April 14, 2011

When politicians show their true colours on national TV

Warning: Explicitly vulgar language used in the video. Viewer discretion is advised.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder that the blogs I post online are only reaching a minute number of the many millions of Pakistanis out there, primarily because I mostly blog in English and that just isn't good enough. But then, at least I have the common courtesy of not trash talking or bad-mouthing my opponents. The same however, cannot be said of the Urdu speaking politicians who frequent the various high profile talk shows that have become a routine on the electronic media.

The following is a clip from the show 11th Hour which is hosted by Wasim Badami on which he had invited Hasan Nisar, the fiery columnist who basically trashes the government and its lackeys everyday (couldn't agree more; but after watching this clip I'm re-thinking my support for this guy); Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, who is the President of the PPP Punjab wing; and PML-N's senator Mushahidullah.

The show was attempting to ask an "innocent" question (if I may use the words of Wasim Badami) about what good news if any, could the government give to the Pakistani population at the moment. The irony of the matter however is that the innocent question spurned some extremely pathetic, vile and vulgar responses. Hasan Nisar (who talks sense most of the time, or so I thought) completely lost it and stated that even if the rulers and their ilk were to hang themselves, even then they wouldn't be able to give the nation any good news. He went on further to state that it is the Pakistani nation which is the real villain for electing these morons to the assemblies and voting the "murderers" and "looters" into power. I mean, really Hasan Nisar?

When Wasim Badami redirected the question to Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, he very tactfully dodged the question and stated that such vile comments did not merit a response from any "sane" person, and since he was one of the sane people in Pakistan (I do believe we have quite a dearth of them) he wasn't going to respond to Hasan Nisar's allegations.

But Senator Mushahidullah just couldn't resist telling the people what was wrong with people like Hasan Nisar, and well people like Hasan Nisar don't take their shortcomings being pointed out too well. Hence, this is what ensued:



If you want to watch the context of this seriously horrendous exchange, please click here. This will show you what Hasan Nisar said much to the astonishment of all concerned. Now I have been a fan of Hasan Nisar for his bold and upright stances and his publications in Jang which are quite refreshing and different from the usual crap that we get thanks to the Talat Hussains and Ansar Abbasis of Pakistan's electronic media. But there is no doubt at all in my mind that Hasan Nisar was absolutely wrong in saying what he said; and losing his cool, and that too in such a derogatory manner on live television. Not only was his conduct unbecoming, but it was also totally irrational and not different from the autocratic and "pseudo-democratic" mindset which incidentally, he is so against. By saying that the Pakistani nation are villains for voting the Zardaris and Sharifs into power, he has fallen prey to the same fallacy that forces rational people to become irrational and proclaim that only they themselves are the repositories of all wisdom. Hasan Nisar should issue an apology to all and sundry for uttering the words that he did.