Media coverage of all issues in this neck of the woods is less cerebral more circus. The intricacies of an issue at hand are rarely, if ever, delved into. What is picked up instead are simplistic markers: juggats, gotchas and their responses.
Even the casual consumer of the news media would have noticed this. The yardstick for having hit rock bottom as far as actual debate is concerned is when, having run out of all else, “body language” is discussed. Dr Shahid Masood, unsurprisingly, rules this insightful group of analysts. Though most of the others are as vacuous and shallow as him, it is he who is brave enough to dissect body language at great length.
The issue of the police officer saluting Maryam Nawaz Sharif is yet another incident that has gotten a quantum of attention that is hilariously disproportionate to what it actually deserved.
The litany of complaints of both the commentariat and (understandably) the PTI centre around two things: first, why has the prime minister’s daughter gotten such security protocol; second, why (oh why) did she get a salute from the SSP.
Let us first talk about the security protocol aspect. Yes, the prime minister’s family members do not hold office. But the family members of the the heads of government and state receive special protection the world over. In the US, for instance, the Secret Service trails the movement of not just the President’s family but also those of other key cabinet members. The Secret Service has a code name, for instance, for the vice president’s wife. SLOTUS; Second Lady Of The United States. She gets a security detail whether she likes it or not.
It is only when the loved one of an elected politician is killed that there is criticism from the same media quarters of the lack of security protocol. We saw this happen when the son of former KP information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain was killed. Mian Iftikhar Hussain himself escaped quite a few terrible attacks himself, as did his party member Bashir Bilour, who was eventually killed in one such attack. Their chief minister Amir Haider Hoti also faced three suicide attacks, the last of which he escaped by the skin of his teeth. But even back then, the media used to resent the security protocol of the ANP, despite being demonstrably in the crosshairs of the Taliban, but fell muted whenever there actually was an attack.
The rubric: criticise security protocols of at-risk individuals and criticise the lack of adequate security protocol when there is.
For the moment, we are not taking into account the various news reports that claim that it was the JIT itself that had directed for the prime minister’s daughter to be escorted by a senior female police officer.
Then comes the issue of the salute. Though the service rules are clear about whom an officer or a jawan should salute, beyond that the salutation in the country is nothing but a form of greeting. It’s almost as silly as picking apart ones Khuda haafiz and Allah haafiz.
It cannot be construed as sucking up to a person in a position of power. This would not have been an issue if an officer had saluted Pakistan cricket team captain Sarfraz Ahmed. Or, for that matter, a certain former captain who had won another world trophy. Talking here of Younis Khan, of course.