The government asked Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) took notice of talk shows and broadcasts discussing the Mina tragedy and criticising the Saudi handling of the crisis. In the first week of May, Pemra had officially directed all news channels not to air programmes that might harm Pakistan’s relations with friendly countries. Far from expressing concern over the deaths of its citizens or taking meaningful action to provide support and assistance to the families of those killed, injured or missing, the Pakistan government is going through hoops to muzzle its own media from voicing credible criticism about Saudi mismanagement. Rather than questioning the Saudi government, the Pakistani officials timidly accept that the Saudi government would attend to the issues of Pakistani pilgrims “on a priority basis”. Evidently, the only thing ‘special’ about this relationship is how lopsided it is. Recognising this imbalance, the opposition members of the Senate condemned Saudi Arabia’s mismanagement and handling of the tragedy and also took the government to task for prioritising defending the Saudi regime rather than the victims of the tragedy. There is neither any concern for finding the missing pilgrims nor any attempts at setting up information centres where panicked and grieving family members can be compassionately dealt with. On top of this arrogant lack of regard for the distress of nationals of other countries, the Saudi government seems intent on ensuring its monopoly over this chaos by blocking hundreds of volunteers or rescue workers from other countries from carrying out operations to find missing pilgrims and assisting grieving families. While the Saudi government behaves in a predictably callous manner, the suffering of Pakistani families gets no alleviation even from its own embassy in the country. The senators were shocked to note that Pakistan’s media was doing more to give information on the conditions and whereabouts of Pakistani pilgrims than its government. The embassy and Hajj Mission have displayed a condemnable indifferent attitude towards their own citizens, and have failed on all accounts to do their job of providing assistance. Whether this inaction is due to institutionalised indifference or because the embassy officials are afraid to step on Saudi toes, it is obvious that the priorities of Pakistani officials are not their own citizens.
pk.shafaqna.com
