Spring 2013 Jefferson Fellowships

Role of Media in Promoting Democratic Traditions

Beenish Javed Foreign Affairs and Political Reporter, ARY News Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan is a young country; it came into existence in August 1947. During the 66 years of its life, Pakistan has been ruled by military dictators for more than 40 years. Yet people in Pakistan do not support dictatorships anymore. The last democratic government of the Pakistan Peoples Party has left the country with many crises: power outages for long hours are common, the economy is stagnant, terrorism is widespread, and the lack of governance and lawlessness has made the life of an average Pakistani very difficult. Still, people in Pakistan are resilient and believe that they can change their destiny. This willingness was seen on May 11, 2013, when these people came out to vote to change their fates and that of their country. Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a terrorist organization which has taken responsibility for hundreds of attacks on Pakistani people and armed forces, had declared the general elections to be un-Islamic. Yet the voter turnout was very impressive. Despite a clear threat from the TTP, the Pakistani people came out and cast their votes. Many analysts believe that it was the vibrant media that educated an average Pakistani that their vote is important and that they must come out on Election Day and vote. Pakistans electronic media is new. The first private news channel, Geo News, was launched in 2001. According to a Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority spokesperson, there are [a] total [of] 89 television channels in Pakistan, out of which there are 29 news channels. Before the elections Pakistans media, especially electronic media, focused much of its time on showing special segments on the importance of elections, and why casting a vote matters. Geo News did a special campaign where they asked for viewers to vote for Pakistan while ARY, another leading news channel, did a one-hour news bulletin on women voters and women candidates. Another hour-long bulletin was dedicated to youth voters and young political candidates. Radio channels also did many programs on the importance of elections. Social media, which has emerged as a powerful pressure group, not only on the government but also on mainstream media, supported the election process. There was a very obvious consensus that Pakistans media openly, and in a focused way, supported democracy and wanted these elections to succeed. The big question is: why do Pakistani journalists and television anchors support democracy? Ahmad Bilal Mehbood, director of the Pakistan Institute for Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) believes that the media has a vested interest in democracy. He says, In [the] past during military regimes [the] media couldnt give its independent views. [The] media is more diverse and powerful in a democratic setup. During Pervez Musharafs rule, many members of the media were sent to jail for speaking against him while many prime time show anchors were banned. On November 3, 2007, Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule across Pakistan. He suspended the Constitution, imposed a State of Emergency, and fired the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Anyone who spoke out or wrote against this act was not only banned but threatened too. There was [a] time when people were not allowed to speak freely, they were not allowed to protest. We have seen in [the] past that journalists were put in jail, they were punished when they would speak up during military regimes, says Kashif Abbasi, anchor of one of the most-watched current affairs shows in Pakistan. He further added, Pakistans media is so powerful because we have democratic institutions, there is no better form of government than democracy, as journalists it is our responsibility to tell this to Pakistani people.

This is a working paper of the Jefferson Fellowships Program, East-West Center, Honolulu, HI, USA. No portion of this may be reproduced without permission of the author.

Spring 2013 Jefferson Fellowships Topic Paper, Javed, page 2 of 2

It seems the message was received well; in the May elections this year the voter turnout was historic. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan spokesperson, Voter turnout in the 2013 general elections was recorded at 55.02%. This voter turnout is much higher than the voter turnout in past elections. Sidra Saeed, who works as a Project Officer for Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Islamabad, a German political foundation, believes that it was the media that pushed her to vote. She says, Media of all forms, but especially social media and TV channels, helped keep my spirits high till the day I voted on May 11. I normally dont go to rallies of political leaders, but TV and social media have remained my main source of information. Meanwhile Ayesha Imran, a student of biology at Punjab University Lahore says, This was a country in which voter turnout was 20-25 percent if you would minus the bogus votes. The voter turnout has almost doubled in the latest elections. Nobody in Pakistan had thought that 55 percent [of the] population of Pakistan would come out and vote, it all happened because of the media. On this Ahmed Bilal Mehboob says, Before [the] elections contact between the voter and candidate was difficult in some cases. It was severely constrained, especially because of direct threats to candidates from [the] TTP. The media tried to put the voters in touch with the candidates. Historically in Pakistan there have been forces that want to derail the democratic process. Many analysts believe that they saw the emergence of Tahir ul Qadri, head of Minhaj ul Quran, as a tool to sabotage the democratic process. Tahir ul Qadri held a four-day long sit in with thousands of people in January this year. His main agenda was to reform the Election Commission of Pakistan. Many believe that he came with an agenda to stop the upcoming elections. Sabir Shaki, bureau chief at ARY NEWS says, When Tahir ul Qadri came to Islamabad there were very few people who supported him, because when he disclosed his agenda there were no elections, he was asking for a long-term interim government that would reform the election commission of Pakistan, fix the system and then call for general elections. The media rejected him outright and so did political leaders and civil society. As a result of the general elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the party that got the maximum votes. A total of 14,794,188 votes were cast to the PML-N and they won a total of 125 seats in the National Assembly. A large number of voters and members of Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) are not happy with the results. 7,563,504 votes were polled to PTI, the second highest amount of votes after the PML-N. PTI voters and members are demanding a recount in different constituencies and are continuing to protest against rigging in the general elections. But none of its members has asked for re-elections. On this, Kasif Abbasi says, I could see ballot papers on the road, and fake votes were also cast, but over all [the] election process should not be undermined. There were issues in some constituencies but the majority [of] people are saying that election[s] by and large were fair. The confidence on [the] election process should not be reduced. In the general elections in 2008, the Pakistans Peoples Party had won the elections by a majority, but it managed to win only 31 seats in the general elections of 2013. Shanila Sikandar, producer of a famous current affairs show at Express News, believes that an important role of the media is to work as a watch dog and pressure group on the government. During the last five years the media highlighted PPPs rift with the judiciary, and major corruption scams. This also played an important role in changing peoples opinion on voting. Many educated people in Pakistan never thought that casting their vote was important. It was Pakistans media that gave awareness and a message that, after five years, you are now being given a chance to speak up and you can do it through your vote. As a result educated, illiterate, elite, poor, people from the middle class, and the minorities came out in big numbers and made the general elections in 2013 historic. For the first time in Pakistan, political parties accepted their defeat in the elections, and congratulated the winning party. This is a miraculous change in Pakistan.

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