Farrukh Khan Pitafi's Official Website

The presidency just seems to have had another attack of madness. We are told that the administration in Dubai has asked the Geo Network to either shut its transmission or then to close down two of its best selling programs Capital Talk and Merey Mutabiq again. Since the presenter of the latter program Dr Shahid Masood has already been nominated for the Chairmanship of the state owned Pakistan Television by the democratic government it is clear that it does not have a hand in it. It is the presidency which now has the problem with the PTV as well for not showing enough of Mervez Pusharraf. It is plain then that an embattled president is now showing his colors again. As far as the PTV is concerned I clearly remember that when the Geo News was last closed last time from Dubai and removed from cable in Pakistan, since the state television was under Musharraf’s control it showed nothing but naked propaganda. No democratic representative was shown and the private channels were subjected to ridicule. If Musharraf can do it to his opponents why should the democratic government not do it to him as he still is conspiring against the people’s representatives? Pakistan Television, since now it is following a fairly balanced approach, should desist from becoming a mouthpiece of a dictator. Well done PTV, well done Geo.
Since Geo Television is a private channel it has every right to decide its own policy. Some claim that airing Jamshed Gulzar Kayani’s interview was a grave mistake. Such claims are simply rubbish. As a moral leader it is Geo’s prerogative to decide whom to air and it did right to air him. But had it not done so some other channel would have done it. And even if the national channels would have refused someone who has to speak would speak at every cost. Do you know what does it mean? It means that the man would have gone to the channels which take every chance to insult Pakistani nationhood. For instance an Indian channel. And the treatment of the so-called revelations by such a channel would have been absolutely different.
Geo has done well to contain the damage. It gave full chance to the presidency to counter the arguments forwarded by Jamshed Gulzar. If this you call an unbiased approach then you sure have different standards. Geo has even offered to give president space to address the people in the name of the freedom of speech. If the president does not want to do that it is his own insecurity and not Geo’s.
The Dubai dictatorship needs to stop and think again also. While it has the democratic deficit it had embraced capitalism with open arm and that is why it was allowed to flourish economically. Now if it repeats that old mistake of shackling the investors’ freedom of action it will never be forgiven and will quickly lose investment.
The presidency needs to show some sanity. Such an arbitrary course of action will only sow the seeds for further disgrace to the president once he is removed. If Musharraf doesn’t know it already he should understand that right now he is standing in the shoes of Saddam Hussein. Any more stupidity and he will leave any excuse for those who like me believe in advocating a safe exit for him. Propagating that Geo is involved in a foreign conspiracy will not save his skin now. We all know if there is any foreign conspirator it is him.
It is time for the media outlets of the country to stand united. First they should remember that this can happen to them too. Second those among us who are operating from Dubai should think of moving to any of the institutionalized democracy. You cannot expect benign response from dictatorships, monarchies and oligarchies. Dubai has lost its stability as an investment hub. We now need to move on. Also all the channels need to seek the help of the democratic government and quickly launch a Direct to Home (DTH) service. This needs to be done immediately for the sake of the customer satisfaction and even in view of the problems posed by the power outages to the cable operations. In solidarity, Long live Freedom of Speech, Long Live Geo TV. Hamid Mir and Dr Shahid Masood we all are with you.