Note on editorial

Letter March 10, 2016
We have to downgrade the influence of our religious leaders and keep their supporters away from television channels

KARACHI: Your editorial, “Ripped asunder” (March 9) really struck the nail on the head, but will anyone, especially those at helm, pay any heed or even notice the clear writing on the wall? Keeping one eye closed, so long as someone’s own personal fortune or future is not at stake, continues to be the order of the day under all governments in Pakistan. Just watch any talk show on private channels and you will always find at least one speaker praising the very groups responsible for various reprehensible activities in the country.

I am well travelled, and there is hardly any country, even our next-door neighbours, Iran or India, that allows television anchors and commentators the leeway that we allow in spreading half-baked theories with religious overtones to a majority of listeners who are mostly uneducated, and therefore, quite naive. This is tantamount to brainwashing by a group in the media who themselves are not very well read or educated and whatever information they disseminate is what they have learnt from hearsay. In order to mislead, quite a few media personnel have taken the mantle of a doctor while in reality they are just personnel who had attended a medical school after passing their intermediate examination. Right now, every mobile server calls its subscribers at least once a day requesting them to install caller tunes of one religious leader or another.

We have to downgrade the influence of our religious leaders as much as possible and keep their supporters away from our television channels if we really want to safeguard the lives of the innocent masses in Pakistan.

Zahid Islam

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11th, 2016.

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