Media: With great powers come great responsibly

Muhammad Arif Tangi

The vote for PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was an expression of idealism and over-ambitions on the part of the voters. Nawaz Sharif who has been showing much maturity in the changing political landscape has already hinted towards it as an “emotional” decision. This brings us to the important aspect of understanding the political psyche of Pakhtuns voters who do not judge or understand processes but are mostly whimsical, sentimental and self-conceited—a fact somehow very true about Imran Khan as a leader.

Political processes are reflective of diverse social and cultural patterns which are shaping, reshaping and changing. In recent times militancy and terrorism have been instrumental to influence these patterns both positively and negatively.The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has remained the target of terrorists’ activities. The province  is also acting like the front-line force against the very terrorism. The shift from a pro-militants and anti-militants stance can easily be interpreted in the last three elections.

The MMA came to power because  the Defa-e-Afghanistan and Pakistan Council at that time launched a full-fledged campaign against US attacks in Afghanistan. During the 2002 elections Musharaf only gave one month to all other political parties (including ANP) to campaign but the said council which later turned into MMA had been campaigning for almost a year. MMA campaign may be termed as an ant-war campaign.

In 2008 elections ANP was able to consolidate its position by remaining vocal throughout the MMA government and there was extreme focus on all its constituencies. The resultant victory for ANP was no surprise. ANP campaign was all about peace.

Elections 2013 is a whimsical and sentimental jump from the political process and shows deformity and de-shaping of the social and cultural patterns. Firstly ANP was barred from launching a campaign through direct targets and the democrats remained silent. Secondly, the media which were mostly concentrated on Punjab  gave most of its converge to the so-called fight between the Lion and Hunter of the Lion. The voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa largely looked towards Punjab and voted for PTI without paying attention to the internal processes.

Thus the role of mainstream Pakistani media was extremely discouraging in the elections. Media has the power and it has to exhibit patience, restrain and responsibility so that it remains unbiased. Media in Pakistan failed to perform this sacred responsibility and its result could be very devastating not only for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also for the region.