River project protests
BESET by legal challenges and landowners’ protests, the Ravi Urban Development Authority has lately drawn flak from the international rights body Human Rights Watch for forcibly evicting farmers and taking over their land to develop a controversial riverfront project just outside Lahore. In a statement, HRW has criticised the government for dislodging thousands of farmers to make room for the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project and urged the authorities to enforce environmental protection and reform colonial-era laws that grant the government broad powers to acquire land for private and public use. Launched in 2020 by the then prime minister Imran Khan, who claimed that it would address Lahore’s problems, including pollution, sewage, housing, water and employment, it has been opposed by environmentalists and rights activists from its very inception. They have argued that the proposed changes to the flow of the Ravi river would significantly increase the risk of flooding and displace and deprive thousands of families of their farmland, businesses and livelihoods.
However, even court orders and a series of protests by local farmers, business owners and labourers have failed to deter RUDA, which continues to act on behalf of property developers, and harass and forcibly turn out landowners from their homes and seize the land they have cultivated for generations. Scores of farmers resisting or refusing to hand over their land have faced criminal charges. After a change in the government in Punjab, it was widely expected that the caretaker administration would revisit the project, and reassess its human and environmental costs. But that hasn’t happened so far. The RUDA authorities continue to try and force the people give up their land and homes at throwaway prices. And for what? Just to help a handful of powerful property tycoons make easy money. Considering the massive financial benefits that real estate developers stand to gain from the project, one hardly expects the HRW statement to knock sense into the government authorities.
Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2023
Fuzzy numbers
IF significant credibility gaps persist regarding the data of the ongoing seventh census, the massive exercise may prove just as controversial as the previous head count in 2017. Considering the huge sums involved and time invested, that would be a highly unsatisfactory outcome. There has been persistent criticism that some areas, particularly Karachi, are being undercounted, with both the MQM and the JI leading the chorus of discontent. Even the PPP-led Sindh government has been quite vocal about its reservations, with the provincial administration threatening to reject the results unless its concerns are addressed. There certainly seems to be cause for concern. According to provisional data, Karachi’s population appears to have dipped compared to the 2017 numbers. As per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the megacity’s population is around 13.5m with 90pc of the census work completed. At the same point in 2017, the Karachi population was over 16m. Moreover, none of the city’s districts have witnessed an increase in population since the last census. Considering circumstantial evidence related to rural-urban migration, these numbers don’t appear to add up. However, PBS officials say there should be no premature conclusions, and everyone should wait for the final figures. The PBS has also called for rechecking around 30,000 buildings in Karachi that may have been missed.
The fact is that the census takers themselves have admitted to major obstacles, while the PBS chief has said the bureau has faced “serious challenges” in both Karachi and Lahore. He added that assistant commissioners have not generally displayed a helpful attitude in conducting the exercise. There has also been hesitation by citizens in many instances to share personal data with the enumerators, while the head count is also proceeding behind schedule in Balochistan, with only 62pc of the work completed. Considering that this is Pakistan’s first digital census, a far more transparent exercise is expected. All stakeholders — provincial governments, political parties, and most importantly the people — must be assured of the transparency of the exercise, and serious objections investigated and addressed. Provincial governments must also offer full cooperation to the enumerators. Likewise, the public should be assured that its personal data will be kept safe. Pakistan can ill afford to conduct a faulty census, or worse, work with dubious numbers when the head count is linked to things as essential as planning, funds and representation in parliament.
Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2023
Censorship central
ALMOST every directive that emerges from Pemra reveals its antipathy to the right of freedom of speech. In its latest communique, the regulatory body has announced a prohibition on the “broadcast and re-broadcast or live coverage” of explosions/blasts or terrorist attacks.
This came after twin blasts targeted the police in Quetta on Monday in which at least four people were killed and 21 others injured. According to Pemra, in the wake of terrorist attacks, satellite TV channels resort to “marathon transmissions ignoring basic journalist [sic] norms and ethics… .”
The directive also said that “airing such content portrays very shabby image of the country across the globe which consider Pakistan as an insecure place for visit and investment… .”
There has certainly been some questionable reportage of terrorist attacks while they were unfolding; that merits the regulator’s attention, but a blanket ban on coverage of acts of terrorism as a whole is censorship, pure and simple. Regulations should be reasonable, aiming to restrain egregious excesses, rather than clamping down on the flow of information.
It is not the media’s job to ‘portray’ the country in a flattering light by suppressing the news; its duty is to convey facts to the public. But Pemra appears to have forgotten that facilitating information is one of its core functions. Instead, it has evolved into a handmaiden of the security establishment and the government of the day, which in turn gives them licence to intimidate the media into suppressing inconvenient facts.
For example, there is a blackout on coverage of the Pashtun Tahuffuz Movement; not a minute’s footage even of its massive rallies has been aired. Pemra’s allegiance to the centres of power also results in supremely ironic turnarounds on the nation’s television screens.
During the PTI government’s tenure, interviews and press conferences of opposition politicians were repeatedly taken off air or muted. Now that the tables have turned, the regulatory authority last month banned the broadcast and rebroadcast of former prime minister Imran Khan’s speeches and press talks, a move rightly struck down by the court. Criticism of the security establishment is perennially on mute.
Some directives by Pemra have been patently mystifying, such as the ban on TV channels airing reports on the rape that took place recently in Islamabad’s F-9 park. Or its bizarre move in 2019 to restrict television anchors to the role of moderators and bar them from appearing as experts on talk shows on any channel, including their own.
As pointed out in the law under which Pemra functions, free flow of information is integral to accountability, transparency and good governance. Inhibiting coverage of events on broadcast media encourages both misinformation and disinformation on social media, which further muddies an already chaotic public sphere. The regulatory body’s actions are a disservice to the people.
Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2023