campaign
How does one measure success?
By Gibran Peshimam
How does one measure success? When the Educate Pakistan campaign was kicked off just before Ramazan, none of those involved knew how things would turn out. All there was, was an idea; an idea, and a strong belief in the campaign and in what it was striving to achieve. As the figures rolled in, it began to dawn on everyone involved just how special this initiative would be. At the end of the month, the amount gathered stood just short of a staggering Rs 50 million.

Taal Matol
Lahore!
By Shoaib Hashmi
It is an old Punjabi phrase, dear to the heart of every red- blooded Lahori, to be trotted out whenever necessary, and it goes, “Jinnay Lahore nehin dekheya, o jammia hi nahin!” Which means: he who has not seen Lahore, has never been born! It has been used many times, very effectively last time by Asghar Vajahat who wrote a play about Lahore and used it as the title. Now they are going to make a movie of the play in India, starring Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan, and they are going to dress up a part of Hyderabad to look like Lahore.

Back to Dark Ages
The power crisis of the country will not end till the end of 2009
By Waqar Gillani
The ongoing energy crisis of Pakistan has deepened in the last few weeks, with 12 to 14 hours loadshedding across the country. The continuous suspension of electricity supply has sparked massive public unrest and industrial shutdown, seriously affecting the country’s economy and routine life.

Ripple Effect
Serial killers
By Omar R. Quraishi
Pakistan has had to date only a couple or so cases in recent living memory that could have been classified as being committed by a serial killer. The shoddy state of forensics and police investigation in fact mean that any claim by the police would have to be taken with extreme scepticism. Nevertheless, one more or less confirmed case of serial killing was that of Javed Iqbal who confessed to have killed over 100 victims — most of whom were first sodomised. He had two accomplices and gave himself up at the office of the Jang newspaper in Lahore. He however was believed to have committed suicide after being sentenced to death, where the judge said that if it were up to him (the judge) he would make sure that Javed Iqbal’s body would be cut into a hundred pieces, the fate allegedly of many of his victims.

campaign

How does one measure success?

By Gibran Peshimam

How does one measure success? When the Educate Pakistan campaign was kicked off just before Ramazan, none of those involved knew how things would turn out. All there was, was an idea; an idea, and a strong belief in the campaign and in what it was striving to achieve. As the figures rolled in, it began to dawn on everyone involved just how special this initiative would be. At the end of the month, the amount gathered stood just short of a staggering Rs 50 million.

Rs50 million.

This money will help thousands of students — in primary, secondary or tertiary institutions — complete their education with the help of three very dedicated organisations.

This figure will be more than enough for most to call the campaign a roaring success — and with good reason. It is a tribute to the foresight, optimism and faith of all involved in this cause, most of all the donors. Whether it was the generosity of the donor in Lahore who contributed Rs5 million to the cause, or the humbling donation of Rs200 donation from Mingora, Swat, each made the campaign stronger and the belief in it more resilient. The donated amounts may have varied, but the endorsement of the drive to help educate Pakistan was unanimous.

However, while many of us who were a part of the initiative would agree about the success of the drive, most of us would not only quote the end figure as an absolute measure.

What was achieved during this drive, for all of us personally, is a lot less tangible. Far from being able to be put into numbers, it is difficult to even put it into words. Working together in this initiative produced a sort of enthusiasm and sincerity that is difficult to find in most situations. The zeal was contagious. Everyone involved seemed to be on the same page with the most minimum of effort.

When Standard Chartered and The News first came together to discuss this campaign, there was a very palpable sense of hesitancy. I remember it well. Two different worlds coming together — the media and the financial world. Let me stress that there are few professions that are more different than those of journalists and bankers. A newsroom and a board room are worlds apart. Yet such a difference seemed to bow in the face of the sheer importance of such a noble cause.

The synergy created by the coming together of the two worlds and the ultimate achievement, is a testament to the potential of collaboration between unlikely but willing partners.

In the end, there are people involved in the campaign who contributed whole-heartedly, yet will probably go unnamed, which is unfortunate, but then it is what they want. They know who they are, and should be proud of what they have made happen.

