The Nation that breeds on Sensationalism

Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1947 until his assassination in 1951. He was murdered while addressing a public rally at Rawalpindi. The police shot his presumed murderer on the spot. The exact motive behind the assassination has never been fully revealed and much speculation surrounds it.

This event set a damaging precedent of potential cover ups and inconclusive investigations that has plagued us to this day in case of every major incident.

We, as a Nation never get the full picture and in the meanwhile, media moves on to the next big story and the wheel keeps spinning. The associated issues, arguments, controversies and points of contention never get resolved. Life is not a movie where you witness some happy or sad ending and get your answers, but in reality stories remain untold and left to rot.

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Another sad incident in Pakistan’s political history is Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Just like Liaqat Ali Khan she was also assassinated in 2007 at the very same venue; having just returned home to lead her party in the upcoming elections. Rawalpindi’s fire department was quick to wash the crime scene, depriving investigators of important evidence. It marked a new entry on the already long list of unsolved assassination cases in the country.

If we look elsewhere, this pattern of dubious investigations continues in all other major departments. A more recent episode occurred on August 13, 2018, where a 10 year old Amal Umer lost her life after being hit by a stray bullet during a police encounter. The ill treatment by the hospital didn’t help her cause and later stirred a lot of attention in the media. However, after a few months of hem and haw, the dust settled. There were zero reforms made in police and health departments to avoid a similar tragedy in future.

In May 2020, a retired doctor who tested positive for COVID-19 died after he was allegedly denied treatment at various public and private hospitals in Karachi. A special committee was formed to probe this matter. Govt and health officials aired their versions of the story. Facts and numbers were twisted in such a way that one never got to know the root cause.

In the absence of fairness, everything is put under the sand and covered by concrete so that this and similar cases never really get investigated.

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On 22 May 2020, a horrid incident happened to the Karachi bound PIA flight PK-8303 which crashed in a densely populated residential area a few kilometers from the runway. 97 out of 99 onboard lost their lives, with 2 lucky survivors. A joint investigation team has been constituted to review the matter and submit its report to the Government. It remains to be seen if we get a transparent output this time around. In the past 10 years, there have been a handful of air tragedies where we seldom received a comprehensive report.

Even more importantly, there has never been an objective follow up and action plan to rectify the system issues to avoid recurrence.

Regardless of the nature of fiasco, ensuing cycle is the same. The media tunes in with all its might, people gossip, demands surface for a transparent finding, promises made, fast forward a few weeks/months and all forgotten in the glitz of next scandal.

Over the years, this behavior has caused moral deterioration, lack of accountability and amplified hypocrisy.

We currently live in an internet era where news is shared instantly and the information passes on like wild fire. People get to know all possible angles though social media but it’s never officially told or accepted by the Government. This could aid harvesting more crimes and allowing people to escape retribution.

[bs-quote quote=”Regardless of the nature of fiasco, ensuing cycle is the same. The media tunes in with all its might, people gossip, demands surface for a transparent finding, promises made, fast forward a few weeks or months and all is forgotten in the glitz of next scandal.” style=”style-17″ align=”left” color=”#dd0000″ author_name=”Saba Waqas” author_job=”Freelance writer & Contributor, Baaghi TV”][/bs-quote]

Media needs to play a pivotal role in changing this trend by persisting with such news pieces. There’s always so much enthusiasm in the beginning but it eases off with passing time. It is high time that we start working for betterment of the system and not only channel ratings. The news is not supposed to be entertaining, it’s sole purpose should be relaying topical, meaningful information and if possible providing further probing into the subject to know the end result. Let’s put sensationalism on leash and try to bring major issues to a closure.