Disclaimer: All the predictions in this blog post are made-up. The author will not be responsible if any of the above comes true.
Popularity: 17% [?]
2007 was a revolutionary year in the history of Pakistan. The power dynamics of the country shifted from three A’s (Allah, America and Army) to three J’s (Judiciary, Journalism and Jeneral). Oops! Did I write JENERAL? (Aaah.. the Sana Ullah Mastikhel syndrome!). Anyways, we all know what happened. The progressive General became a dictator overnight; black cameras aired and glorified every move the men in black (lawyers and judges) made. The entertainment shows lost their ratings and TV anchors became national celebrities. Politicians also claimed their cut in the transaction by declaring their long lost love for democracy. Three years later; Pakistan has democracy (translation: a President without uniform). Judiciary is free (the power to ban internet but not terrorism) and a media that doesn’t pay taxes (read).
In the first half of its tenure the democratic Govt. of PPP turned out to be exactly like their previous Governments (corrupt, incompetent and vision less) but only worse. The Govt. that failed to deliver started losing its credibility, as a result media took the moral and commercial liberty of showing how bad the politicians are when it comes to ruling this country. In the mean while Iftikhar Choudary’s Judiciary who already had a bone to pick with Zardari (on his hindrance for restoring judges) also developed a taste for popular decisions and what else can make people happy than watching their failed leaders penalized. Benefiting from Zaradari Inc. failures, PML-N emerged as Pakistan’s last hope. Things were going honky dory until a conflict of interest started to affect the tag team.
The way things are going it’s very possible that the no. of fake graduates in the assemblies are going to outnumber the real graduates. But a point of view could be; why over hype a situation when we have issues like terrorism, corruption, inflation and power to solve. Fake degree cases were queued to the same courts in the last Govt. but these judges chose not to take any action, so why now? Similarly, media fails to acknowledge any criticism that comes their way. Even two times Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif despite his past record with Army General’s is ready to bend down for a change and kick out his party members just to mend ways with media.
The Right thing to do:
Politics, Judiciary and Media are the three pillars of any democratic and modern society. If these entities actually aim to see REAL democracy in the country, they should learn to coexist.
Popularity: 16% [?]
1998 was a very eventful year in the history of Pakistan. That year Pakistan became a “nuclear power”, same year Pakistani rock band Junoon was touring India. The year proved out to be doubly eventful for the rock band when a political statement from bands lead vocalist Ali Azmat got them banned in Pakistan. In his statement Ali condemned the nuclear tests by both countries and denounced the nuclear proliferation in Subcontinent. Coming from a rock musician the statement sounded quite reasonable but Nawaz Sharifs previous administration took it quite gravely. The ministry of information of that time not only banned Junoon or popular music of any type but ensured that nobody appears on the national television wearing jeans (WTF?)
Looking back everything changed since 1998:
· Ali Azmat is bald now, Nawaz Sharif is not.
· Abdul Qadeer Khan, once our national hero is now (somewhat) controversial.
· North West Frontier Province has a new name.
· Jeans is no more the symbol of liberalism but expressing your love and admiration for the neighboring country (Hint: Aman ki *beep* Aasha) is now considered as liberal and highly fashionable. And by neighboring country I don’t mean Afghanistan here 
But one thing that took the country by storm is Pakistan’s FREE mainstream media (cough *mafia* cough). Free media was General (retired) Musharraf’s only democratic gift to this country. The same gift took his beloved wardee and Government away from him (You too Hamid Brutus Meer?). Today, media is fast becoming the most powerful entity of this country. They freely exercise the power to change election results (Hint: NA 55 elections). They can take a non issue and make an elephant out of it and vice versa. But apart from the political circus, toppling of democratic or military governments, Pakistani media right now has the power to decide what is morally correct and what’s not which makes it more dangerous than it used to be back in the military days of Zia.
Back in the day, it was mandatory for any actress appearing on the national TV to wear Dopatta on her head. Apart from the Government, self appointed moral police (Jamat e Islami and other religious parties) were out there forcing their version of Sharia on very Pakistani soul. Even today, one can easily witness Taliban apologist journos and TV anchors defending terrorism by labeling it a reaction of military attack. But when it comes to commercial interests ; where is media’s moral or religious stand? For the past two and a half week every Pakistani news channel is acting like a gossip girl. Glorifying a love affair and portraying it as a matter of national security.
We all have witnessed the TV anchors crying their hearts out on how President Zardari is harboring all the Presidential powers and not sharing it with the Prime Minister as he should. How he is no different from the military dictator Musharraf when it comes to balance of power. But what happened when the amendment took place? Sania / Malik scandal made headlines and the historic bill got minimal air time. There is no age rating on any of the the TV programs, which means that an individual of any age group can view any TV program despite from its impact on their minds.
