 |
| Imran Khan's Lahore Rally : Oct.30,2011 |
Yesterday, October 30th. Imran Khan led a rally in Lahore which is covered the world over. It is seen as a ray of hope and change in Pakistan and not all the international community is ready for this change for a couple of reasons. Before going in detail, we have to look at the size, the style and the message that this rally send at large. No wonder, it was quite a big crowd per se but not enough for a country of about 200 million and a city of about 9 million people. Nevertheless, the participants were there by choice, were very different from the usual crowd that is seen in Pakistani political rallies and accordng to the analysts - a middle class involvement which is considered as a clear indiacator of change - was present there. Many of them were women and young people - which have never shown interest in going to political rallies before at such a large scale. What was said in the rally was nothing new: how can it be new when the ailment we are sufferening is more than 60 years old....it will have the same prescription. Anyhow, let us look at how was this rally being covered internationally and what does the International media is saying about it around the world:
New York Times in its coverage here, did termed this rally a political shift in Pakistan.
San Francisco Chronicle called it: An Anti- US Pakistani Cricketer rallies 100,000.
Hindustan Times ran a headline saying: New Delhi should withdraw Army from Kashmir: Imran
BBC says: Imran Khan addresses thousands gathered at Minar-e- Pakistan
The Telegraph reports: Imran leads a rally of 100,000 against Pakistan's US alliance.
Huffington's Post reported: Pakistani Cricket Legend Imran Khan And Supporters Rally Against U.S.-Pakistan Alliance
Council on Foreign Relations had a post by Ed Husain: Imran Khan: Pakistan's Comeback Kid
Asian Correspondent ran the same heading as the SF Chronicle here.
Yahoo News through the Associated Press (AP) ran a headline: Anti-US Pakistani cricketer rallies 100,000 people
Why is it important to focus what the foreign media has to say???
They create and send a specific image of any event happening around the world.
The KEY WORDS used in some of the leading newspapers to highlight Imran Khan's Lahore Rally of 30-th October include:
Anti-US , political shift, Against, Pak-US alliance and Anti-US Pakistani cricketer.
If we look at the history of politics in the developing world and particularly in Asia, we will see that people came to power through the help of foreign powers. There is enough evidence that shows that the advocates from old democracies have supported anti-democratic movements within these developing countries, they have waged their proxy wars there, they have destablized them in many ways, they have always given asylum to the fraudulent leaders in these developing countries who have been involved in severe human rights violations and robbing the public exchequer and have never liked a leadership that asked for "equality" among nations in general and who looked into the eyes of these old power houses.
News shapes opinions and if that is how a change in Pakistan is covered internationally with a phobia, with irrational fear and as a possible threat then it is a very sad news for Pakistan and for the world. Change in other countries must be seen as a possiblility of a better and stable tomorrow rather than demonizing the change and fearing it!
Posts
sarahinsouthkorea
man u just want to sit and we will bring the change, we have to free our country from altaf bhai's, zardari's and mian's.
ReplyDeleteU are not honest in trying to bowled Zardari and Nawaaz Sharif with the same ball. There is hell of difference between two. One has misappropriated Billions of Dollors from the public funds of poor peoples of Pakistan while nawaaz has tried to serve the country sincerely. The desire to become Prime minister has seems to dominate over his good morality. This is very sad that we have lost a person who has gtear ability to serve pakistan
ReplyDelete@ M. Yasin: We will NOT be able to FREE our political sphere from the names you mentioned. We will NEVER learn from our mistakes and we love status quo.
ReplyDelete@ A. Majeed: You are right - there is hell of a difference but we have better choices amongst 200 million people in Pakistan.
In the last elections, the votes casted were for B. Bhutto - who was shot dead recently. Emotional as we are - the whole country voted in PPP with Zardari on top - who had at the time, cases of assasination (of Murtaza Bhutto and his guards) and corruption against him. This shows that our system has loopholes which allows such disputed personalities as potential candidates. This also say something about 'Dynastic politics or Family politics' that is rampant in South Asia or developing countries like ourself.
We must NOT forget that Nawaz Sharif's ouster was met with jubilance and distribution of sweets in the streets. Before his ouster, he was acting like a monarch rather than a democratically elected leader. Shahbaz Sharif on the other hand, has somewhat done a good job for Lahore but Punjab is a much larger area and a lot has to done there. Shahbaz Sharif keep forgeting that he is not a super hero (superman etc.) - he must have a good, competant team that he may trust but unfortunately, he lacks such people around him which is very unfortunate. The cream of PML(N) that shows up on TV shows are very depressing, they do loosetalk and surely I would NEVER like to call such a person my representative.
Have you heard that absolute power corrupts assolutely?? Hence, change is extremely important to balance it.
Pakistan has a very talented pool of people to choose from but we must have to look at more than the change of face with almost similar policies.
Change of policy, attitudes, work ethics, moral, ethical and educational grounds be taken into consideraion for change of political sphere in Pakistan. If that be the case, I am sure, that you will feel the change for the country at large - not for a specific group of people or region.
We are because of Pakistan and its wellbeing and reputation is being challanged over and over again by these two parties. Enough is enough!