Circus of talk shows

Most of the talk shows on prime time have been reduced to a match of shouting obscenities, display of intolerance and unsuitable for families to watch. What message are they giving to our youth? Almost every party has their share of such unsocial animals who act like stray dogs and a viewer cannot understand what is happening. This stray dog affliction is dominant amongst PPP’s Faisal Raza Abedi, Sharjeel Memon, PML-N’s Abid Sher Ali, PTI’s Imran Ismail, Inamullah Niazi, MQM’s Wasim Akhtar and PML-Q’s Agha. One wonders what sort of role models are these people, and what prompted their political parties to choose them for this task.
Of course, nobody matches Faisal Raza Abedi’s theatrics and his joy at abusing the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who has more credibility than all the political leaders put together. Instead of a meaningful discussion, which can take place in an educated forum observing parliamentary ethics, what you witness is everybody talking simultaneously, shouting obscenities, or calling their adversaries thugs and making a monkey of themselves. Are these the men or women whom we expect to deliberate and resolve the colossal problems this nation faces? What sort of change can we expect from these new entrants, when they indulge in nothing but mudslinging? How can we expect them to restore rule of law, when they cannot maintain decorum in public? Will these people address the issue of target killings, unemployment, acute power shortages, extortion, fanaticism, kidnapping from ransom and exploitation of religion, when they cannot have decency to hear other’s point of view, or respect right of dissent?
It seems every political party in this country has become a cult, whose members have to prove that they would not tolerate any criticism of their leadership. Does this display a decline in our moral values, or does it reflect only upon our decadent political culture which must reform itself? In what manner are these men better than Musharraf who appeared while in power, on television, raised a fist and proudly proclaimed his display of street power on 12 May?
MALIK T ALI
Lahore