Islami media committee – by Ahmed Iqbalabadi
In light of the recent attitude of the media which has been trying to play the role of wakeel-e-shaitaan by bringing the momineen and various other ahl-e-kitab into direct confrontation over various deeni and muashrati masail, there is need for saff-arai of jayyad ulema.
On top of all this, the Veena Malik affair has caused a lot of dismay to Muslims of Pakistan and world over. The way Veena Malik has spread bey-hayai, our maayen, behnayn aur betiyan are at a threat. As our faith also tell us to stay away from fahashi and bey-hayai and the way our media has been operating i.e. Showing raqs aur suroor kee mahafil, there is never a better time develop a terms of reference and provide them to a team of bain-al-firqa ulema-e-deen to present their guzarishat to help set and regulate the media.
Some of the major points in the terms of reference can be:
1. Jhoot kee rok tham aur ghalat bayani ka sad-e-bab
2. Islami taaleemat ka phelao through farman-e-Ilahi and baseerat type programs
3. Increase in time given to Hamds, Naats and Nohas
4. Special time for Qawwalis
5. Relay of live azan and namaz from Makkah and Madina Sharif
6. How the anchors can facilitate ulema belonging to different sects rather than make them fight
7. Programming to be bought from India to be vetted by the committee to ensure compliance to muashrati iqdaar.
8. Every match that Pakistan plays and is relayed live on TV channels, an ijtimaaee dua to be held after every power play when Pakistan bowls and before when Pakistan bats.
9. For sports where Pakistani sportsmen are to wear shorts (hockey, football, Aisam ul Haq playing tennis), appropriate technology to use graphic pants to cover legs.
10. Music videos can only be played after Ishaa prayers
11. Mobile company ads have to start showing deeni SMS being sent between boys and girls to tell them that unlimited packages aren’t there to flirt around.
These are some of the points that can be expanded further. The committee will be working in collusion with PEMRA and their sifarishat will be presented to make it the 20th or 21st Aaini Tarmeem.
It is also recommended that the committee will be made visit at least 12 countries to see how their electronic media is operating allowing for a taqabuli jaiza.
The committee should comprise of at least 75 jayyad ulema belonging to different schools of thoughts. The committee will not be headed by anyone and the secretary will be Chairman PEMRA.
It is also recommended that in light of their recent exposé of conspiracies against Blasphemy Laws and Pakistan Fashion Week, Meher Bokhari and Ansar Abbasi be made media coordinators for the committee which should be given the task to complete their recommendations before December 2012.
We are open to more suggestions to make it a worthwhile experience for Pakistani public.
In defence of Veena Malik
By Khaled Ahmed
Pakistani film star and TV comedienne Veena Malik is in ‘trubbel’. The first sin she committed against Pakistan’s India-centric nationalism was accepting to take part in a TV programme in Mumbai. The second sin she committed was against the violent religiosity of Pakistani society: she allowed some intimate shots with a Hindu actor. This was a double whammy of national betrayal.
A TV anchor, treading the frontiers of propriety for ratings, waited till she returned to Lahore to put her together with a mullah who upbraided her for fahashi. What was implied was something deeper than just an extended make-believe serial in which characters engaged in free-wheeling relationships.
What Pakistan lost was its honour. A male Pakistani actor going through the same shenanigans with a Hindu actress would have caused us to strut with pride. Veena became Pakistan in the female mode deflowered by male Bharat. The hidden accusation was that of cross-border coitus in which Pakistan was in the female mode. The TV anchor sat back and enjoyed seeing an implied fornication punished.
There was collective eroticism in this. Another TV programme with an audience also delivered its verdict. A group of young boys and girls said, ‘she is not from us’. National honour was lost through Veena Malik. (It was not lost in a cross-border ‘real’ liaison by a famous Pakistani cricketer.) It was an act of excommunication organised by a bearded TV host. In Pakistan, excommunication is not enough. Some jihadi will complete the act of purging by despatching the victim as a burnt offering to Pakistan’s revengeful gods.
The press reporting on Veena is replete with lascivious innuendo. A woman of ill repute seduced our innocent fast bowler Muhammad Asif and sneaked against him for drugs and match-fixing to the ICC. They ignored her honesty in admitting that she loved him and overlooked his rascalities and kept spending big money in the hope of reforming him. There was more integrity in this ‘sinful woman’ than in all our priests and TV hosts put together.
She was abandoned by her profession too. The film world turned pious and swore allegiance to cinematic nationalism by condemning her. This has happened so many times it is sickening. And the media has descended to its lowest point, more a pander to voyeurism than a protector of public virtue.
