Tag Archives: PTV

Pakistan, Politics, Religion

PTV’s ‘Jihadi plays’ help army to maintain control over society

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-by Farooq Sulehria

Ayesha Siddiqa is an independent social scientist with expertise in civil-military relations and political-economy. She has a doctorate in War Studies from King’s College, London. She has has authored two books on the military and Pakistani politics. Her book ‘Military Inc.’ was banned under the Musharraf dictatorship. She was the first Pakistan fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Ford Fellow. These days she is writing a regular column for the Express Tribune. In an interview with Viewpoint, she discusses Jihadification of Pakistan Television and Lollywood. Read on:

In the 1980s and the 1990s, the PTV aired plays like Sunahary Din, Alfa Bravo Charlie, Nishan-e-Haider series etc that glorified the Pakistan Army. If PTV being state-owned institution was bound to glorify the army in the 1980s when there was a military dictatorship, why the trend continued in the 1990s when there were elected governments running the country?

Military’s domination of the society does not end with the end of direct military rule. In Pakistan’s case the military represents one of the two key poles of power politics. Continued domination in power politics, in turn, is linked with control of the society which depends on intellectual control. These plays are one of the many ways employed by the army to maintain its control over the society. In fact, this is one of the many methods for exercising military hegemony as defined by Antonio Gramsci. Intellectual control helps dominate or shape the national discourse. On the one hand the military weakens political forces, and, on the other, it trains the youth and the general public to accept military as a credible social and political force.

Alongside the plays glorifying Pakistan Army, the PTV serials like Akhari Chattan, Shaheen, Tareekh o Tamseel which glorified Muslim past or Panah 1 and Panah II that depicted Afghan ‘resistance’ against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, were a permanent PTV feature in the 1980s. Do you think this Jihadification of the PTV drama contributed to a militaristic culture in the country? If yes, how? ….

Read more → ViewPoint

Current Issues, India, Pakistan, Politics, Religion

Like army, like nation – by Nadeem F. Paracha

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Excerpt:

The basic socio-political mindset of the Pakistani society is the outcome of various faith-based experiments conducted by the state and the armed forces.

The party

In 1995, sometime in May, an uncle of mine (an ex-army man), was invited to a party of sorts.

The invitation came from a former top-ranking military officer who had also worked for the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI. He was in the army with my uncle (who now resides abroad) during the 1960s.

My uncle, who was visiting Pakistan, asked if I was interested in going with him. I agreed.

The event was at a military officer’s posh bungalow in Karachi’s Clifton area. Most of the guests (if not all) were former military men. All were articulate, spoke fluent English and wore modern, western clothes.

I was not surprised by this but what did surprise me was a rather schizophrenic aura about the surroundings. Though modern-looking and modern-sounding, the gathering turned out to be a segregated affair.

The men’s wives were placed in a separate room, while the men gathered in a wider sitting area.

By now it become clear to me that I wouldn’t be getting served anything stronger than Pepsi on the rocks!

I scratched my head, thinking that even though I was at a ‘party’ in a posh, stylish bungalow in the posh, stylish Clifton area with all these posh stylish military men and their wives and yet, somehow I felt there very little that was ‘modern’ about the situation.

By modern, I also mean the thinking that was reflected by the male guests on politics, society and religion. Most of the men were also clean-shaven and reeking of expensive cologne, but even while talking about cars, horses and their vacations in Europe, they kept using Arabic expressions such as mashallah, alhamdullila, inshallah, etc.

I tried to strike up some political conversations with a few gentlemen but they expected me to agree with them about how civilian politicians were corrupt, how democracy can be a threat to Pakistan, how civilian leaders do not understand India’s nefarious designs, et al. …

The experiment

The Pakistan Army was once a staunchly secular beast. All across the 1950s and 1960s it was steeped in secular (albeit conservative) traditions and so were its sociological aspects.

