Atoofa Siddiqui Reporting religious minorities
Atoofa
Siddiqui صدیقی عطوفہ
2k18/MC/36 ٣٦/
سی
ایم /٢٠١٨
پاکستانی میڈیا مذہبی اقلیتوں کو کیسے
رپورٹ کرتا ہے؟
How Pakistani media report
religious minorities?
In Pakistan, the media do not strengthen religious minorities
but present them as a controversial group, political issue and suppressed, even
though they are in the millions and deserve coverage except from being
minority.
Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development carried out
an investigative review of the media in a report named “How do Pakistani media
report religious minorities?” which has revealed that the news coverage about
religious minorities do not include their opinions and views mostly.
Media fail to contact the minority representatives and
therefore play a role in oppressing them.
Reducing
population of minorities
According to the National Census of 2017 in Pakistan, the
country’s total population consists of more than 20 crore and 76 lac people,
including 96.47% Muslims and 3.53% religious minorities.
According to the 1998 census, the Muslim population was
96.28% while religious minorities were 3.72%. Thus, during the two censuses the
number of religious minorities has decreased by 0.19%.
As per the investigative report, the reason why the minority
population decreased neither hasbeen officially reported
nor has the media given any investigative news on it.
According to the census, the Hindu minority population is the
highest in number among the religious minorities, after that there are
Christians, Ahmadis and Scheduled Castes. Other minorities are written in terms
of Sikhs, Baha’ai, Zoroastrians, Parsi, Kailash and Jews etc.
Representation
of minoritiesin media
It has been told in the report that according to the
unofficial statistics of various media organizations, 2.5 million employees
work in the institutions of Pakistan media, out of which only 20,000 are
journalists. Out of these 20,000, 270 or 1.3% journalists belong to religious
minorities.
According to the Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory
Authority, there are total 96 TV channels working in Pakistan with 37 channels
of news and current affairs out of which, 14 are broadcast in local languages.
Similarly, the number of FM radio channels is 143. 137 daily,
13 weekly, 2 fortnightly and 45 monthly magazines are there. According to
unofficial non-governmental data, there are 16 crore TV viewers, 8 crore FM
listeners while print media circulation is 70 lac.
For this analytical report, the coverage of 12 different
institutions was monitored and it came to light that the newspapers published
the news and pictures about religious minorities mostly. Radio completely
ignored them. This research also told that the most anti-minority news were
also published in newspapers.
Immense
topic of blasphemy news
In media, the most published topic in the news about
minorities was blasphemy and these news stories highlighted the Christian
community. But, TV and radio did not broadcast any news about blasphemy.
Another topic of the news concerning the religious minorities
was their heritage, especially their culture and archeology. Moreover, news
about the occupation of property of Hindu and Ahmadi communities and the
festivals of religious minorities were also published and broadcast.
The researcher and journalist of Institute for Research,
Advocacy and Development named Adnan Rehmat says that “If we look at the issue
of blasphemy in numerical terms, it seems more against Muslims. But when it
comes to the minorities, there is a tough position.”
“When there is no reporting about minorities, and sometimes
when it happens, then it comes to hypothetical thinking and it feels like the
Christian and Hindu community has nothing to do but blasphemy.”
Out of the 53 news reports monitored in the research, 20 were
about the Hindu community. News stories about Christian community were on
second and about Sikh community were on third in number. Two news stories were
about Kailash community while Ahmadi, Ismaili and Shia communities were quoted
in just one news story.
Dr. Tauseef Ahmed, the former head of the Mass communication
department of Federal Urdu University, says that “In Sindh and Punjab, the Urdu
media especially TV channels do not bring the issue of forcefully change of
religion of Christian and Hindu communities under discussion. The other issue
is of discrimination, which is constitutional, legal and traditional. It is
also not discussed because all the citizens do not have the same rights in the
constitution and if anyone demands it, it does not get highlighted.”
Ideological
issue or lack of professionalism
Dr. Tauseef Ahmed, the former head of the Mass communication
department of Federal Urdu University, says that “The main problem is
ideological because people from gatekeeper to sub-editor and reporter, have
read the curriculum that has been formed during the era of General Zia-Ul-Haq,
whichis based on religious intolerance and disrespect for other religions. But
now, some universities have included the chapter of human rights.”
Adnan Rehmat says that “There is no policy anywhere that they
will not report the minorities but it is a problem of priorities. Now, there is
no journalism of public interest.From TV channels to newspapers, all they do is
just easy journalism that is narration etc.”
