The state of Pakistan has never disappointed us when it comes to censorship. This is a country where the Madar-i-Millat (mother of the nation) Fatima Jinnah’s radio broadcast against the political role of the military was censored. A crackdown on independent print media came in the wake of General Ayub Khan’s dictatorship when the so-called anti-state publications were clamped down and ‘banned’ for all practical purposes. The late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was no different, as he was plainly intolerant of dissent. Historian Khursheed Kamal Aziz once told me how Fatima Jinnah’s memoir My Brother was also censored to omit the portion where Ms Jinnah was not too kind about Pakistan’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan.
General Ziaul Haq took censorship to new heights. Jinnah’s famous speech delivered at the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947 was actually subjected to a blackout. This was a speech not only by a politician but by the governor-general (designate) where Jinnah laid out the contours of the new moderate and inclusive Pakistani state. Newspapers were not allowed to carry the speech and textbooks were purged of references.
Fortunately, times have changed. Globalisation and technological advancement make it virtually impossible to suppress free speech and related freedoms. However, the postcolonial state designed in the 19th century with archaic procedures and outdated world view fails to understand this; for example, General Pervez Musharraf tried to suppress the media for a brief time — though, in the end, had to give up his plans.
The rise of social media in Pakistan, albeit with limited outreach, has posed a new challenge. The boundlessness of the internet and unprecedented freedoms have been threatening. This is why a Lahore High Court judge entertained the possibility of banning Facebook based on a right-wing public interest litigation. For a whole year, the denizens at the Pakistan Telecom Authority kept the Blackberry browsing services down. Some lunatic in another part of the world indulges in a blasphemous act and our authorities want to punish the entire country. Such an insecure interpretation of ‘religion’ makes us the laughing stock of the world.
The recent attempt to ‘ban’ Twitter — a social networking site used by millions across the world, including Pakistanis — came in the wake of a blasphemous cartoon contest taking place on Facebook. The government has even demanded Twitter to take action, forgetting that it is a global platform and will not accede to the ascendancy of paranoid right-wingers of Pakistan, who have successfully made the PPP and its coalition partners hostage to their demands.
What is most worrisome is that the PPP government earlier mulled over proposals to screen and censor internet content ostensibly in its antiterrorism drive. Such proposals were resisted by internet activists and shelved, at least for now. However, the threat of censorship remains real given the history and conduct of our state.
If Pakistan has to evolve as a mature democracy, then its rulers need to remember that the right to free speech is non-negotiable. It does not behoove a political party claiming to be moderate and liberal and pandering to urges of censorship. Similarly, conservative elements in the judiciary must also be held to account if they pander to censorship petitions. The state of Pakistan will have to deal with the new realities. Censorship of bygone decades is next to impossible, especially when it attacks the 20 million internet users. We shall resist and fight.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2012.
COMMENTS (15)
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'If Pakistan has to evolve as a mature democracy, then its rulers need to remember that the right to free speech is non-negotiable.'
Well said Mr Rumi
If our country was going to ban Facebook it could at least have done that for 1) infringing upon its users' privacy by selling off their personal information to third parties for personal benefit, and 2) being a massive spy machine for the US government and intelligence services.
But no, we ban Facebook for a ludicrous reason like blasphemous content. Has it ever occurred to the pro-censorship lobbies in this country that the overwhelming majority of Facebook and Twitter's content is NOT anti-Islamic? That just as somebody managed to post blasphemous content, there are also vast heap-loads of pro-Prophet Muhammad content on those sites?
@Hammad Siddiqui: aaah. Gold old 'stop press'. Brings back memories.
As usual Raza Bhai came with brilliant facts and analysis. I agree PPP wasn't different just like other dictators which is mainly that they scare to receive and face direct criticism of general public. It absolutely need rationalism in all national institutes who they're working in their domains and who they're upto expectations.
Interesting. Contest was on FaceBook, and Twitter got banned.
Criticize the so called 'pro-democracy', secular and liberal PPP for this particular ban, at least. If they can't stand for what they say they believe in, they should be criticized.
@Mustafa Moiz:
You don't care about it because you don't use it, We do care about it because we use it and our business is related to Twitter. And Its was not a one day ban FYI you should better know what you're talking about it was an eight hour ban.
I remember during Zia time, newspapers were censored extensively. We used to get papers with blank spaces because newspapers were unable to fill these gaps in such a short time.
We had attacks on media during Musharrff. But doing such silly thing in a democratic regime is extremely disturbing. Perhaps we need someone strong enough at telecom regulator who could put his foot down and say Mr Minister, please understand what these social platforms are all about and these are not websites. Sir if you really want to do something about Blasphemous material, monitor accounts that are uploading that material and report these accounts to twitter or other such platforms.
This few hours twitter blockade brought bad name to Pakistan - I wonder who will take responsibility for damaging Pakistan’s reputation further?
Get over the ban on Twitter, no one actually cares about Twitter. Besides, it was just for one day.
Why is censorship related to democracy, I DON'T KNOW. What is democracy ? It is a system where people select their representatives to act on their behalf in the parliament and to make laws that will benefit the masses.. These MNA's and MPA's are our representatives. So "When they decide to censor something, they are basically doing it for the betterment of the people" Mind you, the 20 million people are not really the majority so they don't have much say..!! And what do you want to fight against.? Dictatorship and democracy both. So what do you want then ?
The writer simply expresses how low we've gone to our convictions! We. just lost our souls and become Pharaohs or wherever possible.
Actually censorship in PAK is constitutionally affirmed..
Please read the fundamental rights doctrine of Pakistan. All articles on the rights of PAK citizen begins with a set of stipulated conditions : Subject to law,(parliament can enact any law as long as it is sharia compliant ), public order ( police, military, political parties determine what is public order - citizens right to assembly and protest or mobs right to intimidate people ) and morality ( mullah's determine that ).
In short PAK people are given rights what the political parties, police machinery and mullah determine suitable for PAK people.
So, subject to law, public order and morality PAK people's write to post criticism against their religious affairs and government are banned and PAK people are committing immoral acts by accessing these face book and twitter and porn.