The question that is beginning to rock the senses of the Nation is: Should the distinguished club of the owners of a few media houses that control about 90% ‘audiences’ of the TV channels be allowed to set the Agendum of the Nation, the Country and the Government? Even though the number of the TV channels that are functioning, runs into three figures, the club that I am talking about constitutes of about 6 main channels and about 4 others that can’t be dismissed. Interesting thing about this club is that its members or constituents are mutually antagonistic and regularly at war to acquire HIGHER RATINGS, they indulge in practices that are detrimental to the interests of the Society and the Nation. These practices include excessive sensationalism, invasion of the private lives of the public figures and a visible effort to blackmail one or the other person or party.
There is no denying the power of this Club which somehow reminds me of the MIC about which Eisenhower had spoken in 1960. “It is certainly not a good news for most Americans that in the future the Election of the country’s President will be inseparably linked with the Selection the MIC ie the Military Industrial Complex makes.”
Somehow this formally non-existent but quintessentially functioning Club has gained the same kind of importance in Pakistan. So much importance that once-all-powerful Army has yet to devise a strategy about how to deal with the power of this Club.
Mir Shakil ur Rahman, Mr Salman Iqbal, Mian Aamir Hahmood, Sultan Lakhani and a few others who have emerged recently have all come to regard themselves as King-Makers. They are very very aware of how they control, shape and reshape Public Opinion through their Arshad Sharifs, Kashif Abbasis, Rauf Klasras, Aamir Mateens, Javed Chaudhrys, Hamid Mirs, Mohammad Malicks, Shahzebs, Karman Shahids, Kamran Khans and Talat Hussains etc.
These towering names in the realm of the mass communication may well be vulnerable to very irresistible temptations that originate from abroad—-from those for whom the Existence of Pakistan is a pain in the neck.
The lesser said in this respect the better. Money is the fuel that powers most consciences, most dreams and most acts.
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