Social media is a lot of things
After going through all these details, an idea hit vehemently my mind; officially we need a department which must be assigned the task of countering all such baseless propaganda moves
You ‘like’ my posts or I would ‘unlike’ your posts and block you; the Facebook has provided a very strange and novel type of battlefield to the people. It is really a very strange thing to become friend of those whom you have never met and to fight with those whom you have never seen but luckily or unluckily it frequently happens there at the Facebook. Personally, before becoming a member of the Facebook community, I was of the opinion that one must be very careful while using social media and the best way was to observe silently whatever was happening there. So I remained deaf and dumb there for a long time. My activity at Facebook was limited to the posting of my own write-ups there but unfortunately one day I had to break my silence when someone started giving derogatory remarks on one of my own write-ups. Astonishingly my own Facebook friends started encouraging him by ‘liking’ his derogatory rather insulting remarks on my write-up. I had to say a lot in my defence and really I tried to clarify what in fact I wanted to say in my write-up but all in vain. Then suddenly I made a question to myself, ‘For what are you wasting your time in defending your own opinion and trying to give reasons to those about whom you know nothing practically?’ That precious thought simply relaxed me and I stopped responding to all those non-sense comments. One more thing I did; I blocked all those who had been behaving like the soldiers of the opponent army. This activity taught me a very fruitful lesson; don’t poke your nose into social media affairs.
Time is no doubt rapidly changing; people always have a very serious shortage of time; time to read newspapers, time to wait for the TV news and time to watch and listen to the scholarly analysis of politicians. Moreover very often the load-shedding schedule does not let us access TV programs. In such a ‘hustly-bustly’ situation if we wish to remain connected with the changing political or social scenario, we are left with the only choice, that is the social media. And for that purpose we don’t have to buy newspaper, we don’t have to wait for the load-shedding schedule, we don’t need a comfortably peaceful place to sit down, we simply need nothing but an android cell phone costing from Rs2,500 onwards. It is something very positive that social media has brought all types of information within the reach of the common man. But there is another side of the midnighttoo; the present day social media has brought into lime light so many people of a lesser value and ideas of lesser importance rather lesser authenticity. Administratively now it has become very difficult for the governments to keep information away from the people. You can make your own blog, design your own web-page, you may create your own Twitter account and write or say whatever you wish to. To tell you the truth, too much information may be injurious to the receptive minds particularly when the information provided is not very much authentic and genuine.
A few days back while surfing the net, I came across a web-page Israel’s Voice. This page published an article by Ahmer Masti Khan titled ‘Americans to remember Shaheed Nawab Bugti’. Ahmer Masti Khan is well known for his anti-Pakistan ideas and he leaves no stone unturned in his hatred and disliking for Pakistan. Ahmer has three nationalities: Burmese, Pakistani and American but his writings show that inwardly he is a true Indian. God knows better why India has yet not bestowed upon him its nationality. In his said write-up he invited the American people to attend an event organised in Washington DC on 26 August to celebrate Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s death anniversary. He said, “As a mark of respect for the slain leader and his successor Nawab Brahamdagh Bugti’s love for books, the attendees will get, free of charge, two excellent books Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military by Husain Haqqani and Call for Transnational Jihad Lashkar-e-Taiba 1986-2014 by Arif Jamal. The two authors are speaking at the event. Out of respect for Prime Minister Modi’s support to Balochistan freedom, attendees will be offered vegetarian lunch.” This article gave a rise to my curiosity and I started searching for the details of that celebration-event. On my way to search for the details, I came across many web-pages and blogs and even Facebook pages which conveyed one and the only message, ‘Pakistan is usurping the rights of Balochistan.’ Though these blogs and pages could not convince me as I am a ‘chronic’ student of all these topics and know a lot about the facts and figure and realities there in Balochistan and it is also very much to my knowledge that just three or four people are running the so-called separatist movement of Balochistan sitting outside Pakistan but it is also a fact that such web-pages and blogs could easily misguide a layman. To make things authentic this group of ‘Balochistan Liberators’ seeks help and support of those few unlucky Pakistanis who are annoyed with their own motherland. His Excellency Mr Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s former Ambassador to the US, is also one of them. Husain Haqqani has ever been a very patriotic Pakistani and in acknowledgement to his patriotism, the country had honoured him with the ambassadorship to US a few years back but God knows better why his loyalties with his motherland are now being looked at with a grain of salt. According to the media details the event on Shaheed Bugti’s death anniversary was attended by just a total of 25-30 participants including Mr Hussain Haqqani, Mr Arif Jamal, Mr Peter Gary Tatchell, Mr Tariq Gilani and Ahmer Masti Khan. Brahamdagh Bugti joined the event via video link. The speeches mostly revolved around Balochistan being occupied by Pakistan military, human rights violations and blaming Pakistan government and the military for everything. During the discussion a participant Tariq Gilani allegedly accused Hussain Haqqani of being anti Pakistan and pro-India and said that he should not have represented Pakistan as its ambassador. Tariq Gilani very boldly tried to make Haqqani realise that patriotic Pakistani diaspora feels perturbed by his anti Pakistan rhetoric. This led to heated and loud voiced arguments between the two and subsequently was stopped when Mr Haqqani showed signs of physical aggression towards Mr Tariq Gilani allegedly. In short it all ended up in a mess. I don’t know if the details of this event were published in newspapers but they are there at different web-pages, blogs and social media forums. After going through all these details, an idea hit vehemently my mind; officially we need a department which must be assigned the task of countering all such baseless propaganda moves. We have a lot of very talented IT experts and social media activists in our youth; they have a strong will and desire to serve Pakistan; we must utilise their skill, talent and abilities.
