Nisar Mahmood
PESHAWAR: Eulogising the role of the media, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information and Culture Mian Iftikhar Hussain Friday stressed the need for identifying friends and foes of the nation, particularly in context of militancy.
“Media must keep national interest supreme and create awareness about the tactics of the terrorists,” he said while speaking as chief guest at the launching ceremony of a Pashto weekly magazine, Borderline, at Peshawar Press Club.
The minister said Pakhtuns were being killed through a conspiracy on both sides of the Durand Line border. Arguing that peace in Pakistan was impossible until restoration of peace in Afghanistan, he said an unannounced third world war was being fought in the region and Pakhtun blood was shed for the interest of different parties to the conflict.
“Our traditions are being destroyed as institutions like hujra, mosque and schools are being hit and our children are getting killed. War has been going on in Afghanistan for more than three decades and innocent people are being killed and now Pakistan is burning in the fire started on Afghan soil,” he said.
The minister, however, said the government strategy had succeeded to a great extent and now the public was aware of the terrorists and their nefarious designs. Mian Iftikhar said the Awami National Party (ANP) had offered matchless sacrifices in the war on terror. “Over 500 ANP activists sacrificed their lives for the country in the war on terror,” he maintained.
Welcoming the launching of the Pashto weekly, he hoped both PACT Radio and Borderline magazine would work for peace. He said it was good that both the radio and magazine were in Pashto and had listeners and readers across the Pak-Afghan border. He said it was the vision of great freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who had launched the Pakhtun magazine and Azad School to educate his nation in the 1930s.
In his address, senior journalist and Resident Editor of The News International Rahimullah Yusufzai appreciated the role that PACT Radio had played in creating awareness and training journalists. He said the same team that ran the radio channel had now launched the Borderline magazine. He said the magazine’s two issues showed that it contained quality articles on a variety of topics.
Recalling his meetings with the founder of the radio and magazine, Jan Muhammad Butt, he said the British national was well-versed in Pashto and Urdu and his services for the uplift of Pakhtun areas and nation deserved appreciation. “Through different programmes and PACT Radio, Jan Muhammad Butt trained many young journalists in the province and also in neighbouring Afghanistan. Like educationists Prof H M Close and Prof Langlands, he also served Pakistanis, particularly the Pakhtuns,” he pointed out. “The British always praised the Pakhtuns as a brave nation in their writings despite the fact that Pakhtun gave them a tough time in wars,” he said.
The senior journalist said the Afghan conflict over the past three decades caused large- scale devastation and suffering in Afghanistan and its fallout was now affecting Pakistan, but one of its rare positive aspect was that it brought the Pakhtuns on both sides of the border closer and promoted Pashto language and literature.
Minister for Social Welfare and Women Development Sitara Ayaz also eulogised the media’s role in uplift and creating awareness in the society. She said women participation in the media was still inadequate. She urged the media to create awareness among women about their responsibilities. In the context of terrorism a mother can play vital role as she can forbid her son from becoming involved in anti-state activities, she argued.
Sitara Ayaz lauded the PACT Radio and Borderline weekly for serving the Pakhtuns and said she was proud to have worked with Jan Butt in the early 90s and learning much from him.
The magazine chief editor Naveed Yusufzai shed light on the aims and objectives of PACT Radio and weekly Borderline and said both the mediums were struggling for finding traditional solution to modern problems. He said the radio’s reporters were working in the Pashtun areas in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan. He said the PACT Radio was launched in 2004 and had had large number of listeneres in both the countries.
Israr Atal, Sajid Takkar and Ibadullah Sadiq conducted the stage proceedings and presented verses depicting the impact of militancy and Pakhtun love for peace. Earlier, Mian Iftikhar Hussain and Rahimullah Yusufzai cut the ribbon to formally launch the magazine at the well-attended ceremony.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/19/2011
