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Old Monday, December 19, 2011
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Hear no evil

December 19th, 2011


A local NGO has taken cable channel operators and Pemra to court for their decision made some weeks ago to remove foreign news channels from their list of channels.

The petition has been accepted by the Sindh High Court. The channels had been removed from the airwaves, apparently by cable operators acting on their own, after the Nato air strike that ignited a furore earlier this month, and coincided with the airing of a BBC programme which claimed links existed between militants and Pakistani intelligence agencies. While this charge is hardly a new one, it appears to have whipped the operators into a kind of nationalistic passion, which motivated them to shut down the channels. Pemra, the electronic media regulatory body, appears to have done nothing at all to intervene in the matter — with no apparent legal basis in place behind the decision taken by the operators. The situation is such that a channel like Fox News is the only Western news channel still on offer for most cable subscribers.

This is obviously a chaotic scenario. Tens of thousands of viewers across the country have been deprived of the right to access crucial information and to make their own choice with regards to what they view. Such choice is, of course, vital; it is in the first place a right of citizens — and secondly, no ‘bans’ should be required, given that the persons watching news broadcasts or other programming have the choice to simply switch away from a channel they would prefer not to watch. All it takes is a tiny finger movement to flick a button on the remote control.

It is even more absurd that the decision on this was taken by cable operators themselves. Where was Pemra, we ask? And for that matter, why were no questions asked by the government? We need to step forward carefully. Censorship has become too frequent in our country; websites of all kinds have been blocked by the PTA and there has even been an attempt to regulate text messages. The closing down of key channels is a continuation of this trend. It must not be permitted and urgent steps should be taken to allow the channels back on air without further delay.


Short of gas

December 19th, 2011

There is every suggestion that the gas crisis is going to be more acute this year than perhaps ever before. It is true we say the same thing every year, but this winter there appears to be a very real sense of panic.

At a meeting called by the Ministry of Petroleum and presided over by the federal minister, stakeholders including industrialists, CNG station owners, the companies involved in the distribution of gas and Ogra officials, were told that, given the severe shortfall of natural gas, CNG-shedding would continue at Sindh CNG stations for two nights each week. Industries would not receive a supply of gas for one day in the week, though Sunday has been selected as this day. In Punjab, there will be CNG-shedding for three days weekly as is the case now, creating severe problems for all those who run vehicles on the fuel once so actively promoted by the government.

The CNG dealers are naturally outraged. The question for them, of course, is whether given the situation they can stay in business at all. The CNG association has complained that industrialists have been favoured at their own cost. The problem, of course, is that the textile and fertiliser sector is already close to ruin. Anyone involved in this business will testify to that. We simply cannot afford more cuts in gas to factories which would reduce their production. The relief given to Fauji Fertiliser which will not face shedding is also intended to assist the farming sector.

The fact is that the government actually has no choice in this matter. There is simply not enough gas to go around at all. Everyone from CNG stations owners to industrialists and domestic consumers are facing the consequences. The planning required to avoid such a situation arising should have been done long ago. It was not. This is the reason why we find ourselves in the current fix. To make matters worse, no one seems able to come up with any useful suggestions and this only means that we are very far away from a solution to a crisis that has crippled our country and economy.


Leaks on trial

December 19th, 2011


The unique trial taking place at Fort Mead in Maryland places the WikiLeaks drama we saw this year under focus once again.

An American army intelligence analyst, Private First Class Bradley Manning, is on trial for leaking out thousands and thousands of pages of confidential documents, which included highly embarrassing and private exchanges between American officials as well as those of other countries.

The documents also included details of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Washington would much rather have kept under wraps. Their appearance on the pioneering website created by Julian Assange, put a new perspective on the manner in which governments work for many people and opened up all kinds of different questions about the right of people to know. The shattering of confidentiality is said to have changed the manner in which officials in many places act and speak.

But for his role in this, Manning faces a possible life term as well as a dishonourable discharge from the US Army and cuts in pay. His lawyer seems, for now, to be basing his argument on the US Justice Department’s attempt to go after Assange himself and argues that if this happens, Manning could play a crucial role in the proceedings. These are, of course, mere technicalities. Many other questions arise from the WikiLeaks affair which has resulted in 22 criminal charges against Manning.

We have learnt a great deal through those documents about just what happens when officialdom starts to function and how much that goes on behind the scenes remains hidden from public view. For revealing this, Assange has been hailed as a hero by some; for others he is seen as a villain with no scruples and no regard for what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

The debate will now continue for some time and Manning’s trial will quite obviously open up many questions to which we have no answers, given that Wikileaks marked a ‘first’ in human history. It is to be seen if that ground-breaking event will ever be replicated.
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