I might sound like a right winger here but do you think that its morally okay to glamorize a scandal where a young man secretly marries than divorces a woman whom he met on the internet for a tennis star who appears more attractive than the first girl? And not only glamorizing the scandal but showcasing every dirty aspect of this crappy affair which involves abortion, betrayal, moral and ethical corruption? Has any responsible media person ever realized, that for the lust of high channel rating they are exposing young minds to moral corruption. There is not a sing quiz show or educational program on any of the popular channels. Educationists and entrepreneurs who make achievements dont make TV appearences or headlines. There is no positive news or image to follow for these young kids. The popular source of information for Pakistani teenagers are these TV channels where the only national achievement that takes maximum air time is a lousy celebrity scandal.
I wonder why Jamat e Islami or TTP didn’t say a word against this absurd media behavior, why not a single moral fatwa was issued? Why no news channel was threatened for playing Indian movie songs in the middle of a news bulletin. Where is Jamat e Islami and their moral police? Where is Taliban when you need them?!
Popularity: 43% [?]
My father like most people of his generation is quite particular about organizing and documenting things. From important official documents to ATM receipts he maintains every single record in his files. But one file that interests me whenever I dig into his archives; is the record of my old mark sheets (from kinder garden to high school, excluding my University mark sheets for reasons that students of lesser GPA can understand well :P)
At the back of my kinder garden report card I found a poem that told a very special lesson, a lesson everyone can relate to in their own personal capacity. It goes like this:
They said “you’ll never make it”
And they thought that they were right,
But I kept on plodding onward,
Because I hoped I might.
And they shook their heads in wonder,
That I lacked the sense to quit,
But I held my chin up higher,
And I didn’t mind a bit.
They said “you’ll never make it”,
As the problems multiplied,
But I had to make an effort,
And to know at least I tried.
So I dug my heels in deeper,
Though sometimes my spirits lagged,
And I shouldered what was lightest,
And the rest I sort of dragged.
And I found to my amazement,
At the ending of the day,
That what they said I couldn’t,
I had managed anyway.
It only took three little words,
“Lord help me”, and I rid
Myself of doubt, and all they said
I’d never do…. I did!
Popularity: 29% [?]
I wonder if a futurist in the past ever predicted the affiliation of an average consumer with its brands. We have seen how the followers of one religion disagreeing with the beliefs of another or fan of one sports team ridiculing the fans of another or the public reaction on the policies of their governments or representatives. But what’s new or different is the end user’s reaction on technology releases, their sacred association with certain brands and how they love to whine about their technological allergies in public. Shouldn’t be a matter preference?
With this question in mind I attended Microsoft’s blogger meet up last week at Microsoft Innovation Centre in Karachi. I always learn something new and fascinating whenever I got the opportunity to attend Microsoft organized events. My admiration is not limited to MS product releases but the community work that Microsoft is doing in Pakistan to promote computer literacy (Microsoft innovation for All), bridge the gap between Urdu and English literates (Urdu version of MS products) is commendable.
I got to the event early enough to land myself a seat in the front row. I was handed over a cool t-shirt (Covering live events have its fair share of perks!) which said: I blog, therefore I am! As soon as I tweeted about the shirt, series of tweets overflowed my (tweetdeck) inbox requesting for the t-shirt.
The entire seats in the FAST University City campus, auditorium got filled with technology loving bloggers. The first half of the event consisted of the presentation demo on Windows 7. MVP Zafar ul Islam highlighted different features of this most talked about Operating System, how it’s better, faster, reliable and convenient for all users (easy plug and play). Win 7 the product was developed keeping into consideration the needs of the end user and the feedback they received from their previous OS releases (Windows Vista). No wonder the tagline for Win7 goes like: I am a PC and Windows 7 was my idea!
Highlights:
· Most interesting part for the bloggers was the Live demo of Microsoft Live Mesh (Beta) using any mobile device (HTC Touch Diamond 2 Windows Phone in this case). The downloaded images were then animated using Windows Live Movie Maker and uploaded on facebook and Windows Live writer. That all within 5 minutes!
· But the demo that really moved me was “Microsoft Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 R2”. Looking at the growing business need, OCS is going to be one house hold name.
· Naveed Bajwa, DPE Lead, Microsoft Pakistan shared many ongoing and upcoming initiatives from Microsoft for Pakistani academia and developer Community.
· Jibran Jamshed, Microsoft Pakistan technology consultant answered many pointing question as he was demoing IE8. It was funny to watch the love hate relation of the participants with this web browser.
Out of all the product releases and initiatives being taken by Microsoft the need for a platform where all these action are highlighted is definitely needed at local level. Until than all of this will remain unnoticeable and MS will remain underrated.
Photo Credits: S.M Khan, Zafar ul Islam
Popularity: 34% [?]