ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry Wednesday said that with effective government-ISPR strategy, India was isolated globally following the Pulwama incident, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to use to his poll advantage.Fawad said the use of modern technology was increasing manifold in the world and now there was trend of hybrid warfare in media as well and now in this modern day world, wars are being fought through media.Speaking here at a media workshop on ‘Hybrid Warfare and Pakistan’s Readiness’, the minister said Pulwama incident was the first test case for the government and it outclassed India completely. “With coordinate efforts, for the first time, New Delhi was isolated in global public opinion,” he asserted.Fawad explained how the government was trying to bring about reforms in the face of changing global scenes. He said Modi tried to sell a very weak idea through strong presentation to make gains in the upcoming general elections, using Pulwama incident, but failed despite endangering lives of hundreds of millions. In the given situation, he said, the government used the world media and pocketed success with regards to India. Back in 1971, he recalled, while international media was forced out of Dhaka, India and its media exploited the situation to their advantage. Moreover, he noted, India presented a legally weak idea concerning Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) to the world. Fawad said in the modern era, propaganda had become the primary tool of warfare, while kinetic warfare had assumed secondary importance and that strong ideas and excellent ways of their presentation were prerequisite to success of hybrid warfare. He said that in modern times, wars were being fought through media, rather than on the battlefront.The minister said efforts were underway to impose ideas on other nations and some states even managed to sell weak ideas through strong presentation, while Israel was unleashing unprecedented atrocities on Palestinians by making Gaza Strip a compact zone, it showed to the world a Goebel’s philosophy that peace was under threat because of Palestinians.Dwelling upon the propaganda warfare in the past and changing trends, the minister said that after 1950, no state was annexed or was occupied, barring Iraq occupying briefly Kuwait and then pulling back. Similarly, in recent times, despite adventures and blatant use of propaganda machines, no effort was made to occupy Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria. In these events, he noted, other countries might have looted resources, but did not occupy those countries. And all this was unlike the US and Europe’s philosophy, which saw dropping of nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fawad said the government was making efforts to transform Pakistan from a security state into an open country and was moving ahead accordingly and had already massively reviewed the visa regime and would facilitate international media to return to Pakistan.The minister contended that Pakistan had a strong idea; a narrative on extremism and terrorism even in 1999 but weak presentation cost it dearly and even today not a single book had been published in the US or Europe with regard to Pakistan’s narrative. He conceded there was a need to open the doors to world media to come to Pakistan and present its true picture to the world, being such a beautiful country with beautiful people. He also talked about how successfully the now ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) used the power of social media on the initiatives of Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Dr Arif Alvi to put across the party’s message and narrative. “Our ideas as well as presentation as a party through social media has been excellent,” he maintained. Talking about the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the institutions working under it, the minister said for the first time, he tried to use the ministry as the state tool and not like in the past, when it was made to function as a particularly party’s publicity wing.Fawad said reforms were underway in the Information Ministry to make it a tool for promotion of the state, rather than a political party. He conceded that the ministry was in need of large-scale reforms and the government was already working on that and there would be major reforms this year.
from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2THFaoQ
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