In Filming the Line of Control: the Indo-Pak Relationship through the Cinematic Lens; edited by Meenakshi Bharat & Nirmal Kumar; (Routledge 2008), the thesis is: there is a sexual insult involved in getting Pakistani girls to fall in love with Hindu men. Indian films want the audiences to feel as if their nation state was a highly-sexed male taking to bed the female enemy nation state to re-enact the times when the Mongols raped the nations they conquered.
Pakistan has done a lot of TV dramas doing just that till our mujahideen turned on us and started killing our men and women instead of morally correcting rather easy Hindu women in Kashmir. What would make our TV hosts feel good would be the sight of a Pakistani-Muslim male sexually annexing an Indian-Hindu woman: a symbolic taking of Kashmir.
The pious are usually obsessed with what they think is forbidden. We have our problems with entertainment in general. That is why our constitution stays clear of the word ‘culture’ which is dangerously coextensive with that of India. Veena was brave because she crossed the line. She has more human worth than the TV hosts trying to increase their ratings at her cost.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2011.
LOL!! Maybe bring in Orya Maqbool Jan, a pop historian in the committee too…the liberals will be happier 🙂
Did not Meher Bokhari claim in her interview with Salmaan Taseer that she is not a liberal? And then she nicely fits in the Saleem Bokhari and Orya Maqbool duo in Bhonkta Fascistan.
Stop character assassinating Ansar Abbasi and Meher Bokhari please! No photo articles (except for Zardari and Rehman Malik)
: )
She said “mayn to maghrib nawaz nahee hoon”
judiciary is also part of that islami committee.
most judges in suprem court got same mentality like ansar abbasi. if you judiciary act in same manner with foreign investors pakistan will loose whatever little bit foreign investment we get. sc stoped privatization of STEEL MILL, it was a popular decision but we loosing billions now due to that popular decision by sc. samething will happen now in riko dic contract , foreign investors will get a decision against them. the ground for this decison was prepareD by jang group/shaheen sehbai and decison will be made by sc.WHY NO SUO MOTO ACTION ON 6 BILLION CORRUPTION BY PMLN MNA AQEEL ANJAM?
IF HE WAS FROM PPP HE WOULD HAVE BEEN IN COURT TODAY ANSWERING HOSTILE QUESTIONS FROM PMLN JUDGE KHALIL RAMDAY.
ahmed brother, highlight this 6 billion corruption by pmln MNA and the biased treatment of sc.
1. Woman’s virtue is Islam’s greatest invention. This psyche which glorifies men’s philandering behaviour by equating it with being “stud like” and demeans any bold expression of female sexuality as “sluttish’ In a reality show like Big Boss, the more outrageous you are, the higher are the chances of your continuity in the future episodes. These programs thrive on controversy and therefore Veena Malik’s bold behaviour has to be seen in this light rather than through this hypocritical honour paradigm. Princess Veena Malik is symbol of freedom, dignity and courage against mullah’s hostility to liberty and radical chauvinist media’s obsession with religiousity by soft peddling terrorism and extremism, by targetting minorities, women and children and by projecting Aafia & Qadri as national heroes, which is hostility to liberty. Lost in the angry shouts of “blasphemy” by the extremists is the fact that even now Islamist parties do not hold a majority in any provincial parliament or the National Assembly. Nor is there any sign that they could muster such a popular majority in any coming elections. But what the Islamists do have is a readiness to call out supporters into the streets and links to a network of radical mosques and madrasahs that can supply that street power on demand. And extremists have a readiness to assassinate. If it is not rolled back, street power could become decisive in the country. If Qadri is murdered today, streets of Pakistan will be flooded like Egypt & Tunisia.
I am surprised with the choice of our lovely bold Anchor MAHER KUKHARI….i think MULLAH ANSAR ABASSI should write an artical about this very shamefull act…and MAHER BUKHARI should marry with MULLAH MUAWEAR HUSSAN …then her sin can be washed and then she will be having some chances to stand in front of ALLAH on the day of judgment…even i hope she will be granted free entry to JANAH due to her Nobel marriage with MULLAH MUNAWAR HUSSAN ….
Yeh Mehr Bukhari to pucki munafiq hai.
Ahmed:
I understand the rhetoric you are trying to portray but the sad reality is that majority of facebook user class would actually respond to your suggestions by saying that what is wrong with them, why shouldn’t we have a guardian’s council in PEMRA, are we not an Islamic Republic.
Most would fail to see the jibe you are taking against them. For reference, look up response to the shahadat of Salman Taseer.
@Saad, this is satire. Let the maulvis do their work which they just cant. All they want is to be on elevated posts and do nothing. Make them all part of committees, khilao, pilao, ghumao and keep them busy.
Mir Shakil ur Rehman (GEO TV/DAILY JANG) is Exposed in Sindh Assembly (15 March 2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ct8LlKghRU