Rules of engagement

As the bloody, pre-election violence continues in Pakistan, speculation on the election outcome remains the heated topic amongst Pakistanis abroad. News from ‘home’ is a daily diet easily obtained through the Pakistani channels aired on cable or from the vast space of the internet.

The glamour (or the absolute lack thereof) of the candidates; their ability to hoodwink the voters; their reluctantly declared assets and their corrupt outreach are the juicy contents eagerly devoured by a people still hoping to see a miraculous change in their birthplace.

With the media outreach being what it is today, any national election is not just a vote-off taking place at polling stations. It is a media war fought with countless words per minute either being broadcast, blogged, tweeted, posted or printed.

The upcoming Pakistan election, too, has turned into a media spectacle of candidates. International reporters are adding their spice to the Pakistani election reportage by picking on any tidbit they can find. In his story filed from Islamabad, Rob Crilly of the The Telegraph (UK) highlighted the young mascots of the PPP and the PML-N some weeks ago, under the catchline, “Bhutto vs Sharif, Oxford vs Cambridge, as Pakistan’s young pretenders go head to head”. Yes, Bilawal Bhutto as the reluctant prop for the PPP and Maryam Sharif as the assertive pillar for the PML-N have definitely added pizzaz for foreign onlookers.

Campaign and media managers of Nawaz Sharif should particularly be applauded for employing Nawaz Sharif’s daughter as the face of his campaign. If Bilawal Bhutto is garnering his mom’s supporters, Maryam Sharif would definitely be sucking in female votes from the PPP vote bank, not to mention offering a pleasant and unusual view of the PML-N, which had hitherto only shown the dour faces of the Sharif brothers to the media.

But the spectacle put on by our once mighty president, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, has added the extra zing for the international press covering the election story from Pakistan. Mr Crilly, reporting this time on Musharraf’s ill-fated return, wrote, “It is the latest in a humiliating series of blows to Mr Musharraf and comes only a day after he unveiled his party manifesto, declaring: ‘The only thing in my heart was to save Pakistan and now I am here, I have the same commitment, that I will save Pakistan.’ It seems few Pakistanis want to be saved by the general who seized power in 1999.”

Gauging by the drawing room discussions though, it seems that Imran Khan is possibly the favourite candidate amongst the younger expats. He has more than half a million Twitter followers and countless fans from his cricketing days who admire him. Some who remember him for his bowling speed while others for his rugged good looks. And physical persona does increase favourable impression in the media — though none of those features will help Imran govern!

Today’s reporting trends have altered, as myriad voices collide on the internet — the venting hole for everyone in the universe. Human destinies are made or broken as events, statements, personal habits, likes, dislikes and biases are all at the mercy of the media mongers adept at spinning tangled webs of fact, fiction and fabrication.

The rules of engagement have changed and candidates everywhere are facing a tougher audience. With newsroom ethics having become somewhat murky in the social media climate, partiality, personal biases and nepotism may be found liberally inserted in the reports filed in newsrooms and newspapers. In Canada, the left and the right-wing media are pretty well-defined and proud of it! The Toronto Star will be seen blatantly supporting Liberal candidates through cover stories the day before elections, whereas The National Post will zealously stand by its Conservative preference.

In Pakistan, however, the newspapers are still more cautious in revealing their biases. But the electronic media — which has found its voice fairly recently — still hasn’t stopped shouting. Hosts, anchors, moderators and opinion leaders are relentlessly giving full vent to their spleen, each laying bare the ill deeds of their foe through insults, slander and abuse.

Whatever may be the outcome of the elections, the winners should remember that the communication tools available to voters also ensure that there be some retribution for evil deeds of rulers. So, in addition to the hawk eye of the national media, they also better be wary of the blogosphere where the wrath of the voters can swiftly cut them to size.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2013.