Regretting prevailing law and order situation, the ever-rising inflation and unemployment, seasoned politician Syed Fakhr Imam has said that lack of political will among the politicians “is the main reason behind all our problems”.
“There is no issue with the Constitution. It is all about the lack of our willpower,” said the PPP leader and former NA speaker while presiding over a seminar at Hameed Nizami Press Institute of Pakistan here on Monday.
Educationist Professor Dr Mugheesud Din Sheikh and TheNation Editor Salim Bokhari were the chief guests. Analysts Farrukh Sohail Goendi and Salman Abid also spoke on the occasion. The HNPIP had organised the seminar, titled ‘Media Training Imperatives in Third World Democracies’, in a view to providing training opportunity to the working journalists. The Institute Director Absar Abdul Ali introduced the topic and the guest speakers.
The speakers highlighted the need for mutual interactions among the journalists of the neighboring countries, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Bangladesh and Sri lank and other. They urged the government and media owners to provide opportunities to journalists to learn and know about the latest media trends in developed countries. “Energy shortages, unemployment, law and order situation are major hindrances in the way of development,” said Fakhr Imam.
Speaking in the context of weakening economy of the country, the politician referred that Bangladesh’s GDP was seven per cent, Sri Lanka’s about 6 per cent while ours was mere 2.7 per cent. “I feel pain when I see where we stand in comparison with the rest of the world,” he added. He said that legitimacy and role of law were the two major indicators of the democracy. He stressed for the need of self-accountability as according to him it was the only way to get a respectable place in the list of developed societies.
Dr Mughees Sheikh, in his address, described the steps which he had taken during his tenure as Punjab University Institute of Communication Studies head for the practical training of the media students. However, he was of the view that only educational institutions could not make all things possible.
“About 55 subjects are taught only in the media studies in the world today. So, how can an institute afford to teach them all?” he questioned. There must be a Center of Communication or a Media University at the national level, which could offer proper training to media students, he proposed. Similarly, he stressed upon the working journalists for seeking knowledge by their own means and to visit at least the neighboring counties for self-awareness and capacity building.
Salim Bokhari, while highlighting the need for training journalists about latest media developments said: “The newspersons should study more and more. Besides, newspaper owners should also offer scholarships to the working journalists.” The veteran journalist and Editor of TheNation said that journalism was a mission instead of a business. He, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the ‘without contents and directionless TV talks’, saying “Though I am also a host of a TV programme, at least you can’t see any kind of indecency in my programme.”
Speaking about the ever-growing power of the social media, Salim Bokhari asked the journalists to keep themselves aware of the recent trends in Internet media. He urged the media persons to be tolerant. “Don’t give away norms while writing and speaking about issues.”
Farrukh Sohail, in his address, highlighted that how the recent changes came into the Arab world and how their media worked in the overall situation. He said that Pakistani journalists should learn the lesson from their Arab fellows to compete the modern world. Salman Abid talked about the challenges which the developing world has been facing since years. He stressed the need to fulfill the gap between have and have not.