A New Openness on Pakistani Television

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Pakistan's TV Warriors | OPEN Magazine

Pakistan is lagging behind India in nearly all respects. Its economy is in tatters. Its GDP is growing at less than 3 per cent a year. Its education system is in a shambles. Its schools and seminaries are sowing seeds of hatred against India. Its history books have been rewritten to suit the mood in the country and to glorify Muslim invaders who came to plunder India's wealth. Pakistan's politicians are self-serving, incompetent and thoroughly corrupt.

All these anti-Pakistan sentiments have not been regurgitated by some rightwing Hindu fundamentalist whose sole mission in life might be to undo India's partition. All these statements are regularly aired on Pakistan's newly liberated media, mainly privately owned news channels, where educated and liberal commentators appear frequently to give Pakistanis the unpolished state of affairs, painful as it might be.

This is not to say that India-bashing is absent or commentators denouncing, disparaging and denigrating India have disappeared. They, too, appear regularly on television chat shows, but they are now ranged against liberal journalists, commentators, historians and even a nuclear physicist.

A new breeze is blowing over Pakistan—most Indians are unaware of this because they cannot watch Pakistani TV channels—and it may well be a sign of the road Pakistan might go down in future. It augurs well for both countries.

Pakistan's new media—actually old, but in its new incarnation—comes down really hard on Pakistan's new and old rulers, including the military, for encouraging distortions in its new history books and spending time, effort and money on preparing for a future conflict with India rather than concentrating on building a better and more prosperous Pakistan.

It draws inspiration from India's economic growth over the past decade or two. Its praise and admiration for India is almost embarrassing. It advocates free flow of trade between India and Pakistan. Just a few years ago, these thoughts would have been regarded as anti-Pakistani and deeply subversive. But Pakistan's media is now free. It is on a roll and it is angry and rebellious.

Many historians also appear on Pakistani channels underlining the dangers of teaching children the country's recent history in a manner that sows seeds of hatred against Hindus and the Ahmediya sect of Islam, by telling them that Hindus killed Muslims during the subcontinent's partition.

 

[Predator]

comments are better than the article

 

[venkat]

pakistan's obsession with India and vice versa will never end!!!!!

 

[ani82v]

The article is boring. There is nothing new. Indian media has woken up late to the changes in Pakistani media.
And yes, Pakistani analysts are much better. There are no such analysts in India of such stature. In India, they are all divided and neatly categorized in ideological blocks.