*Attached pictures and videos show helpers unloading the packages on the donkey cart and then travelling through the waters to reach the victims. *
Pakistan is a multiethnic country in South Asia with a predominantly Urdu speaking Muslim population. The country was separated from India and gained independence in 1947 but struggled to gain political stability and grappled for social and economic development. Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country with population of 227 million residents. However, it faced extreme difficulties in defining its social structure. The country experienced occurrences of extreme racism as well as ethnic, religious, and social conflict within communities.
In few parts of the country these conflicts led to violence against religious minorities. Areas of Sindh and Baluchistan province experience these instances the most which prevents the central authorities to govern that land and the power goes in the hands of feudal lords.
The government of Pakistan is composed of the executive, legislative and judicature branches. It is a semi-industrial mixed economy in which state-owned enterprises constitute a large portion of gross domestic product. After imposing the country wide lockdown in response to COVID-19, the government at the end of 2021-maintained lockdowns at high-risk areas and essential jobs to allow the economic activity to flourish. However, the country also faced high unemployment rate. “Around 3 million people of the state were unable to recover their jobs after 3⁄4th end of the first wave of lockdown and average earning remain 5.5% below in pre- lockdown levels in November 2020.”
Recent torrential monsoon rains caused catastrophic floods in Pakistan which washed away a huge chunk of the state’s land destroying homes, buildings, killed more than thousand habitants and forced families to live without roof, water and food. The flooding has displaced more than 33 million people and threatened economy by causing acute food shortages in the country. “Government officials estimate at least $30 billions of economic damage and reconstruction costs, or about 10% of GDP. Domestic resources can only meet a fraction of the government’s estimated cost and the international aid received so far falls far short of the country’s needs.”
Despite being protected in the law; press freedom was violated consistently in Pakistan with changing regimes. Past and present governments used legal and constitutional means to control the press. Journalists and media organizations face threats, violence and economic pressure. Censorship is a common practice in the country where either news channels are banned, or journalists are not allowed to cover a particular event that put the government in a bad light. Moreover, journalists were wrongfully punished for “blasphemous speech” which is more of a tactic to silence them. Few are killed while reporting on terrorist activities and many are jailed based on other false accusations Newspaper circulation and readership is very low in the country. “Poor literacy, urban orientation of the press, and the high price of newspapers are detrimental factors for the under development of print media in Pakistan.”
Even though the rise of social media has changed how general public in the country consume news, disinformation and propaganda have ignited social, political and religiously extremist beliefs. The power of selective exposure is also being used as a tool for biased political narrative and has dire consequences. “There are approximately four million circulations of newspapers in Pakistan. Among the Urdu press, Jang is considered the largest newspaper followed by Nawa-e-Waqt. Whereas, The News, Dawn, and Business Recorder are the English popular newspapers.”
Most of the print media is privately owned but the state run broadcasting mediums are extremely biased and used for government’s publicity mainly through official advertisements. One of the major news agencies, Associated Press of Pakistan is controlled by the government. Bribing the journalists is also a common malpractice in the region. “Sometime vocal journalists are given appointments in government’s offices/departments to stop criticism.” Moreover, few private media organizations care more for the rather the idea of ethical journalism is simply neglected. There are also few self-righteous journalists who firmly believe that they are serving the public giving biased coverage and criticism and blatantly support a political party on screen urging the public to do the same.
From 2006 to 2015 Pakistani population was among the fastest growing Asian ethnic groups in New York with a population of 51,453. The large majority of Pakistani New Yorkers lived in Brooklyn (45 percent) and Queens (39 percent). Little Pakistan neighborhood is an enclave for Pakistani community in Brooklyn. Many local Pakistani media journalists cover the Pakistani community in New York, mainly in Little Pakistan.
There are many organizations in New York that represent the Pakistani community including the Consul General of Pakistan. Some other are Pakistani American Youth Organization, Pakistani American Youth Society, Overseas Pakistani Global Foundation, Pakistani American Welfare Association and Pakistani Civic Association.
Sources:
http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/indianStudies/PDF/6_v8_1_22.pdf
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/pakistan/overview
https://academicjournals.org/journal/JMCS/article-full-text-pdf/F309A3D10173/
https://www.aafederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2019pk.pdf
Stories:
I want to focus on the issues in the country and especially the drawbacks of the catastrophe as well as press freedom, instead of the Pakistani community in New York.
These are my three-story ideas:
- Young journalists are coming forward by creating a platform for unbiased news and neglected conversations. I want to explore in a video piece how they are struggling to protect the press freedom and tackling censorship.
- A data visualization story about the structure of Pakistan after the floods. Where are the displaced people going? How much farmland destroyed?
- Mental health is a known crisis in the conservative country. How some startups are helping people and creating trusting environment for people to start taking therapy while other so-called phycologists are scamming people online by charging hefty amounts for few ineffective sessions.
Interview:
I interviewed Kanwar Ahmed, media director of Pakistani American Youth Organization in Little Pakistan. The organization was started with the aim to provide after school activities and volunteer opportunities to students to save them from the bad hobbies or ventures. They are now participating in aiding the flood victims by collecting money or sending aids provided by the community in NYC. According to Ahmed, it is very hard to deliver food and other necessities to the victims. People have to unload the luggage from the truck and reload them onto donkey carts and then travel long distance to reach the victims who are now out in the open and vulnerable. Also, the needs change until the help arrives. When food arrives, they lack medication and vice versa. There are also many scammers who distract the public helping the victims and try to wrongfully demand help (when they actually don’t need it) and few government officials who have an eye on the donations but Ahmed believes that they can’t stop just because of few people trying to fraud, because 95% of aid is reaching the right place. The whole country is now facing the second disaster, waterborne illness due to drinking contaminated water spread of dengue and malaria. The country is in dire need of help and in Ahmed’s words “We are doing our best. Most of them are individual efforts for our country, for the people who are suffering from the consequences”.