Media frenzy over verdict

Any youngster watching TV circus aka Talk Shows will be left desperate and hopeless, especially because these gentlemen dismissed the biggest avenue a commoner has got for bringing a change- democracy

The media were frantic much before the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani arrived at the Supreme Court. There was a sharp division between the PPP supporters and non-supporters. Some were fuming while others struggling not to lose their bearings knowing how cool the Supreme Court is about its own contempt.

The twitter frenzy took over long before the TV caught fire. Journalist Umer Cheema working with The News (the one tortured by the ISI last year) took to live tweeting from the court room. This was more like documenting the guest arrivals at a Baraat (wedding) as political luminaries gathered in the court to exert pressure on the Zardari clan.

Almost every noted TV anchor covered this verdict and the day was as ‘eventful’ as last year’s May 2 [when OBL’s assassination drove media crazy]. Analyzing the media reaction to the verdict is almost impossible because much of it was a prolonged vomit.  The live transmissions, tickers, political statements, Asma Jahangir’s press conference and everything related to the verdict reached the public in real-time.

The Geo TV was a must-have that day. Not just because of its ability to enthrall its viewers with sensational gossip-mongering but also because Geo’s anchor brigade is by and large anti-PPP. And they lash at the PPP where it hurts most: corruption. All the anchors appeared on each other’s shows as experts and in the night did their own shows. This kind of support system can exhaust and bore the viewer.

A day before the hearing, Kamran Khan, a very rigorous PPP opponent appeared on the TV and discussed PPP’s corruption spree for some twenty minutes. After that he invited Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira for a talk. This unleashed a dam of damnation. Mr. Kaira accused Khan of being biased, giving a verdict against the PM beforehand, not letting him talk and using an unethically loud tone in the arguments. Kaira added that the crux of Ali Mosa’s corruption case were fake phone calls, he and his party avoided the Geo TV because of its prejudiced commentary and media personnel should also declare their income, source and property. Kamran Khan’s interjections were well-timed but failed to face up to the passionate allegations by Kaira.

The verdict came out on Thursday and Najam Sethi didn’t have a show that day. Yet he actively participated in all the shows at hand. It seemed as if he was giving instructions to Zardari, Sharif and the Supreme Court how to do damage control. He appeared on Sana Bucha’s show where Nawaz Sharif also appeared for a comment, probably on Sethi’s request. Najam went into his casual, sweet tone, asking Sharif what he would do now et al, while the shrilly Bucha interjected now and then to prevent the show from going out of control.

Sethi’s strongest (and usually the sole) argument was that the men in uniform might march in if the tussle in the Parliament went out of control. These calls of sanity to the political gurus continued even in Sethi’s editorial in the Friday Times.

Meher Bokhari, for a change, was much more poised. The most blatantly one-sided show came from Mubashar Luqman. He invited Hassan Nisar and Shiekh Rasheed. Now both the boys are known for their cynicism and blunt style. It is very distressing to see Shiekh Rasheed on TV every day, despite his anti-democratic track record and almost no educational/intellectual credentials. The three boys, Mubashar who openly declares affection for the ISI, Rasheed a keen supporter of Difa-e-Pakistan and dictatorships and Hassan Nissar, a permanent skeptic, trashed the institution of democracy, insulting politicians and expressing their disenchantment.

The fact that large-scale corruption occurs is correct. This is a dire misdirection of the public opinion. But dictatorships have been corrupt and illegal, too. Yet they are seldom held accountable. Kickbacks, public fund mismanagement, tax evasion and bribes happen in almost every country of the world. It is a governance and policy failure. This wave of court cases and public exposure is the sign of a healthy democracy and should be welcomed. Bypass this process in favor of a dictatorship and return to the same political discourse, after a decade of stagnation.

The funny part was Hassan Nisar declaring he has never cast a vote in his life. Why take the pains of talking so much when you won’t move a limb to make a difference on the Election Day? Why all this moral superiority and pretentious wisdom when you deprived your country of such a basic but significant service? These three chaps are very predictable. Above all, what kind of public opinion would such a show create? Any youngster watching all this will be left desperate and hopeless, especially because these gentlemen dismissed the biggest avenue a commoner has got for bringing a change- democracy.

The two people whose reputation suffered the most in this verdict were the Chief Justice and Aitzaz Ahsan. The latter has lost, for the moment, much of the political stature he gained from the lawyer’s movement. And the joke about the “squint eyed monster” has returned with a vengeance.

Ammara Ahmad is one of the editors of Viewpoint, she tweets at @AmmaraTiger