ON a sultry June afternoon during the early 1980s, all hell broke loose at the PTV headquarters.

Brig Salik, press secretary to then president Ziaul Haq, was frantically looking for Agha Nasir, the channel’s managing director. Since he was not available, Salik told the second most senior official that the missing MD of PTV should make himself available at the television centre without delay as the president would be there in a short while. The PTV official was informed that the president was annoyed.

A late director of the Pakistan Television recounted this incident in his book, Uncensored. The book contains many inside stories illustrating how the state-run media was controlled and manipulated by different governments.

According to the writer, Gen Zia arrived at the Islamabad centre along with Munir Husain, who was then information secretary (the ex-officio chairman of the organisation), and wanted to see the recording of the previous night’s transmission.

The president is said to have came down heavily on the PTV management. He questioned the professionalism of those who were calling the shots, complaining that there was no follow-up discussion or any motivational song after his speeches.

The outburst by Ziaul Haq brought about the ouster of the chairman and the managing director; their transfer orders reached their offices before they themselves got there.

The world of state television (and Radio Pakistan) is replete with such stories. The stranglehold of successive governments over the state-run media exercised through the information ministry has created a culture that keeps officials and producers on their toes.

They live in a perpetual state of fear and perform their assignments in a state of uncertainty. They desperately look for safety measures in order to save themselves from wrath and humiliation showered day in and day out upon them by functionaries.

It is difficult to keep any statistic of how many marching orders have been given so far and how many heads rolled in the state media over the decades.

The absence of a clear-cut policy, excessive interference on the part of governments and, above all, the rampant culture of sycophancy and lack of courage to speak the truth has often led to disastrous situations. During her second stint, Benazir Bhutto addressed an assembly of police force at Karachi’s Bagh-i-Quaid-i-Azam (former Polo Ground ) to acknowledge their contribution in the fight against subversives.

At the end of the assembly she expressed a desire that the whole event be given extensive coverage on television as part of a morale-boosting exercise. Both the local press information department officials were found napping.

As a part of damage control a dummy exercise was arranged with the help of the provincial police chief. Nobody had the courage to inform the prime minister about their folly as they knew the ultimate if the matter came to her knowledge.

However, the incident forced Islamabad to make the presence of senior ministry officials and media mandatory. In the absence of any guidelines, mishaps were common and whims dominated the proceedings.

Asif Ali Zardari, as minister for investment, took a large group of businessmen to the Far East in an effort to sell Pakistan as an investment-friendly country.

He asked that an official media team accompany him. As his request was not conveyed to the right quarters, an angry call from Seoul jolted the authorities into dispatching a media team at the last minute.

It was because of incidents like these that precautionary measures were introduced to keep the powers that be happy. These included the placement of a permanent camera crew at the presidency and the prime minister’s office.

A time came when the entire PTV transmission was recorded every day, dubbed on VHS tape and dispatched to the high and mighty for monitoring. But all such precautionary steps proved futile as the state-run media continued to get its share of flak.

For a long time there was a perception that the person who headed the PTV must be someone who enjoys direct access to the prime minister. Otherwise, the job carried too many hazards. Such was the treacherous path on which state functionaries trod for many years.

Senator Pervaiz Rashid, who served as PTV chairman for a brief period in the Nawaz Sharif government of the ’90s, once said on record that controlling and managing the PTV Khabarnama was the most difficult assignment he ever undertook. The flurry of telephone calls from the highest offices in the land was enough to give him sleepless nights.

Although there were times when the tone and tenor of interference was at different times, such honeymoon periods remained very brief. The arrival of Benazir Bhutto to the prime minister’s office for her first stint was one such period. Still remembered as a breath of fresh air, it opened the window of freedom and brought some impartiality to news reporting. But the whole exercise lasted for only a few months.

In her first stint she made attempts to follow her party manifesto and brought back the legendary Aslam Azhar to spearhead PTV, but gave him no executive powers. Aslam Azhar spent a year desperately trying to make his stay worthwhile but left in frustration.

A fleet of advisers and consultants attached to the ministry did their best to complicate the situation. Every adviser ensured that he or she was not left behind.

Frictions and rivalries between the presidency and the PM’s office were also settled through the media. Once president Farooq Leghari felt that he was not being given as much space in the international media as Benazir Bhutto. He decided to lead the country’s delegation at the UN Summit on social development at Copenhagen.

A media team was flown from Islamabad and reinforcements in the shape of press officers were dispatched from nearby European capitals. The president had hoped that he would be interviewed by CNN and BBC, but when an opportunity presented itself, he backed out as the international media wanted his comments on the killing of French officials in Karachi. He re-directed them to Benazir Bhutto.

The newly inducted PTI-led government has promised to unshackle the state-controlled media, but similar loud claims were also made in the past. So some amount of scepticism is not out of place.

Hoping against hope, one only wishes that the practice of using the state-run media as a tool to promote personalities would be discouraged. Official media needs to be developed into a credible and reliable broadcasting institution managed by an independent board rather than a hidebound institution devoid of any reliability and impartiality.

If the new government manages to end bureaucratic interference in the working of PTV and Radio Pakistan, its action may go down in history as the biggest service to media in this country.

The writer has worked at PTV News for over three decades.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2018