Firing Maya Khan, dubbed “head of the moral brigade” by outraged Pakistanis, along with her entire team is being termed the first success of the social media in Pakistan.
One morning last week, television viewers in Pakistan saw Maya Khan with a group of women in a live programme, hunting down “immoral couples”.
Though this was not the first time that viewers were subjected to something strange in Khan’s programme ‘Subah Saweray Maya Kay Saath’ (Early Morning with Maya), but the last episode proved to be the last straw for many.
In the Pakistani society, dating someone without a legal relationship is looked down upon, some girls have also been killed by their parents over dating, and policemen could ask for a couple’s nikahnama (marriage certificate) if they are seen together.
On top of all of this, Khan and her team chasing after couples as the show was being aired live has agitated most of the country, and within no time, social media users became active and bloggers started writing against her.
Several Pakistanis updated the status of their social networking websites, like Facebook, writing comments against her show and calling her “chief of the moral police”.
Many bloggers and users of other social networking websites have started comparing Khan’s vigilantism to the “Lal Masjid mindset” that is rampant in Pakistan.
Moreover, some Facebookers started circulating Khan’ private photographs in which she was seen hugging male friends and dancing with them, and asked her to explain what she was doing with the guys, seeing that she thinks she has the right to go about poking her nose into other people’s business.
Many said she wanted to create some controversy so her show’s rating could receive a boost, whereas others claimed that she was only following orders of her channel’s management.
Concerned citizens also started an online petition, demanding Samaa TV’s management to immediately cancel the show and dismiss Khan and her team.
Ordinary people and members of the civil society also wrote to Samaa TV Chief Executive Officer Zafar Siddiqui, demanding him to take notice of people’s reservations, stop airing Khan’s show and fire her.
In a letter, Siddiqui has issued directives for dismissing Khan and her entire team, ensuring that her show would not be aired from Monday (today).
Until 2000, there was only one television channel, the state-run Pakistan Television, but this sector flourished when former president Pervez Musharraf issued licences to private media companies, and within a few years, dozens of private television channels started operating in the country.
There are more than 65 private channels operating in the country today, and despite that, one could hardly find any institution that educates journalists on basic ethics.
Many Pakistani journalists are violating basic journalistic ethics on television channels, of which famous journalist Wusatullah Khan of BBC Urdu talked in his recent column: “If you have a mike and a camera in Pakistan, you are assistants to God on earth and can do whatever you like.”
Not only journalists, but owners and administrations of television channels let their reporters create controversies to get higher ratings, so they could generate more revenue.
But the social media has succeeded for the first time in the country by forcing a private television channel to make a “controversial show” go off air.
Critics are of the view that the Pakistani electronic media, which has a long history of asserting their power and which usually keeps the government engaged with “non-issues”, could be controlled by the fast growing social media in the country.
Social media prevails with sacking of ‘moral brigade head’
