As Pakistanis, we generally aren't in the habit of counting our blessings. But what the events of the past few years have taught us is this: we should be thankful to have a flourishing media scene. The media revolution has brought art and music to everyone's living room. Turn on any Pakistani TV channel and you will see plays, concerts, fashion shows, designers, musicians – practicing their craft or talking about it.
Ali Azmat: Missing the good old days of state censorship

But in the midst of all of this, one was left dead in their tracks to hear Ali Azmat offering his opinions on the media scene in Pakistan on at least two TV shows, decrying news channels for being too sensationalist and bringing minute by minute news to the millions of people who watch them. He went on to say, "Those times were better when we had limited information and few channels" – in an obvious reference to the days when state run television was all Pakistanis could tune into. It also made Pakistanis more intuitive, when the words 'intezaar farmaiye' (please wait) or a fuzzy screen instead of PTV's regular programming appeared, we instantly knew we were headed for Martial Law or worse. Apparently, we were undoubtedly using our brains far more than when all this 'breaking news' drama began!

But for Ali Azmat to be saying that the days of limited information were better is in one word, preposterous. Ali may decry the media scene now all he wants and think about the good old days of state censorship and pithy assurances with fondness. But the truth is in those times, entertainment was nowhere to be found on our TV screens. Ali Azmat, as part of Junoon, was a specific target: Junoon was banned from the airwaves repeatedly, for the 'Ehtesab' video, the controversy with the song 'Khudi' and then the powers-that-were dealt the final blow when they decided Ali and Salman Ahmed's long hair was un-Islamic and had no place on TV. In the times of limited information that Ali fondly misses, Ali was hence not allowed to be on TV, wasn't invited to be a guest on TV shows and forget about his music ever being aired: all musicians had been branded as 'marasis' at that time. Moreover, the kind of information available to Pakistanis was one-track: it was what the government wanted us to hear. And the limited information also meant: no Ali Azmat!

Where did the blue skies go, why is it raining so?
Ali also has said in interviews that the "news is too depressing" and that "ordinary people don't care about the lawyers issue etc, they only care ke do waqt ki roti mil jaye (that they get to eat twice a day)". Ali also talks about the plight of common citizens, providing newsbytes from people he talks to, about how they don't have atta (flour) or bijli (electricity) . One wonders when Ali became such an expert on the plight of the less-fortunate – as far as one knows, Ali only drives his BMW around the upscale neighbourhood he lives in, where there isn't a line of people queuing to get subsidized atta in sight.

So with the constant repetitive quotes Ali gives about the news being depressing, here's a newsflash: the news is depressing because the times we live in are depressing – it is a sad reality of life that there are suicide bomb blasts, missile strikes and food riots. It is also a reality of life, as hard as it may be for Ali Azmat to digest as he flits off to the US on tour, that there are Pakistani citizens in Guantanamo Bay held without trial. All of this is only being reported because of the plethora of news channels we have available. If there is a bomb blast in any part of the city, citizens only find out through the news channels, and that is only how they will be able to avoid getting stuck in a sensitive zone, or find out if their near and dear ones who may be in the vicinity have reached home safely…obviously, that's forgotten for Mr Azmat.
The revolution will be televised

The way the news broadcasting industry has been flourishing in Pakistan is a phenomenon no one would have expected. But it is because of the news channels, the breaking news and news analyses et al that Pakistanis find out what is happening in the country. The media blackout when Musharraf imposed Emergency led citizens to feel bewildered and lost: after years of being accustomed to getting minute-by-minute updates, they had nowhere to turn to. That kind of mass confusion is depressing. Ali is right that Pakistanis care about how they're going to make ends meet, but they also cared about civil rights being suspended. They also cared when the news channels were taken off air. They also cared when activists and journalists were beaten up and arrested. The kind of mass turnout that the lawyers' movement had at protests was unprecedented – and it's the kind of turnout that Ali Azmat will never see at a concert! At the end of the day, people will always, always care more about the issues that affect them as opposed to alternative rock.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen
Ali Azmat's popularity as a solo artist is in great part due to the Pakistani music channels that played the videos for 'Deewana' and 'Na Re Naa' on constant repeat, when Ali released his album Social Circus. Ali often says in interviews that the success he's had in terms of monetary value has come in the past six years. Coincidentally, that's also about the same amount of time we've had private TV networks on air! In the past few years Ali has been able to command so much money for doing advertisements is because he was able to bag contracts for advertisements – which (surprise, surprise) appear on TV.