He said that “The representative parties of religious
minorities are religious in their nature not political. Media report the
events. Until and unless, the minorities do not talk about their political and
economic rights and problems in their programs, media will not report them.”
Senior journalist Mazhar Abbas says that “The channels become
more of infotainment instead of being the news channels that have news but it is
presented in an entertaining way. Now, they defend it in such a way thatonly
those things receive more ratings in the rating formula that has excitement,
fun and terror.”
Channels do not want to show serious topics. If the rating
formula is improved, the situation will be way better.
In
Pakistan, the employment quota for minorities is limited to sanitary workers
During the 70 years of the establishment of Pakistan, the quota
for minorities in jobs has beenreduced from 11% to 5% and is no longer applied.
It was revealed in a research report titled “Minorities of Faith and Belief.”
A non-governmental organization named Sami Foundation has
done this research in Karachi, Sukkur and Umerkot in which the consultation
with civil society groups was also included in addition with the minority
representatives.
According to the report, the population of Sindh and Punjab
is estimated to 5 crore 60 lac with 91% Muslims and 9% minorities including
Hindu, Christian and Persians. Out of this 9%, 8.5% is just Hindu population
whose 50% is settled in Tharparkar.
Pakistan’s first Minister for Law and Justice, Joginder Nath
introduced 11% employment quota for the welfare of minorities. Under this
system, Hindu, Christian, Baha’ai and Scheduled Caste tribes were benefited. 6%
quota was kept separate for Scheduled Castes.
In 1998, Rana Chandra Singh and Shahbaz Bhatti presented an
amendment bill in the National Assembly, according to which all the minorities
including Hindu, Ahmadi, Christian and Baha’ai community would get benefited
from 5% quota. It was astonishing that those members of the assembly who were
the representatives of minorities submitted an amendment to reduce the quota
from 11% to 5%.
Due to this amendment, the 6% separate quota for Scheduled Castes
was ended with the reduction in overall quota through which the tribes of Bhil,
Koli, Meghwar, Bala and Kabutra got benefited and in the future, the door of
government jobs were also closed for them and they remained as farmers with the
landlords.
In present, quota is 5% in government jobs but only 2-3% of
it is implemented, out of which the lower grade jobs are provided to those who
are usually sweepers, sanitary workers or below the 14 to 15 grade.
A minority woman was quoted in the report, saying that “5% is
implemented in Karachi and other cities of Sindh, which is limited to the jobs
of sweepers even though these jobs are not given on merit.”
According to the report, a political party in Karachi
registered its own servants for the job of sanitary workers on the basis of
minority quota in municipal services. While local politicians also enroll their
own people in other cities, out of which the majority is of Muslims, who do not
go to their works and only get salaries.
A former Hindu member of the assembly was asked that whether
5% minority judges are there in judiciary. None of the secretaries of
provincial departments is from minority. Similarly, no Deputy Commissioner of
any district is from the community of minorities. Does the Hindu community not
possess this ability? And if so, then who was running the system before 1947
here?
This report also highlights the causesof why the quota of
minority is not fully enforced according to the rules. The less interest of
government, whose responsibility is to implement this law, they are unable to
fulfill their duties.
If the federal government announces a vacancy in Islamabad,
then how does this announcement come to Umerkot because, the newspapers publish
there do not reach here? Secondly, how can a poor person reach to Islamabad
from here for an interview?
In the discussions of the reports, some people are of
opinions that a barrier in implementing the quota for minorities is political,
religious and class effects, furthermore a mindset that believes that most of
the minorities are illiterate and are not able to get higher jobs.
Hindus and Christians do sanitary work and other small jobs
which Muslims deny to do so. The unemployment rate is high, even that those who
are graduates are also unemployed because the government jobs are provided on
political basis instead of being given on merit.
It has been recommended in the report that a policy should be
formulated to ensure that whether the minority quotas are being implemented. If
an employee dies, so his son should be appointed on the parent quota.
It hasalso been requested that the political involvement
should be stopped. In National and Provincial Assemblies, the 6% quota in
employmentfor the Scheduled Castes and Dilat community should restorealong with
their representation.
To keep the minorities aware about jobs, the Ministry of Minority
Affairs should keep updated its website and the advertisements related to jobs
should be published in local newspapers as well as should be broadcast through
radio and television.
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