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Friday March 29, 2024

National debate on the role of media

An event to remember as Wali Khan varsity plays host to media stars

By Rahimullah Yusufzai
March 03, 2015
PESHAWAR: It is rare that leading journalists, columnists and analysts from all over Pakistan visit the provincial metropolis for attending an event. If that is the case with Peshawar, coming to Mardan or another city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for attending a function is even more unlikely.
It was, therefore, beyond expectation that so many well-known figures in the Pakistani media came to Mardan recently to become part of the “National Debate on the Role of Media in Pakistan” held at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM). Some of the faces were familiar because they often appear on television as anchors and analysts.
Others were known through their writings. All had a fan club of their own.
For two days, AWKUM teachers and students and other guests interacted with some of the stars of the Pakistani media and heard their views. There was often an intense debate and pointed questions were asked. At times the discussion became heated but things remained under control. The students were encouraged to ask questions and they did so confidently. All this prompted the event organizer Shiraz Paracha, a former students’ activist and journalist now working as chairman of the department of journalism and mass communication at AWKUM, to remark that the students learned more during the two-day seminar than what they may have learnt in many days studying their course in the classroom.
Those who visited AWKUM’s new Garden Campus for the first time were in awe of its vastness and landscaping work. Some of the buildings are ready and pleasing to the eye due to architectural beauty. It would indeed be a real garden once the trees are grown up and the flowers are in bloom.
The university’s brand new Central Library was the venue of the event. The stage was tastefully decorated and lighted. The panelists were often eight in number facing each other with the host sitting in the middle to anchor the debate. Anchorpersons such as Talat Hussain, Waseem Badami, Farrukh Sohail Goindi, Ayaz Khan, Shiraz Paracha and Saleem Safi and editors, columnists and senior journalists Dr Jabbar Khattak, Nazeer Leghari, Haider Javed Syed, Khurshid Nadeem, Irshad Ahmad Arif, Amir Khakwani, Rauf Tahir, Iftikhar Majaz, Saima Batool, Sadaf Khan, Aftab Ahmad Khan and Aqeel Yousafzai took part in the debate and shared their views and experiences with the large number of listeners in different sessions. The fact that the hall was always full to capacity showed that the students, teachers and other invitees were taking keen interest in the proceedings. This wasn’t surprising because it isn’t often that such events are held in a small city like Mardan with so many luminaries of the media in attendance.
The topics chosen for the six sessions were innovative and relevant to the present media scene in Pakistan. One was titled “Journalism without a degree in journalism?” while another focused on “Selling wars and conflicts.” One session had the title “Do the Pakistan media follow media ethics?” and yet another was titled “Digital/Online journalism: issues and challenges.” The subject was “Corporate media and working conditions of journalists” for the fifth session while the last session debated the “Role of columnists/analysts in public opinion formation.”
Such was the format of the sessions that every panelist got to present his or her opinion and the members of the audience too managed to make comments and ask questions. Having worked as print and TV journalist and now teaching journalism, Shiraz Paracha was one of the best as the host of a session due to his short and crisp questions and time-management skills. Political activist and writer Farrukh Sohail Goindi is knowledgeable, well-read and articulate and this enabled him to raise the intellectual level of the debate and ask pertinent questions.
AWKUM vice-chancellor Dr Ihsan Ali was present throughout the event and made the first and last speeches to welcome and say goodbye to the guests. His vision brought AWKUM into existence and his dynamism is now leading it to progress. Khanzadi Fatima Khattak, one of the university deans, and many other faculty members also attended the event and made their presence felt by posing questions. One hopes more such events would be held at AWKUM, which is easily accessible from both Islamabad and Peshawar due to the Motorway.