ISLAMABAD: I have a panacea to instantly get scrapped the sickening accusations that we, The News, Jang and Geo, are traitors and agents of RAW and CIA, meriting execution. I am prepared to bet with anybody and can guarantee that if my solution is applied, we will, within no time, become innocent and pure, if not angels, like a newborn baby, who has done no evil, seen no evil, heard no evil, and spoken no evil. The bottom line of the remedy is that we dump the precious sense, called conscience, from our souls and religiously follow the “agenda”, internal and external, and bash and punch everyone, opposing it. No great intellectual depth is required to list the main parts of the agenda. Former dictator Pervez Musharraf now prominently figures on it. We should start exerting all of our energies to recount his qualities so as to present him as a statesman and the wonders he did for Pakistan. We should trash the allegation of high treason, on the premise that it is a very mean allegation, given his sacrifices for the homeland and the national service he rendered for it.We should shower praise on the kind of high protocol and security provided to him for the reason that he deserved it for doing for Pakistan that nobody in our history did. We should also laud the security personnel for doing their duty as per the Constitution and law of the land. At the same time, we should denounce Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his hawkish colleagues for extending despicable treatment to the commando, who can’t be forgotten by the people of Pakistan for the good job he performed. We should attack the government for arraigning him for an act that he did in the national interest. We should paint this action as vindictive and spiteful. We should put the civilian administration on the mat for not allowing him to fly out of Pakistan for treatment and attending his ailing mother. Make no mistake, our sins will then be quickly forgotten and we will become super patriots in the opinion of those who are subjecting us to unbearable charges. Another item on the agenda relates to supremacy of khakis and muftis in governance and the affairs of the State. Without wasting any time, we should swiftly start writing and speaking at a sonorous pitch that the khakis should have the domination and the muftis should act like fawning flunkies; that civilians can’t guard the national interests; that they should not have any say whatsoever in the national matters, foreign and domestic; and that they should be subservient to what they are dictated by the khakis to do. Whenever the civilian rulers are booted out, we should clap with both hands the right action against them and demand that the muftis should be pushed to a place from where they can never come out. We should stop referring to the basic document called Constitution while discussing the role of different state institutions. Then, allegations against us will evaporate within moments. An equally important item on the agenda is the dialogue process with the Taliban, started with consensus among all stakeholders, according to the government. Whenever differences crop up for any reason, the latest being the government’s stand against Musharraf, we should lose not a single moment and start battering the government for sell-out during the parleys with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). We should emphasize that by releasing the 19 Taliban prisoners, the government committed high treason, and should be tried for this grave offence. Even now, we should take the two federal ministers, Khawaja M Asif and Khawaja Saad Rafiq, to task for the blasphemy they committed by harshly scoffing at Musharraf; should assert that these johnnies should be punished for emitting fire against the retired general. Whenever there is even a small difference of opinion between the khakis and muftis, which comes in the open, we should always side with the former. I am sure we will then earn kudos without any inhibition. Also, we should repent for projecting the plight of the missing persons and stop talking about them, highlighting the miseries of those who have their kith and kin disappeared. Rather, we should condemn this lot and stress that they have got the treatment they deserved. The mention of law and Constitution in this connection should be treated as frivolous; and no trial of these persons should be demanded. We should consign to the dustbin any emphasis for having democracy in Pakistan. We should treat the democratic dispensation as a system of looters, plunderers and mafias that play havoc with the national interest. We should always hail the direct or indirect military interventions. There are so many other items on the agenda that we have not been following and as a result earning the titles of agents of RAW and CIA and anti-Pakistan, although our crimes are no secret for anybody because they are either published or broadcast every day, and are not kept away or passed on to our “sponsors”. Our every printed and telecast word is a mirror of our sins we commit every day. Looking at the barrage of allegations on the Geo/The Jang, it merits attention that on the day, illustrious anchor Hamid Mir was attacked in Karachi, emotions and sentiments ran very high for obvious reasons. Geo did not present the allegation as of its own, but it was just a claim of the tormented journalist’ brother, Amir Mir. There may have been some overdoing on that day, but that was natural, and maybe justified, in view of the tragedy that had struck. At no point was any institution maligned. Only individuals were named. HM was not alone who has received concrete warnings and some other high-ups of the group have been given more solid threats and that’s why they have preferred to stay away from the homeland since long. The chorus of nefarious allegations against the Jang group has also been joined by some who worked with it for years, and the accusations they are now hurling transpired to them only after left it. The organization was not the agent of RAW and CIA as long as they served it. Even those who are working with it for decades are unaware that it is following the agenda of forces, inimical to Pakistan. The allegations against the agencies are not new. The agencies have a history that is before everybody. Supposing for a minute, Amir Mir did not speak truth, but what about Rana Sanaullah, Umar Cheema, Javed Hashmi, Pervaiz Rashid, Salman Taseer, Shakil Shaikh and many others who at times underwent a great ordeal of physical torture by agencies. The best way for the agencies is to carry out an in-depth probe into the attack on HM on its own, catch hold of the culprits and get their name cleared.