Ali's recent disappearance from the airwaves can be construed as one of the reasons for his album Klashinfolk's struggling sales. In an article for Instep Today on album sales, a majority of the music stores surveyed said Ali's album would only sell if he would do more promotion and be constantly on TV and radio – as right when the album was released, Ali was on tour in the States. It was on his return, a couple of appearances on TV and a music video later that sales began to pick up. Moreover – Ali's latest video for 'Gallan' shows people fighting on a TV, in an obvious jab to the news channels. This video does run on a TV channel as well – how ironic! TV channels give musicians like Ali Azmat and bickering politicians alike a platform to talk and discuss their viewpoint. But if it is so very depressing and doom and gloom, then why is Ali promoting his album using the same medium he loves to bad-talk? Why is Ali not making happy music to cheer the morale of the millions of people he claims to understand the problems of? What is he still doing on our airwaves, appearing on interviews for channels that are part of news networks? It's because he has to work with the system that exists – and he has to sell his album and himself through those channels. And after over 20 years of being a musician and touring the world, Ali it seems still hasn't realized that this is how the game is played.

Shaan: Pakistan's very own superhero
Unfortunately, the hilarity of the media circus doesn't end there. The other example of this 'lets bash what we ourselves are part of' mentality is film actor Shaan. In a recent interview printed in Images, Shaan has commented negatively about almost everything other than, obviously himself. Newsflash for those of us who believed otherwise: Shaan is the new expert on everything, and the rest are well..blah. Shaan is Superman and everything else is kryptonite: from Bollywood to the Lux Style Awards to Javed Sheikh's Bollywood career to Mehreen Jabbar's award winning film Ramchand Pakistani. He even tries to pull down his own project Khuda Kay Liye – but because the film was such a massive hit he saves his scorn and expert advice for his peers in Pakistan and Bollywood.

Unfortunately, Shaan comes across as merely being bitter. The film industry is small and fledgling enough as it is, and for Shaan to pull down fellow directors is just – mean!

With comments like "Khulay Aasman Kay Neechay should be banned. Sheikh saheb has yet again goofed up. Yeh Dil Aap Ka Hua was no better. I think Sheikh saheb needs a good script. He should stop directing jokes," and a personal dig at Mehreen Jabbar, with "She should stick to making plays and moreover she is a Jabbar, she doesn't need to work." These sort of judgmental statements don't really suit Shaan – after all, doesn't he churn out bad films year after year that glorify vulgarity and violence?
Even if Javed Sheikh makes bad films, according to Shaan, at least he is still investing into the Pakistani film industry! Mehreen Jabbar may not have produced a blockbuster film, but saying she shouldn't work because of the family she happens to belong to, is just a below-the-belt shot. It's also rather of a flip-flop, as earlier in the interview he says women should enter the entertainment industry. "The process of art is killed from the day a boy or a girl informs his/her parents to their utter dismay that s/he wants to become an actor. In our society, a girl's fate is decided the day she is born. We need women as script writers, poets, actors."

But as far as Mehreen Jabbar is concerned, she shouldn't work because of her surname and because she doesn't need to! Regressive statements like these point to a logic that belongs to the Stone Ages and it is just sad that the person making these statements is a national icon.

The case of the missing Lady Luck
Shaan also talks about his contemporaries in Bollywood, "As far as Salman or Akshay are concerned, I just feel that they are less-gifted but luckier, whereas I am more gifted but less lucky… I saw Asoka and also discussed with Shah Rukh Khan that he should have at least read a book on the historical character before doing it." Is a career as an advisor to Bollywood stars in the works?

The difference between why Salman, Akshay and Shahrukh are 'luckier' and Shaan isn't, is that these three stars do not badmouth their own industry, their own peers or their contemporaries. They don't tell a director to stay home and not work and they will not talk negatively about their own film, or anyone else's. That's why they are respected by the film industry and luck or talent has and always will be secondary to professional ethics in a professional environment. And one sincerely hopes that that is where media in general and film and music in particular are heading.

A little less conversation, a little more action please
The old adage of 'if you point one finger, four fingers point back at you' seems to hold true for both Ali and Shaan, and ironically enough, it is because of the media that these statements make the light of day. It is also a fact of life that because of their popularity, people actually take their statements seriously. As a celebrity, there needs to be a certain amount of responsibility attached with what you say, and if your actions are going against everything you spout in interviews, then what's the point really? Perhaps what is the most astounding is that both Ali and Shaan are pulling down something that they are a part of – its one thing to criticize something when you have no attachment or personal involvement in it, but another altogether when you are part of a particular industry and bring down the pillars that support it.

The music industry died when music was banned: and it took a media revolution and the Internet to bring new talent to the limelight. The film industry has only been kept alive by old films that are still running in cinemas or work being done in the past few years by Shoaib Mansoor, Javed Sheikh and Mehreen Jabbar. Good, bad, horrendous work will always be there together in any industry in any part of the world – but good work will always stand out for itself, and as an audience matures they will understand the difference between good and bad.

Pakistani audiences do not need a superhero to save them, what they do need is to have a choice available that they can themselves make a decision. Dragging - what serves you your bread and butter - through the mud only reflects badly on your own profession. But if you'd like to burn down the house you live in... may the force be with you.