Mian Nawaz Sharif’s precious reptiles are at it again.
The Prime Minister’s overbearing advisor on information claims rather unconvincingly that all this speculation about a proposed new Ordinance to restrict press freedom “is a figment of the imagination of sick minds”. No such nefarious designs are afoot, he says, struggling to mask his sneering attitude towards the press.
Others less brazen in the PM’s secretariat, however, admit quite candidly that the press is marked for suitably clipping as soon as Mian Sahib is feeling a little less uncomfortable that at the moment. When TFT asked the Prime Minister to give a categorical statement on record that he would not lay his hands on the press, Mian Sahib dithered and looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Don’t worry”, he muttered, “nothing will be done without first consulting the press”.
All of which, in the doublespeak jargon of politicians and bureaucrats, implies that something sneak is definitely on the cards.
There are other troubling signs. The PM recently invited a select group of newspaper owners and editors for a dinner-briefing in Islamabad. It inspires that an effort was originally made to keep out certain editors known for their outspoken views. But wiser counsel prevailed and the list was enlarged at the last moment. However, what is more disquieting, not one of the senior editors present on the occasion, who were seated within the PM’s earshot, thought fit to question him about his views on the press and the reported leaks of drastic new laws on the anvil to control information. At best, the dinner-dialogue, if it can be called that, was desultory and bordered on the meaningless. Because the PM’s candid confessions on matters of national security were off-the-record, one might have expected a more aggressive approach on matters of public concern like the 12th amendment, privatisation and social welfare.
But no, that one of the PM’s many sweeping assertions in seventy minutes of monologue was even marginally challenged. One disgruntled editor remarked later that it was as though we had been transported to the days when Zia ul Haq used to fete editors and later usher them out after a hearty double-handshake. Certainly, in Benazir Bhutto’s meetings with editors, it was no uncommon for sparks to fly.
What ar we to make of this charade? That most owner-editors have decided to silently fall in line so that government pipelines continue to gush advertisements to a group of favoured bigwigs in the media? That, perhaps, the new proposals have already been vetted and approved behind closed doors and the little talks we have seen in newspaper columns is meant merely for the sake of form?
Of course, colleagues assure us that even if the PM is disposed to curb the press the President would never give his assent since the original unfettering ordinance of 1988 was of his making. But if that is indeed so, we may well ask why that particular ordinance has been allowed to fade away, without as much as a murmur from the Presidency, by a government which proudly claims to have passed more legislation in eight months than all other governments put together in eight years.
No, we should be gearing ourselves up to expect a new, restrictive information policy. And, as is the fashion with this government, it will probably be disguised in “Islamic” garb to deflect criticism. One of its more ominous clauses is expected to remove the powers of the superior courts to review any decision of the federal government to disallow publication on any ground. Once again, as in the case of the speedy courts and the 12th amendment, we may be lumped with special laws which by-pass the established judiciary. In other words, the press could be put on the same dirty, blood-stained mat as dacoits, murderers and terrorists.
The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors needs to make its position heard loud and clear before Mian Sahib’s ill-advised advisors spring untoward surprises on us all. We are all too familiar with Mian Sahib’s style. He loves to huddle together with his immature kitchen cabinet and conspire endlessly. He loves a fait accompli, even a fait accompli which makes virtue out of vice. He loves the sound of his own voice thundering that he is a man with a mission who loves to notch up deeds. If he is to be stopped from encroaching upon the freedoms of the press, we must act before it is too late and another Ordinance is thrust upon us.
It is to Benazir Bhutto’s enduring credit that even while the press was attacking her government relentlessly in the last month of her regime, abetted to no small extend by Mian Sahib’s dirty tricks department, she never once threatened to the press. It will be to Mian Sahib’s everlasting shame if he now succumbs to the counsel of his advisors and lays a grubby hand on the press in Pakistan.