Violence and the media
higher education. When the country faced mortal danger I offered my services to Mr Bhutto, who requested me to return to Pakistan and start our nuclear programme. It is thanks to Mr Bhutto and my KRL team that Pakistan is safe today from external threats.
However, the internal threats created by our leaders and politicians are a different matter and this has almost destroyed the country. My heart bleeds at the prevailing situation in Karachi. My mother, three brothers, a niece and my older brother’s grandson are buried there. My two sisters and one remaining brother, with their families, all live there. I visit Karachi regularly as a member of the board of governors of three universities and am familiar with the situation. I also have many good friends (industrialists, professors, engineers, politicians, etc.) there.
I was in Karachi on October 19 as chief guest at a function organised by the Bazme-Kiran Society at the Defence Central Library Auditorium. The president of this organisation, Mr Zafar Iqbal, is a good friend and a great social and literary worker. The society is engaged in the eradication of waywardness and other social evils in our society. Dear friend, great philanthropist and top industrialist S M Muneer presided over the function.
The auditorium was filled to capacity with hundreds of participants outside on the lawn to hear the proceedings. All those who spoke have been good friends for decades and are all well-known Pakistanis. Famous industrialist Mr Mehtabuddin Chawla also addressed the gathering. Mr Khalid Al-Aziz organised the function and Col Athar Ali Khan, general secretary of the society, gave a review of its commendable activities.
This was an important function and all the speakers expressed their reservations and worries about waywardness in society, extremism, terrorism and extortion and the not-so-positive role the media is playing in this. All were unanimous in their analysis that TV, in particular, was overactive in showing and propagating violent news scenes.
A bomb explosion is not only reported but becomes “breaking news” for the whole day with the same scenes being shown over and over again, and little else. Even worse is the prominence given to indecent Indian programmes, events and personalities. The marriage of Saif and Karina, the birthday of Amitabh Bachchan, the death of Yash Chopra and fashion shows are all elaborated upon.
While the dastardly attack on Malala (or a Hindu or Christian girl) was justifi-