On the ground, the journey across three different cities to see the work of The Citizens Foundation (TCF), Rizwan Scholars and CARE Foundation, was enlightening in itself. There was so much that was seen but unfortunately for various reasons could not be accommodated in the articles that appeared in the paper.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that an entire book can be written on the journey from Karachi’s Macchar Colony to Lahore’s Kot Khwaja Saeed from Iqbal Town, Shiekhpura, to the rustic town of Minhala; on the colourful conversations with scores of students and others encountered along the way. Amidst the number of stark differences in all the places visited and people met, one thing was poignantly common: The desire of the youth to get an education and to make something of themselves. 

Believe me when I say that the sights and sounds were enough to melt the heart of even the most hardened sceptic. If that’s not enough, we can always come back to the Rs50 million.

On a side note — absolutely unrelated to the campaign — I also learnt during my journey that people in Lahore eat pakoras with naan. What is up with that? Seriously… That’s strange — even for Lahoris.

Taal Matol

Lahore!

By Shoaib Hashmi

It is an old Punjabi phrase, dear to the heart of every red- blooded Lahori, to be trotted out whenever necessary, and it goes, “Jinnay Lahore nehin dekheya, o jammia hi nahin!” Which means: he who has not seen Lahore, has never been born! It has been used many times, very effectively last time by Asghar Vajahat who wrote a play about Lahore and used it as the title. Now they are going to make a movie of the play in India, starring Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan, and they are going to dress up a part of Hyderabad to look like Lahore.

They could save themselves lots of trouble by choosing Delhi because there are many parts of Delhi which feel just like Lahore, as any Lahori will tell you. Or maybe, they should go the whole hog and come shoot in the real thing! They seem to have some peculiar argument that there is no ‘partition time’ architecture in Lahore any more — meaning Lahore does not look like Lahore, and Hyderabad will?

I seem to recall that they did make a film called ‘Lahore’ around the time of independence; it starred a young Nayyar Sultana and had songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Lahore and Bombay were the two rival centres of film then, and it is peculiar that these are the two cities which have had films made about them, Bombay being another example made a few years ago.

But they have always figured in film, most tellingly when Hollywood descended on Lahore in the shape of a ravishing Ava Gardener in her prime, and as her leading man Stewart Granger, whose real name was James Stewart but he had to change because they already had a film star of that name. Lahore went quite ga-ga over Ava Gardener, and otherwise too because they had come to shoot a film called ‘Bhowani Junction.’ People coming back home from out of town went into a tizzy as all the signs at Lahore Railway Station said ‘Bhowani Junction’ There were riots at every train arrival!

Later on, somewhere in the sixties, there was another film called ‘Gambit’ starring Shirley Maclaine and I think Michael Caine. It’s the story of how these two go to rob this exotic potentate in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. There was this long scene as they drive from the airport into town and the scene out of the rear window looked vaguely familiar, until we realised it was a shot of the drive from Lahore airport into town!

We recognized everything from the Governor’s House onwards and right up to Kim’s Gun, near where my uncle used to own a cafe, with the sign large as life, and parked right outside his red ‘triumph’ car; at the sight of which I let out a muffled scream, or at least a chortle, as the audience turned to look at me. Lahore!

The brains behind the campaign

“We are delighted to have been a part of this most laudable project. While we were always confident that the readership of The News International, the customers of Standard Chartered and the general public would respond positively to the appeal for contribution towards education of under privileged children, the amount of money raised was, quite honestly, beyond our expectation. This demonstrates that if the people of Pakistan feel for the cause and are convinced about the integrity of the institutions involved, their spirit of philanthropy knows no bound.

I would like to congratulate our partners in this endeavour — Standard Chartered, The Citizen’s Foundation, CARE Foundation and Rizwan Scholars on the outstanding success of the venture. Actually, the response is a testimony to the credibility that they have built in the eyes of the people by rendering outstanding service to the cause of education over a period of time.

The News International is proud to have been a part of this wonderful venture. We thank the donors and assure them that their contributions will go a long way in educating the less privileged and thus enabling entire families to break out of the chain of ignorance and poverty.”