In fact, until the late 1960s, Pakistani military men were asked to keep religion a private matter and religious exhibitionism was scorned at as well as reprimanded – mostly during Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s dictatorship (1959-69).

Continue reading Like army, like nation – by Nadeem F. Paracha →

Culture, Media, Pakistan, Politics, Sindh, Sindhi

PTV – Not a single Sindhi artist was given a representation in the Capital of Sindh

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by Mohammad Ali Mahar, Austin, TX, USA

..Recently, Pakistan Television (PTV) had its 14th awards ceremony in Sindh capital, Karachi. Munnoo Bhai, a Punjabi liberal columnist, had to write a column in Jang, protesting why when Punjabi, Baluchi, and Pushtoon culture and music were given ample representation, not a single Sindhi artist was given a chance in the whole program. Needless to remind that all the top posts in PTV are held by the current government’s nominees. List is long. In Sindhi they say: Meeran khe ghar maan laggee. In urdu: iss ghar ko aag lag gaee ghar ke charagh se. PPP was long considered last hope for Sindhis in Pakistan framework. Does this mean that we need to start looking somewhere else now?

Pakistan, Personalities, Sindh, Sindhi

Aziz Jan: A dynamic Sindhi journalist

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Profile of a departed journalists

– Desk report

It was mid night of April 3 and 4, 2009 that Aziz Jan Baloch died due to a fatal accident on Hyderabad-Karachi Super Highway. He was in his 30s. Aziz Jan was Senior News producer to an upcoming news channel “Awaz TV”.

Aziz, a very loving, caring and always in happy and pleasant mood is missed by everyone who worked with him. His close friends cherished his company, he was an easy going person.

Aziz’s true professional life had began afterwards, he had moved from Sanghar to Hyderabad and then to Karachi to seek an career in Journalism.

He was news caster for PTV and latter was associated with KTN, as narrated by Jami.

He was an ambitious person, sky was limit to him, he left KTN and joined City News, a local channel owned by ARY One World group, he rejoined KTN but again when Sindh TV was launched he joined it as news caster.

His voice was clear and loud, the way he used to read news stories people liked it very much, he became a model news caster and popular. He also hosted some talks shows on current affairs. He was deeply involved and interested in the currents of politics. That actually made him not only news caster but someone who would think independently and decide with regarding to planning the news bulletin, seeking telephonic interviews of top leaders, he interacted from top Baloch politicians to Kashmiri leaders. He had earned a say and was known in the political circles, MQM leader Altaf Hussain would know him with his name. When he launched his second book based on articles in Karachi’s Mehran Hotel, PML Q leader Syed Mushahid Hussain was to be the chief guest of the program. He would not shy away using his media contacts to establish that he is a well-connected person. True he was very resourceful person, he was like a directory of contacts, and that is actually works a lot in journalism.

Due to his ambitious aims, he would keep make entries and exists from Channels knowing his worth. He left twice Sindh TV and rejoined it and latter on eventually left it and started working on a new project the “Awaz TV”, owned by a noted Sindhi businessmen Sikandar Jatoi. “Awaz TV” is in pipe line, experienced Sindhi folks of electronic journalism was working to launch it. Aziz, Altaf Memon, Maheen Hisbani and Zariyab Khaskheli, to name few people were working for launching this new channel.

Aziz was very happy that he finally would be working freely in a channel which would be free from control of owners. Though funded by a businessmen but this channel is largely seen as franchise of journalists.

Aziz Jan was enjoying working in Awaz, he had both freedom to work and better remuneration package. He had reached to place which was striving for and dream for, but life did not give him chance to live a dreamed life. It’s a loss not only of his family (two wives and few children) but of Sindhi electronic media, he had emerged a well-trained and professional media guy.

Lala Qadir, district reporter of Sindh TV wrote “All is lost with his death”. It was not time for him to die, it was time to grow and make achievements in life and let society know what its youth has to offer.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009