Honorable Dana Rohrabacher a Chairman of US foreign affairs committee has announced to support Sindh’s Freedom movement . A month ago he has tabled resolution for Baluchistan’s freedom. …..
آمريڪي سينٽ جي پرڏيھي معاملن جي ڪاميٽيءَ جي چيئرمين ڊانا روھرا بيڪر چيو آھي ته ھو بلوچن جيان جلد مظلوم سنڌين جي حقن لاءِ به آواز اٿاريندو ـ
Courtesy: Sindhi News Channel Sindh TV, Sindhi News Channel KTN » YouTube
By Beena Sarwar
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered Rinkal Kumari and Dr Lata Kumari to be sent back to Karachi shelter home for 3 weeks to give them time to “think”. Would he have done that if they had given statements in favour of their kidnappers?
Here is the account from a family friend of Rinkal’s” “When Rinkal came into court, without letting her meet her parents/mother, she (Rinkal) was brought to give statement in front of CJP, she only stated that she doesn’t want to go anywhere, BUT her mother. Then CJP met with Rinkal alone for about 20 minutes, and then let her mother meet her for only 10 minutes. Afterwards Rinkal was crying before CJP, she wanted to go to her parents. CJP said, girl wants to go with her parents but there is confusion as the girl had embraced ISLAM and had spent married life, so how can she turn around from her previous statement? Therefore, he ordered Rinkal to be sent to shelter home for more 3 weeks to think, along with Dr. Lata, who was sent to Shelter home on same grounds. Is this justice?? Chief justice should have backed innocent girls, supported them and should have ordered immense and appropriate action against Mullah and involved culprits, BUT after all he is a Muslim as well, he has intentions to book a plot in heaven as well…”
Rinkal Kumari said in court:..” Pakistan mein sab log ek doosre ke saath mile huwe hain, yahan insaaaf sirf muslaman ke lye hai, Hindu ke lye koi insaaf nahee hai, mujhe yaheen court room mein maar daalo, lekin Dar-ul-aman nahee bhejo, yeh sab log mile huwe hain yeh humein maar daalen ge“. Translation: (Everyone in Pakistan is hand in glove, there is justice only for Muslims, there is no justice for Hindus. Kill me here in court, but don’t send me to Darul-Aman, all these people are hand in glove, they will kill us) – KTN news channel live reporting captured on a personal camera – the reporter repeats Rinkals words quote-un-quote.
Courtesy: Adopted from Beena Sarwar’s facebook page
By Haider Nizamani
PROPRIETORS of media houses dabbling in politics has a long history in South Asia. The power and propaganda nexus is nothing new.
What is somewhat different is the mushrooming of television channels creating new forms of this nexus. Understanding the multifaceted dynamics of this interaction is a relatively unexplored area for the social scientist in Pakistan.
The new kid on Sindh’s political block is Ali Qazi. His family owns the most popular, hence the most powerful, media house of the Sindhi language. Daily Kawish, its flagship newspaper, probably sells more copies than the combined circulation of all its competitors.
Kawish Television Network (KTN) runs a dedicated 24/7 news and current affairs channel and two other channels. Kawish and KTN are household names for the Sindhi reading and viewing public.
Ali Qazi’s recent foray into politics climaxed on Jan 22 in a public meeting in Bhit Shah, a small town in central Sindh where the shrine of the venerated Sindhi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai is located.
English-language dailies treated this rally as a page three news item whereas the largest circulated Sindhi daily, Kawish, went into overdrive to cover the event and published plenty of Op-Eds before and after the rally.
The public meeting was preceded by a month-long campaign of 187 smaller meetings Ali Qazi and his associates held all over Sindh. The purpose? To convince the Sindhi masses to seek change on the lines Mr Qazi is proposing.
What does Mr Qazi’s entrance into politics signify and symbolise? Will he be as successful in politics as he has been in establishing a mammoth media house? Will his politics benefit from his media empire or will the latter suffer due to his politics? Is this a case of conflict of interest? His ambitious entry into politics throws up all these questions.
The Qazis of Hyderabad are no strangers to media and politics. Daily Ibrat, owned by this family, for a long time had the lion’s share of the Sindhi newspaper market. Its current owner, Qazi Asad Abid, has been a member of the National Assembly. His sister, Dr Fehmida Mirza, is the speaker of the National Assembly. Their father, Qazi Abid, was a member of the provincial and national legislatures and held various ministerial portfolios.
Ali Qazi is the nephew of Qazi Abid. In the 1990s, Ali Qazi and his brothers started their own daily, Kawish, which over the years not only challenged the dominance of Ibrat but eventually replaced it as the largest circulated Sindhi newspaper. Ali Qazi, until recently, steered clear of party politics and focused on building his media house. For the past few years, he has championed causes such as the celebration of Sindhi cultural days through his popular print and electronic media outlets. He makes regular, some would say excessive, appearances as an expert and anchor on current affairs programmes on his television channel, KTN.
He uses Op-Ed space in daily Kawish with impunity to share his thoughts with the readers. In these columns he started to float the idea that the Sindhi public aspires for change that mainstream political parties are either unwilling or incapable of providing.
He claims to have become the epitome of the change he has been seeking, thus the name of his group ‘Tabdeeli Pasand’ (change-oriented). The main ill afflicting Sindh, according to Mr Qazi, is the bhotaar culture. Roughly translated it means the politics of patronage. The answer lies in replacing it with a system based on merit, good governance and transparency.