Shahrukh Hasan, Group Managing Director, Jang Group Publications

“Every child deserves the chance of Education. In Pakistan, 6 children are being added to the population every minute and of these not even half will ever get the chance to read a book, write a letter or even see the inside of a school.

As the largest and fastest growing international bank in Pakistan, Standard Chartered believes in being a force for good in the communities where it conducts its business. The bank has a robust Community programme focusing on Education. More than 775 Post-Matriculate scholarships have been given to deserving students across Pakistan through The Citizens Foundation, CARE Foundation and Rizwan Scholars.

This Ramzan, the unique approach which we have adopted in partnership with The News has raised an unprecedented PKR 50 Million. These funds will help add thousands of more students to our Scholarship Programme. I would like to thank all the readers of The News who have generously donated in this noble cause.

Basic education is very important in helping young people to obtain gainful employment and thereby becoming positive contributors to their families and the society at large. We hope that you will continue to generously assist these worthy Education Charities in their endeavour to get children off the streets and into schools.”

Badar Kazmi, Standard Chartered

“On behalf of RizScholars, I congratulate Standard Chartered Bank and The News upon conclusion of a stupendously successful “Help Educate Pakistan” initiative which has generated PKR 39 million making this one of the biggests donation drives in Pakistan. Mr. Badar Kazmi and his highly motivated team deserve kudos for conducting a meticulous programme throughout Ramzan, and Mr. Shahrukh Hasan’s gracious support of the campaign has been an inspiration for those of us who attempt to return a little, humbly, to the communities which have given us so much.

RizScholars is a young and relatively lesser known organisation. We believe we must earn our wings by proving to Pakistan that our work is useful, our accounting is fully audited and our assessment of potential scholars meticulous. The first batch of doctors will be graduating this year Insha Allah and joining the work force. Already, about 30 RizScholars have completed their Bachelors degrees and are either in the work force now or going on to higher studies. We are tremendously honoured that two well-known and influential organisations — Standard Chartered Bank and The News — considered us worthy of being included in their Help Educate Pakistan campaign alongside two of the most respected and credible philanthropic institutions of Pakistan — TCF and CARE.

Pakistanis are known as one of the most giving nations in the world. This was amply proven during the Help Educate Pakistan campaign when, despite many economic challenges to the country and to individual households, Pakistanis reached deep into their incomes and came up with something to give anyway. So, gratitude from each Rizwan Scholar, our  Board and Management goes out especially to fellow Pakistanis for the trust and faith you have placed in us. Indeed, you are the wind beneath the wings of this great country.”

Samina Rizwan, Rizwan Scholars

“TCF has been realising its vision to create agents of positive social change for 12 years now. Through the wonderful opportunity like this SCB zakat campaign, we have managed to reach a much greater audience and raised money for educating over 2,000 children for this year. We hope that in the coming months everyone joins hands and supports all 65,000 TCF students across the country, and helps us make education a right and not a privilege for the children of Pakistan.”

Mushtaq K. Chhapra, TC

“The “Help Educate Pakistan” campaign has served as a trailblazer and a true example of an initiative aimed towards eradicating illiteracy and promoting the cause of education in Pakistan. With nearly 7 million children still out of school in our country, illiteracy remains without doubt our biggest problem and we at Care are committed towards helping resolve it.  Initiatives such as Help Educate Pakistan serve to assist us in this task and we hope they will be continued in the future so that together we may one day achieve 100 percent literacy in Pakistan.”

Seema Aziz, CARE Foundation

interview

‘TV news not shown in story-telling style’

By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

The News on Sunday: Are you satisfied with the quality of content aired by private channels in Pakistan? How is it different from that of state-owned PTV?

Adnan Adil: I would simply say that the private channels are not showing what they should to the people. Unfortunately most of the private televisions are functioning like radio and focus mainly on beepers (telephonic versions) and talk shows. They are not showing strong visuals which should ideally be their hallmark. Another fault that I find is that TV channels depend too much on running tickers (A ticker is the moving text run at the end of the TV screen). This means that after doing a radio on television they are doing a newspaper on television. Sometimes multiple tickers are run on screen simultaneously. This is something that distracts viewers from the main news being telecast at that particular time. In fact, the very strength of television is that it informs those who are not literate enough to read. Therefore, these tickers are not meant for this huge target audience and cater only to the needs of those who can read text.

