation including civil society, intellectuals, analysts and all media channels had been critical of Geo/Jang Group for its unlawful media tirade against ISI/DG ISI and subsequent attempts to defend their stance, belittling PEMRA, challenging the authority of national institutions and boasting their power, socio-political dispersion and backing by Government Ministers. After dressing-down by the viewers on Geo’s efforts to malign the armed forces in 2014, Geo Network had tried to garner international support for pressurizing government of Pakistan to forgive and forget its aberrations and act of defaming the military and the ISI. A meeting between Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman and US Congressmen of Indian lobby was arranged in USA by Hussain Haqqani, a former Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, and a person with dubious credentials. When Jang group was publishing Urdu and English newspapers only, it acted responsibly and kept the sensibilities of the people in mind.
Founder of the group, Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman was admired for being pragmatist and flexible, who had taken the group to unprecedented heights. On the other hand, Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman is being labeled by his opponents as canny and that would do anything to fulfill his ambition for power and pelf. The reverse process seemed to have started because of his arrogance and penchant to be a king maker. He reportedly has business interests in India, and has also the support of international corporate business because their interests converge so far as anti-Pakistan stance is considered. With Times of India, he had started amn ki asha not realizing that India will never wean off its hatred for Pakistan. But there is more to that. The Annual conference of so-called “Geneva Summit” was held on 20th February 2018 in International Conference Centre Geneva. The event was organized by consortium of 25 West-sponsored NGOs. A close analysis of the proceedings of this mega event revealed that, as expected, the event entirely failed to address the HR desecration of Palestine at the hands of Israel, the horrific HR violations in Syria, the HR abuses in IOK and the eye-opening genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Taha Siddique, a known anti-state social media activist/journalist from Islamabad took part in the event to narrate his case as “Journalist under attack – the case of Pakistan”. He had escaped an abduction attempt in January 2018 and tried his best defame Pakistan/Armed Forces in his reports and coverage of various events. His anti-army documentary, “Swat Valley after Taliban” was aired on Franch-24 Channel on 10 February 2017. Meanwhile, a news item captioned “Pakistan places Hafiz Saeed’s outfits list – India considers an eyewash” was published in New Delhi based RAW front Org titled “A Publication of Bureau of political Research and Analysis” on 22nd February 2018.
Inter-alia RAW has alleged Pakistan and shared with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that Pakistan’s actions against terror groups were not meaningful and were meant to hood-wink the International Community. Meanwhile, a series of news items have been published to malign Pakistan. US Directorate General Dan Coats reportedly said “Pakistan is deploying new type of nuclear weapons, inducting short range tactical that bring more threats to the region. India has alleged Pakistan of striking a big Military deal with China which has security connotations for India. In another news item, it was alleged “Pakistani terrorists are awaiting near Loc in groups of 30-40 to be launched from Lepa vally to Mandal area near 161 Indian Brigade (Rampur). ISI has been alleged for providing protection to co-founder of Indian Mujahideen terrorist organisation Riaz Bhatkal (code name-Khan) during his stay in Western / Asian countries and Pakistan.
