Country is going through the worst ever crisis of the history that erupted due to the deadly tremor that hit Pakistan a week ago. Everybody is trying to play his or her role to help country and the nation to meet the prevailing challenge and to repair the damage, caused to the life and property.
National and international media organizations are also playing their role in helping the victims as well the rescuers and are making all out efforts to keep the readers and viewers updated over the situation. However, the role of electronic media of Pakistan in this scenario is really regrettable. It has been observed by almost everyone that the TV channels, particularly the private TV channels of the country are really hitting below the belt. Trying to sensationalize every event to get a lead over the contemporaries, they often indulge into highly unjustified exaggerations. Most of the reporters and producers of these TV Channels, while filing on-spot reports, are focusing more on government’s bashing and less on actual reports. They are always found provoking the earthquake victims to divulge against the government or to register complaints against the slow rescue and relief work. Instead of encouraging those people and giving them hope with regard to government’s efforts and activities of international rescuers, they are seen adding fire to the fuel. This is not enough as while making their own analysis, they focus somehow to create a ditch between the affected and unaffected people of the country. “While you are sleeping in your cozy beds with your kids in your lavish houses in Karachi or Lahore, the kids here at Mansehra are even without a roof”, is one of the sentences that the reporters of these TV channels use to create the ditches. Instead of forging a harmony amongst the nation and between affected people and government, they are trying to keep them at odds.
Furthermore, most of these channels are using the images of agony and pain of the quake-affected people and are playing them again and again with dramatic dialogues in the background. They are doing it just to keep maximum audience tuned to them. However, these unscrupulous media maestros do not realize that in their bids to mint a few extra bucks, they are not only putting the entire nation into a severe depression but are also making them immune to such situations and such images, taking them to a level where it would become a routine matter for them or they will become ruthless by getting used to it.
The Daily Mail believes that in this situation, country’s electronic media, instead of getting into sensationalism or indulging into game of numbers, must behave with maturity. They should better learn to utilize the press freedom appropriately and must come up with a better and acceptable approach to rebuild the nation not to falter it further!

Far more devastating than Tsunami

AZAD KASHMIR Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat has observed that more than 80,000 persons have perished in the killer earthquake. This figure excludes the number of casualties in the NWFP, particularly from Kaghan valley, Balakot, Garhi Habibullah, Mansehra and Buttal. One can safely assume the number of deaths could far exceed the one lakh mark. In addition, thousands of tiny villages scattered all over the hills in Mansehra District and Azad Kashmir have been completely wiped out. Thousands of bodies are still buried under the rubble and several areas could not be visited by relief teams because of the stink from the decaying corpse. The main problem is inaccessibility of the devastated villages which are perched on hill tops or on slopes with only pedestrian tracks which in most of the cases are blocked due to boulders which have fallen from higher altitudes. The media is revealing details of havoc wrought in areas where few survivors mostly injured are desperately awaiting supplies.
The U.N. officials and other international agencies term this earthquake as more devastating than Tsunami. The tidal waves had hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and other coastal countries in the region leaving behind widespread devastation. However, immediate international relief was rushed to the affected areas which lie on the plain lands along the coast. In the case of last week’s earthquake, the affected areas are mostly inaccessible scattered over hills and sub Himalayan ranges about which information is now trickling down but in the meantime thousands of critically injured had to fight in vain for their lives for several days. There is most encouraging response from foreign Governments, international agencies and NGOs as also private organizations and philanthropists. Every one wants to help but lack of logistics is dampening their spirits. Lack of helicopters is hampering rescue and relief operations as pointed out in his meeting on Friday by U.N. Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Egeland with President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. He estimates that keeping in view the enormity of the tragedy billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild the devastated area. While rescue operations started at a number of locations for survivors have ended, relief work appears to have been speeded up. But there are thousands of areas and small villages which could not be reached.
The Government including the armed forces are doing more than they could to shift injured to hospitals and to supply food and medicines to the survivors who with the temperature going down desperately need tents and blankets which are in short supply. Private individuals and NGOs are finding it difficult to liaise with officially designated focal points and quite a number of them are rushing supplies to critical areas as being pointed out by the media. This is national tragedy and the nation seems to have risen to the occasion. However, insurmountable difficulties are being faced by relief workers. At some places there is only despair but over all in the sea of despair those who want to help the suffering community has managed to build
islands of hope. The relief and rehabilitation work will take quite sometime but what is important is that the spirit demonstrated by the millions of Pakistanis from Karachi to Khyber should not dampen. Those rendered homeless will continue to need their help and support. Let us continue to move forward with courage and trust in Allah.