A major reason for this is that it is a cheap way of doing television and TV channels do not have to spend on logistics, footage, sound bytes and so on. My contention is that news stories are not shown on television in a story-telling style. I think there must be characters, plots, sounds and supporting visuals in news stories in order to make them appeal to the viewers and give them a feeling that they are themselves present at the place of happening.

Another problem with TV channels is that they are giving too much time to events that need much lesser coverage. For example a channel showed live coverage of the funeral of Imran Khan’s father’s for a good half an hour. This is again for the reason that they do not have quality content to show to their viewers and have to use fillers.

Anyhow, these private channels have become immensely popular with the viewers for being independent, diverse and critical. Their content is totally different from what people had been seeing and hearing on PTV. Within a short span of six years the number of private televisions has gone above 25 and in all major cities of the country they have left PTV far behind. Their popularity can increase manifold if they start concentrating on the quality of their content.

TNS: Everywhere in the world, supply is driven by demand. Do you think channels will strive to improve the quality of their content without their viewers demanding for it?

AA: My point is that good marketers create demand for a product and then fulfil it. TV channels can produce good content and give an opportunity to their viewers to differentiate between the good and the bad. Our electronic media has grown exponentially over the six years and increased the awareness level of the general public to a great extent. To sustain this popularity now these channels will have to turn to quality journalism instead of sensationalism and rumour-mongering.

TNS: You have visited various media organisations and observed their operations closely. What have been your impressions?

AA: During my visits to the offices of TV channels and my interaction with their staffers, I have found that barring a few organisations, none of them is training their workers. I have come across cameramen who are illiterate and others who cannot even write. A perception that needs to be cleared here is that cameramen are not at all ordinary persons. They are the most important members of the team as videography is the backbone of TV journalism. Many cameramen have been given handicams by their employers for performance of their professional duties. This is ridiculous as footage prepared by a handicam can never be of broadcast quality.

The state of affairs in other departments is also not different. TV channels focus more on sensationalising issues, showing violence and transmitting images of dead bodies and blood splashed all over instead of documentaries, human interest stories, story-telling and so on. To me the biggest reason behind this whole mess is the lack of leadership within their ranks. I pity there is no one there with the calibre of Mazhar Ali Khan, I A Rehman, Husain Naqi and others like them who can show them the way. These legendary figures are known for their professional excellence as well as integrity. These two qualities are next to extinct in today’s journalism.

TNS: Kindly tell us about the training sessions that you are conducting nowadays and the need to hold them at this time.

AA: I am conducting these sessions as part of the Knight International Journalism Fellowship programme run by the International Center fof Journalists, Washington DC — a very prestigious non-governmental organisation. My project started in April 2008 under which I was supposed to hold workshops for journalists all over the country all the year round. It was the first time that any Pakistani was selected as a Knight fellow. At the start of the programme I was called to Washington, DC for a week-long orientation session about the programme. Since the start of the programme I have observed that only a couple of TV channels arrange trainings for their staffers whereas the remaining channels think staffers to be mere wastage of their resources.  Even those channels who had trained their staffers have lost them to new ones coming up every other day.

Secondly, during my visits to academic institutions I found out that there was not even a single book on journalism taught to them. I visited the Mass Communication department of the Federal Urdu University and was shocked to find out that there was not even a single digital camera or handicam available with them. They had collected a few hundred books on self-help basis but most of these books were outdated. The same is the situation at other academic institutions which are also teaching obsolete stuff to their students.

In this backdrop, I think these training sessions are of extreme importance and can go a long way in filling the void. For the benefit of my fellow journalists I have written a book Television Sahafat which is being distributed to them free of cost. It is a compact book comprising 108 pages and focuses on TV reporting, production, videography and video editing. A full chapter of the book discusses the need for formulating and observing a code of ethics for TV journalists.

Back to Dark Ages

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