Afghan Press Author: Roohul Amin

The issue of terrorism during last couple of years has become a global phenomenon and has been a focal point of discussion for the national as well as international media.

But ironically it has staggered developing countries like Pakistan, instead belligerent countries.

Since 2002 to 2008 terrorism has claimed more than 16 hundred lives of Pakistanis civilians including political leaders, defense personnel and officials of law enforcing agencies in no less than one hundred and five bomb explosions including suicide attacks.

These figures are taken without the death toll ratio of the recent bomb blast in Wah cantt, attack on Badhbair Police Station, and the decimation in Bajaur agency that really shook the NWFP provincial government and for help it had to expand its begging-bowl to world community especially UNO.

And it’s no denying the fact that one of the major reasons is that it is the by-product of allying with the US in its war on terror.

The domestic political scenario has been completely destabilized and distraught by terrorism. The 12th May 2007 Karachi carnage, the frequency of bomb blasts prior to the elections, the attack on Benazir Bhutto which cost her life are all examples that we are clearly aware of.

It is interesting to mention that Pakistan internationally is perceived as “the most dangerous place in the world” but in the February 18 elections, the people of Pakistan while largely rejecting the extremist parties, plumped for the liberal, and moderate political parties of Pakistan.

Nevertheless the issue of terrorism has become complicated in Pakistan where the newly elected government of Pakistan is facing a lot of internal and external pressures. Right after the elections, the first blow that the new government received was the incident of suicide bomb blast in the FIA office at Lahore that perished the lives of at least 25 people including 13 FIA officials.

Moreover a suicide bomber killed at least six people and wounded 19 in an attack on a Pakistan naval college in the eastern city of Lahore.

The counter-terrorist strategies employed over the last few years particularly in FATA are a bleak example of the challenges of combating terrorism in Pakistan. The Pakistani military operations have hardly helped to counter the enemy. Other than the loss of hundreds of soldiers, the traditional form of governance in the tribal areas has been disturbed; the local population has been alienated; while their remains lack of support from the remaining Pakistani population.

The year between May 3, 2007 and May 3, 2008 for the media in Pakistan, was the worst ever in the country’s sixty-one years history. This year proved fatal and venomous for hundreds of journalists.

For at least fifteen journalists were murdered in the line of duty across the country, three hundred and fifty seven were arrested, and one hundred and twenty three sustained injuries in physical assaults, one hundred and fifty four were menaced while there were 18 cases of attacks and ransacking of media properties and 88 cases of various gag orders issued by the government and different religious factions.

This was the year in which, physical violence touched the life of around 700 journalists while the fear of it haunted many hundreds of others

Islamabad emerged as the ‘media threat capital’ of Pakistan, the place most dangerous in the country to practice journalism with no less than 143 of the 368 cases of various categories of menaces of the media were recorded.

On the one hand the Pakistani media has always highlighted unjustified actions done by the coalition forces and the Pakistan army in northern areas of Pakistan and on the other it has never been hesitant to expose the unjustified actions of extremist either they are Taliban or hardliner religious elements of Pakistan. This however has not been easy.

Sitting at a far distance from the tribal areas, it is easy to express views regarding extremism and present remedies for its solution but its hard enough to give a fair and balanced report while living among them because the self-imposed religious leaders gag the right of objective reporting and the tribal feel themselves insecure if they gang their own way while seeping information to the media men. Homegrown problems need homegrown solutions and who knows better a solution than local journalists but it is near to impossibility for a journalist to give a fair analysis of the present circumstances prevailing in the region at the cost of his life or his family members. Moreover the government itself does not want to keep them at the center of schemes adopted for combating this issue in FATA.

But simultaneously it is unfair to say that the entire tribal and the capital city Peshawar is bolstering up the terrorism.

No doubt in FATA the religious factions have adopted a new system for achieving their objectives and the entire tribal population is forced to raise slogans for that brand of Islam, which is defender to their interests.

Every elder of the family is forced to raise a specific flag on the corner of their houses lest they are fined for Rs 5000.

More than 84 houses have been fined for its violations and the extremists have demolished 34 houses but no body can complain about it. Even the political candidates were unable to stage public meetings for their political campaign during the elections. Thus one can realize how much they are powerful in FATA but at the same time it is worth mentioning that the extremists have lost public support.

It is important for the newly elected government to gain its ground. The media can assist the current democratic government as a mediator between the different stakeholders to identify the key sources and roots of the issue. At the same time the safety and security of journalists who are working in such difficult circumstances must be taken into account by the government and the owners of media organizations. Because free media and democracy are correlative so is the security of journalists for an independent and nourishing media.