PEMRA’s decision to ban the TV coverage of the public meetings being held in connection with the election campaign, and being addressed by the leading contenders in the power game, may well have been necessitated by some noble and constructive purpose (which somehow has escaped the public comprehension); but on its face, it looks like yet another step towards arresting the rapidly growing perception that the two leading challengers to the incumbents are drawing far larger crowds (and response) than was calculated (and can be digested).
The question that automatically arises is: Why is PEMRA worried at the conclusions being drawn by the people from ‘the size of the crowds’ and ‘the degree of the response’ the leading contenders happen to be attracting?
And in reply to this question, one is led to surmise that PEMRA too may have a pre-determined role to play in the much-feared engineering of ‘the free and fair’ elections President Musharraf has vowed to hold.
It goes without saying that the conclusions drawn from and the perceptions built on the visible and verified ground realities, will not be easy to erase or ignore at the time of ‘tabulation and compilation’ of the electoral results.
The incumbents have built their entire case on ‘high claims of high performance’. The extensive publicity campaign that has been running on the media for quite some time now, has no other purpose except to create and establish strong perceptions to the effect that it is going to be hard for the voters to overlook ‘the entitlement’ of ‘such’ star performers.
The incumbents would have loved to substantiate their extensively advertised claims by a mere convincing show of popularity on the ground, than they have been able to manage. It would also have gone in their favour if both BB and MNS had been ‘cold-shouldered’ by the masses. But things have not been going as well for them, as they would have liked.
One intelligent move they, however, have recently made is ‘a revision’ of the degree of their ‘envisioned’ electoral triumph. From the ‘landslide’ victory that they had regarded certain till recently; they have cut down ‘the size of their triumph’ to a level which would give them just the position of being the majority party – ahead of both of their main rivals.
But this ‘reduced level of their projected triumph’ too needs to be substantiated on the ground. The masses need to be seen swarming the Q ‘shows of strength’, and dismissing both BB and MNS as twice-rejected ‘have-beens’.
What the people, however have seen so far on the TV channels have been massive gatherings, being addressed by the ‘twice-rejected’ have-beens – and rapidly depleting audiences for those who have been keen to declare a historic victory ahead of the actual contest.
Hence PEMRA’s move to block the public vision.
But will it work?
Will the people revise the perceptions they have already formed?
Will it not strengthen the case of those who have been crying ‘foul’? The masses need to be seen swarming the Q ‘shows of strength’, and dismissing both BB and MNS as twice-rejected ‘have-beens’.
3-5-2014