Imtiaz Gul
Events of the past few days prove that one of the biggest victims of Pakistan’s current intense political polarisation is professional integrity. Tendentious, motivated misleading and un-verified reporting, unfortunately, seem to plague journalism in Pakistan today.
The latest example is the unfortunate twist that certain media groups and reporters gave to Prime Imran Khan’s decision against attending the Kuala Lumpur (KL) 2019 Summit ( that got underway Dec 18 until Sunday, Dec 21).
Several critics and commentators also took a dig on the government and called Khan’s decision “diplomatic disaster.”
Let us examine the two aspects of the story;
Malaysia’s daily The Star specifically mentioned Pakistan’s Geo News when talking of incorrect reporting by the foreign media.
A few other media outlets, too, gave the impression as if Imran Khan had cancelled his scheduled visit to Malaysia under pressure from Saudi Arabia.
But in an enormous display of decency and thoughtfulness, consideration, Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad himself gave a lie to the misleading news reports by going public.
Dr Mahathir said that Imran, who earlier called him to express his regrets for not being able to attend the summit, which starts tomorrow could have his own reasons.
“There is no problem, that’s his choice, we cannot force. In Islam, there is no compulsion in religion. He can’t come maybe because of other issues. But what was reported in the media was not true, Mahatir told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) on Tuesday (Dec 17).
“We invited 50 countries but for the heads of government, at first only three were supposed to be involved then we invited Qatar and Indonesia, if they’re interested. But if they can’t come then we can’t force them to. They have sent their delegations and representatives, they seem interested in the subjects that we are discussing,” Mahatir explained.
This was quite an instructive rebuke . Will this rebuke help media tzars recalibrate their tendentious approaches?
As far diplomatic disaster, the critics either consciously ignore or are ignorant of the fact that a country dependent on foreign loans for balance of payment stabilisation and forced to cough up nearly $ 15 billion till June 2020 has few choices; Saudi Arabia has begun providing $ 250 million quarterly worth of oil on deferred payments. It also recently rolled-over its $3 billion cash deposit for another year. So did UAE. Altogether a whopping $ 5 billion worth of roll-over. Secondly, can any government afford to annoy these two countries where over three million Pakistani workers are engaged in economic activity?
Will the critics provide jobs to these millions if both Saudi Arabia and UAE began gradually sending them back in retaliation?
In an age when decisions flow from realpolitik considerations – which mostly rest on economic interests – principles and morality matter little. France’s veto to China’s request for a Security Council meeting on Kashmir is an eye-opening example of how the French government preferred economic relations with India over a debate on the rights of Kashmiris.
