AVT Khyber - Price of the Proud?
Pakistani establishment has always been interested in indoctrinating Pakhtuns with their venomous anti-Pakhtun propaganda aimed at dividing and depoliticising them. AVT Khyber Channel channel was initiated to Pakistanise Pakhtuns by indoctrinating a false sense of territorial nationhood in them. The reason was that Pakhtuns used to listen to the credible news of BBC instead of the ISPR-type propaganda news. AVT Khyber seems to be an endevour to give alternative source of information to the Pashtun audience in order to justify the enslaved status and second rate citzienship of Pakhtuns in Pakistan.
The following is a list of observations which stunned me and paralysed by reflexes for a while by their anti-Pakhtun content.
1) The News in Urdu are in a clear font while that in Pashto are in a very non intelligible font giving a strong impression of being incredible news.
2) The overall theme of the news and programs is Non-Pashto oriented while majority of the programs gives an impression of Urdu, Hindko, Seraiki, Koshitani etc languages. For example "Janob nama" shows as if seraiki is the dominant language there and Pakhtuns are just living as a peaceful minority.
3) A program called "Khushbo-e- Gandhara" which was about the nucleus of Pakhtun areas like Charsadda, Mardan and Swab depict a biased piccture of their history. There are other programs like "Baab-e-Khyber" , "Dil Pishori" ,"Da Qissa khwani gup" ,"Janob Nama" etc which give the same impression. If Pakhtuns have respect for all languages and cultures does it mean that they leave their own language and start adopting and adoring other cultures and languages? Why on earth would then AVT Khyber claim to be the First "Pashto" Channel?
I press upon the team of the Avt Khyber either not to claim being the sole representative of Pakhtun culture and language or atleast be honest and stop claiming it if they are aiming at Pakistanising Pakhtuns , a dream which has no intrinsic germs of getting realised. Pakhtun audience should retaliate against any step aimed at negatively projecting the image of their culture, land and history.
There are some programs which are highly appreciable like Khyberwatch, Khabara da Kitab, Maraka, the Program of Dr Hashmat, the program of interviews from Quetta, Morning transmisison program conducted by Jamshed Ali Khan.
The news are mostly out of date and of least interest to Pakhtuns with a very irritating music in the background contrary to that of other Pakistani TV Channels. We look forward that AVT Khyber will pay a serious heed to the points and keep its uniqueness to be the first Pashto channel.
I condemn the policy of Islamabad not to give lincenses to any other private TV channel to start its transmission in Pashto seeing that others channel owners will counter their propaganda. The enterprenuers should raise a voice against the autocratic policies of PEMRA and other such authorities in Pakistan.
It is a shame that ANP could not commence a channel of their own to project and promote Pashtun cutlure like Shamshad and Lemar which are state-of-the-art Afghan TV channels transmitting quality programs.This could have helped in countering Pakistani propaganda against Pakhtuns.
You know what I think, dude? I think you should do something about this ... and by that, I mean to suggest that you develop some Pashto TV the purpose of which will be to relate to the world, both outside and inside our Pukhtunkhwa, our history, our culture/heritage, our existence, our politics, our crises, etc., etc. Think about it. Most Pukhtuns are sick and tired of being misrepresented by their own so-called Pukhtun brothers, such as those of AVT Khyber, and of being underrepresented by both Pakistani as well as international media.
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So, yes, most Pukhtuns are sick and tired of that, and so it's about time that we actually did something practical about it. What you say?
Salaam Pir Rokhan,
ReplyDeleteUntil this week, I watched AVT Khyber only because I lacked an alternative.
I've had Shamshad for a couple of days, and again, this is a Pashto channels that (perhaps for legal reasons) has some non-Pashto output.
I can't say much about Shamshad, but AVT Khyber avoids the deeper political debates around Pashtoons taking control of their own affairs. It's very light, a little glossy and is watched closely by Islamabad. It's no irony that the seat of Khyber sits in Islamabad. The channel is after all, owned and controlled by Panjabee interests.
Just a simple thought "Why on earth would someone speaking & belonging to Punjab take a license for running a Pashto TV Channel"? They could have easily got a Punjab TV Channel license and project their interest. The reason is simple... Pashtun's are (mostly) illiterate and simple & can be easily deceived.
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