According to a report by Dawn reporter, Kalbe Ali (March 1, 2016), the limited coverage that was given by the country’s private TV news channels to the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, contributed to creating a ‘sense of calm’ in the country.

Qadri was apprehended in 2011 for murdering the former governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, for allegedly denouncing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Qadri was sentenced to death by anti-terrorism court and its decision was upheld by the country’s superior courts. After an appeal for clemency filed by Qadri’s lawyers was rejected by the state and government of Pakistan, he was sent to the gallows on Feb 29.

The government’s decision to go ahead with the execution took many by surprise, despite the fact that in the past year or so, the state and government of Pakistan have exhibited a rather unprecedented attitude towards cases of religiously, socially and politically motivated terrorism.

The stance of the state and government on religiously, socially and politically motivated terrorism seems to have matured

Though a number of hardened militants belonging to various religious and political groups have recently been hanged, and the military has been conducting widespread operations against organised extremist outfits in the north-west of Pakistan, Qadri’s case stood out.

Treated as an outright murder and an act of individual terrorism by the courts, the case was a lot more complex compared to those associated with extreme militant and sectarian groups.

Qadri’s lawyers tried to argue that their client had acted according to his (religious) convictions and / or a conviction which is manifested as law in the Constitution. The courts understandably maintained that the law did not give an individual the right to judge and punish a person he believed had broken this law.

On the surface, it was an open and shut case because Qadri had confessed to murdering Taseer. But, as many judicial and political commentators have continued to warn, this law has been conveniently exploited on numerous occasions especially by those wanting to attain certain theological, political and even economic goals.

This has happened because ever since the 1980s (when this law was first introduced), society as a whole was consciously radicalised by the state and its religious allies for political purposes.

Consequently, some have gone on to believe that the law actually emboldens vigilante actions driven by a particular understanding of the faith.

The changing nature of the state and government of Pakistan today is seeing them trying to come to grips with the many fall-outs of the state’s myopic policies of the past; one of these fall-outs has been about some sections of society who simply refuse to see certain anti-state activities (related to so-called religious outfits) or religiously-motivated vigilante action as punishable crimes.

For example, when Qadri was arrested and for the first time taken to a court, a group of lawyers threw rose petals on him and hailed him as a hero. Some religious parties, too, saw him as a champion.

The truth is, such acts are almost entirely in line with how folks loitering on the fringes of society behave. But what happens when those lingering on such a fringe begin to appear on prime time news channels? Or worse, what happens when some of them actually get their own shows on TV?

This is not such a far-fetched hypothesis. In fact, on many Pakistani private TV channels, it is quite the reality. In the past decade or so, TV audiences have seen sofa-set-demagogues of all shapes and sizes being invited to TV talk shows to rather rabidly and almost entirely irrationally comment on politics, faith, culture, morality, et al. The audiences have also seen the spectacle of some TV talk show hosts and anchors become almost as rabid and irrational.

More disconcerting is how often TV shows in this context become awkwardly anarchic and completely irresponsible.

For example, in 2005, a show ended up apparently inspiring some men to murder four members of a minority community; in 2007, the way the Lal Masjid operation was covered by the channels, many media experts have suggested that the hyper, irresponsible and even reactionary coverage of the event was at least one of the reasons which triggered the formation of the TTP; some have even pointed towards the way Taseer’s statements (about a Christian woman arrested on sacrilege charges) were commented upon by some TV hosts that, supposedly, went on to ‘inspire’ Qadri!

These are but just a few incidents narrating the irresponsible nature of the country’s private electronic media. And the thing is, those often accused of such exhibitions of utter irresponsibility largely do so for almost entirely cynical gains. Caution is thrown to the wind in pursuit of the almighty ratings.

However, statistics show that TV news channels have been steadily losing their ratings over the past six months. There is talk of a paradigm shift taking place in the narrative emitting from the current government and the military establishment. Perhaps the same is happening within the society?

But decades of indoctrination of a particular brand of narrative by the state means that society will be (and is) slow to fully gauge the shift and can still be vulnerable to reactive bouts of feedback regarding certain ‘sensitive issues’.

Amir Rana, the director of Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, told Dawn that the way the TV channels underplayed Qadri’s execution, and the protests which followed, may be due to ‘directives from powerful quarters’.

By this, he may be alluding to the military-establishment. But Kable Ali quoted a military officer in his report who suggested that there were just a ‘limited number of protests’ which, in turn, were due to the public’s support for the National Action Plan and the state’s changing stance towards extremism.

Whatever the case, it was quite apparent (at least on the day of the execution), that responsible TV coverage of sensitive events can go a long way in making sure that the situation remains immune to becoming the kind of mob-oriented, anarchic free-for-all spectacles of which Pakistan has often been a victim of lately. Spectacles which this country’s economy, politics, polity and existentialist disposition just can’t afford anymore.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 6th, 2016