In the prelude to his Bhit Shah show of Jan 22, the Op-Ed write-ups in Kawish went overboard in portraying Ali Qazi as the saviour Sindh has been waiting for. Contrary to the anticipated announcement of launching his own political party at the Bhit Shah public meeting, Ali Qazi chose to defer that move and stuck to criticising the politics of patronage in Sindh.
As he weighs his options, here are some advantages he enjoys and disadvantages he is likely to encounter should he decide to establish a new political party.
Among his three advantages, the most important is of having access to a well-oiled and sophisticated print and electronic media. He has an edge over any other new entrant in this regard as far as Sindh is concerned.
If the current trend is any indication then he has no compunction in using the KTN-Kawish combo to promote his viewpoint.
Secondly, politics in Pakistan is becoming an expensive undertaking and Ali Qazi has deep pockets to sustain his political venture.
Lastly, lack of effective performance by mainstream parties has created widespread anti-politics sentiment amongst various sections of the middle classes. Imran Khan is exploiting it in Punjab and Ali Qazi is attempting to do the same in Sindh.
The launch of a party by Ali Qazi on his suggested lines will face following hurdles. Firstly, since he owns the most powerful media house in Sindh, his competitors will not give the desired coverage to Ali Qazi’s party. In fact, if the KTN-Kawish combo chooses to become blatantly partisan in promoting Ali Qazi this may provide his competitors an opening to create healthy competition for Sindh viewers.
Left-of-centre politics in Sindh has organisations such as the Awami Tehrik of Rasool Bux Palijo with a political history spanning over several decades over which it has created a reasonably organised party cadre. Assorted Sindhi nationalist parties are a divided lot but they have a collective legacy of creating a secular ethos in Sindhi politics.
Above all, Ali Qazi will have to challenge the PPP’s mighty emotional and electoral support base in Sindh. The PPP has jealously guarded its vote-bank in Sindh for four decades and in the process has weathered many challenges. It has unmatched expertise in constituency-based politics backed up by the Bhutto charisma. Ali Qazi has remained careful in not naming the PPP as the culprit.
If Ali Qazi wants to be an alternative to the PPP in Sindh then he will have to confront the most popular party head-on. If not then his dream of being a change-seeker backed up by his media empire will serve as valuable pressure on PPP politicians to pay closer attention to the kind of issues Ali Qazi is raising.
The writer is a Canada-based academic. He can be reached at, hnizamani@hotmail.com
Courtesy: DAWN.COM
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/31/new-vibes-in-sindh-politics.html
by Isahq Tunio
I feel sense of deprivation, isolation and helplessness in Sindh and no legal protection to Sindhi families in Karachi from federal and Sindh governments. I watched KTN and Sindh TV news and shocked to watch the video of Mehran Town Killings in Karachi. In armed attack on Sindhi villagers by terrorist (city community police/ known terrorists and town nazim) two people have been killed , hundreds of families have been displaced relatives were unable to collect the bodies for 6 hours due to continuous firing. Police and Rangers are not taking any action. Police raided houses of Sindhis in different villages and took licensed/ legal weapons from them.
Profile of a departed journalists
– Desk report
It was mid night of April 3 and 4, 2009 that Aziz Jan Baloch died due to a fatal accident on Hyderabad-Karachi Super Highway. He was in his 30s. Aziz Jan was Senior News producer to an upcoming news channel “Awaz TV”.
Aziz, a very loving, caring and always in happy and pleasant mood is missed by everyone who worked with him. His close friends cherished his company, he was an easy going person.
Aziz’s true professional life had began afterwards, he had moved from Sanghar to Hyderabad and then to Karachi to seek an career in Journalism.
He was news caster for PTV and latter was associated with KTN, as narrated by Jami.
He was an ambitious person, sky was limit to him, he left KTN and joined City News, a local channel owned by ARY One World group, he rejoined KTN but again when Sindh TV was launched he joined it as news caster.
His voice was clear and loud, the way he used to read news stories people liked it very much, he became a model news caster and popular. He also hosted some talks shows on current affairs. He was deeply involved and interested in the currents of politics. That actually made him not only news caster but someone who would think independently and decide with regarding to planning the news bulletin, seeking telephonic interviews of top leaders, he interacted from top Baloch politicians to Kashmiri leaders. He had earned a say and was known in the political circles, MQM leader Altaf Hussain would know him with his name. When he launched his second book based on articles in Karachi’s Mehran Hotel, PML Q leader Syed Mushahid Hussain was to be the chief guest of the program. He would not shy away using his media contacts to establish that he is a well-connected person. True he was very resourceful person, he was like a directory of contacts, and that is actually works a lot in journalism.
Due to his ambitious aims, he would keep make entries and exists from Channels knowing his worth. He left twice Sindh TV and rejoined it and latter on eventually left it and started working on a new project the “Awaz TV”, owned by a noted Sindhi businessmen Sikandar Jatoi. “Awaz TV” is in pipe line, experienced Sindhi folks of electronic journalism was working to launch it. Aziz, Altaf Memon, Maheen Hisbani and Zariyab Khaskheli, to name few people were working for launching this new channel.
Aziz was very happy that he finally would be working freely in a channel which would be free from control of owners. Though funded by a businessmen but this channel is largely seen as franchise of journalists.
Aziz Jan was enjoying working in Awaz, he had both freedom to work and better remuneration package. He had reached to place which was striving for and dream for, but life did not give him chance to live a dreamed life. It’s a loss not only of his family (two wives and few children) but of Sindhi electronic media, he had emerged a well-trained and professional media guy.
Lala Qadir, district reporter of Sindh TV wrote “All is lost with his death”. It was not time for him to die, it was time to grow and make achievements in life and let society know what its youth has to offer.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Indus Asia Online Journal (Click here to go to home page) 