Assalam-o alikum!

Just thought i should bring this website to your attention:

http://www.pakpositive.com


It details all the positive things that are currently taking place in Pakistan. A breath of fresh 'air' among the usual Pakistan bashing.



Regards

sibg@

excellent sharing Sibga
Check my comments here
http://www.pakpositive.com/opinion/2...71562700480162

my comments heading is "Launch a newspaper as well "

Pakistan-Bashing is a Good Sport
by Alya Alvi

MOST importantly the English print media, which has the readership among the educated class in the country, is spear-heading the Pakistan-bashing campaign. They have projected it as the issue of Pakistani society and urge their readership to lament their being a Pakistani, rather than being proud of it. Their criticism, for the sake of criticism, does not confine itself to the government of the day, current or past, which would be legitimate in a way, but often extends to sweeping and disproportionate indictment of national stereotypes (cultural, social and political) and of major national institutions, military or civil.

Every individual either in print or electronic media tries to get prominence by unleashing tirade against the government, institutions and the society. Some disgrace the name of the country by writing “Land of the Pure” in single-inverted commas, ridiculing being it `A Land of the Pure’.

One of my “friends” always likes to see the dark side of the picture particularly when the question of Pakistan arises. “Quit this place immediately, a disaster is due to occur,” he says. “The end game is about to start,” he hurriedly adds.

Brigadier A R Siddiqui, who happened to be once director general of ISPR, wrote in a leading English daily the other day, “Pakistan is a dying country. It is only a question of time.” East Pakistan, he wrote, “was Islamabad’s other island - more or less. And its loss was anticipated even manipulated (and hardly ever mourned) by the West Pakistani mainlanders. Now there is little left to give away.” A `dying country’ means in the throes of death. Pin-pointing evils of a society is part of a writer’s job, but pushing the nation into the darkness of dismay is no service to the mankind.

One of the leading columnists wrote that the civil society in Pakistan had failed. He predicted collapse of the society very soon. There is no one to give this nation hope but fear of extinction. One gets stunned as if something big is about to happen any time.

The periodicals, weeklies, monthlies and websites are even more dangerous. It looks they have joined the Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, CNN, BBC, Fox, Indian and Israeli media campaign to malign Pakistan. Every other day our newspapers reproduce their reports aimed at maligning Pakistan, implicating the country in nuclear proliferation affair, terrorism and extremism. A number of articles need befitting replies by our papers or television channels. But this does hardly happen.

It is understood that if something occurs anywhere in the world, the blame, directly or indirectly, is put on Pakistan. But it is unfortunate when our own media joins the bandwagon. The western media gives reports filed by journalists from Pakistan, suggesting the US-allies to tighten noose around Pakistan.

A number of Pakistani “intellectuals” are currently attending policy study institutes in America and England. The more they bash Pakistan, more they deserve chance to get high marks or medals from their sponsors. There is no harm in pinpointing ills of the society, but there is a need to take utmost care while writing against Pakistan.

While this shows the government has given free hand to all to express whatever and wherever they like, the ethics of journalism or norms of citizenship bind the individuals to have mercy. There has to be a limit. Why magnified versions of our sins of omission and commission are given? Why unfair comparisons are made with others, particularly India with known significant failures of the latter glossed over and achievements highlighted. Such writings radiate a wide array of negative impulses to the detriment of Pakistan.

One such allegation, repeatedly made, pertains to the alleged killing of three million East Pakistanis during the events of 1971. It would surprise many to learn that at a conference convened by the state department’s historical division on June 28 and 29, following the publication of hitherto unpublished US documents on the events of 1971, participating scholars from Bangladesh disclosed that the casualty figures of 3,00,000 “had been wrongly translated as three million from Bengali to English”. The three million-figure had been given at the official level by India and Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh ambassador to Washington has been quoted as stating that Bangladesh alone could not correct the mistake. According to press reports, the participating scholars from South Asia agreed that the real figure was around 26,000 as given in the Hamood-ur Rehman Commission report and the revised figures given by the Bangladesh scholars, after admitting the translation mistake.

It is obvious that the killing of even a single human being or the rape of a single woman is unpardonable and that the events of 1971 were a human tragedy, irrespective of the scale of casualties. If the above “revision of history” is being highlighted here, it is only to show how influential states and powerful and prejudiced media can blow facts our of all proportion to impact public opinion and shape the course of history.

Perhaps the most balanced comment was made by Professor Sarmila Bose (an Indian Bengali academic belonging to the family of Subhash Chandra Bose) who pointed out that no neutral study of the conflict had been done so far. After maintaining that the allegation of rapes by Pakistan Army personnel were grossly exaggerated she concluded, “The civil war of 1971 was fought between those who believed they were fighting for a united Pakistan and those who believed their chance for justice lay in an independent Bangladesh. These attributes make the 1971 conflict particularly suitable for efforts towards reconciliation, rather than recrimination.”

Everyone joined the course in case of Ms Mukhtaran Mai and no one tried to realise the hidden agenda of NGOs sponsoring her. No one raised the voice of Kashmiri women being raped everyday. Let us not be uncritical. But let us be positive. Let us criticise wrongs in Pakistan. But let us not wrong Pakistan. Pride and self-respect are above all.

http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories....Story_ID=08303