During Musharraf’s final days in power and hist emergency this website kept running as an angry voice of dissent. It also repeatedly kept showing solidarity with Geo News. I was then with Geo, totally and absolutely convinced of its mission, today I am not either. So should my views change? Indeed some would say they have changed already. A few days before the long march I sat with Mubasher Lucman in his show (then running on News1 TV) and lashed out at Dr Shahid Masood and between the lines a bit about Kamran Khan’s angry retort on the liberal media men. Unfortunately for me next day for a little while Geo was shifted from earlier channels to latter bleaker numbers on a number of cables and Sherry Rehman resigned. My this website as a consequence was inundated with hate mail. Someone went to such an extent to say that I should be happy. I was not. And to put it straightforwardly my opinion has not changed even a bit. I have never believed in forcing any restrictions on the opinion content of any news channel and nor have I ever supported any coercion. My comments that day were taken out of context and that program is available as a record. As for Dr Shahid Masood, it is not I who runs a long disclaimer on the channel before his programs. It is not I or any other journalist who is responsible for his fall from grace, he alone is responsible. Nobody has asked him to join PTV, when knew nothing of the job. Nobody asked him to smuggle Geo’s content and run it on PTV. He did it on his own, with free will. His dismissal from that post was thanks to his own confusing policies not anyone else’s.  His vendetta against the government stands out among all others and his return appearance on Jawabdeh, did not improve his image even an iota. It was only Geo’s haosla to take him back. No other channel would have accepted his treachery. But you can ask just any long time Geo employee and he will tell you what he thinks of the Dr without mincing words.
It was against this backdrop that I watched President Zardari’s speech with consternation. His reference to Geo was barely kept secret. Now my problem is simple. Since I have supported democracy in this country from the outset and hence the PPP government I have tried to be an apologist for the politicians for sometime now. However there has to be a limit to complacence and I have reached that limit. I want to see the current government completing its term in office, albeit with more care. Yet I also want to see the media space thriving as usual. An opinion pundit can present very radical thoughts on television but that cannot by any means weaken a government. As it happens democratic governments seldom need an enemy, and so is happening right now. The president while blaming other should also try to ask himself why did he have to face this day when he could not go even to Sindh to address a rally. It is clear that his advisors have dragged him to a warpath. But should he not be questioning his own associates and his handpicked Prime Minister who are alleged to play a double game with him? But the blame doesn’t end here. I am a voter and I vividly remember that on Feb 18 2008 I gave vote for a change. I gave vote not to any single party but actually to the ARD. If today the major ARD components and then of course MQM, all are seen plotting against each other, is it my fault? I think not. Actually the much celebrated Charter of Democracy’s actual spirit is already lost on us. We are debating only its constitutional aspects whereas its actual success was to bring two sworn enemies on one table against any kind of anti-democratic machinations.  Today that promise lies broken and only politicians from all parties are responsible for it. There is no point in apportioning blame to any single group. If today PML-N is trying to use the NRO card, the PPP also tried to dismiss its government in Punjab. If anything politicians should try learning something from their recent mistakes. It is my belief that democracy can still survive in the country. For that all parties will have to abandon the warpath. As for people like Dr Shahid Masood, they will lose their public appeal as time goes by. However this country needs democracy and free media including Geo for progress. And media better not stand divided on this. Our differences come later.

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