My impression of Pakistani civil society is mostly of a society in denial and worst actually sympathetic to militants. Witness Imran Khan and so many other politicians who one would have expected to be liberals who actually support Jihadists overtly. That does not take away the fact that there are voices of dissent who see this as in fact a fight between obscurantism and liberal ethos, between warped notions of morality and a right to freedom for each, between good and evil.
Given the state of Pakistan I think most of the people who are actively espousing looking inwards are probably much more brave that most of us outsiders realize. Compare say the Indian media with Pakistan media. While by and large our media is free, often critical of government, I have not really seen too many biggies actually take on government when we invariably always end up blaming Pakistan. How many of our media groups actually champion the cause of human rights?
On the other hand I find Dawn almost always balanced. look
here and
here. The News is again fairly
well balanced. And given the state of Pakistani society which has probably genuine sympathy to Jihadi groups, a super powerful security establishment that the rest of the world justifiably believe to be Jihadist and terrorists itself, and an executive that is at best ineffectual, on an average complicit with terrorists, it takes a lot of courage to point the accusatory finger inwards.
I wish we too have more media houses becoming as brave. In terms of individuals we all have heard of Asma Jehangirs of Pakistan and many activists within India so there we can still take hope that individuals in India still bravely battle the system, but in terms of mainstream coverage I think our media, especially TV is hopelessly out of tune with reality. Except from page3 kind of reporting there is very little actual news coverage. The the coverage often reeks of agenda.
Times Now - channel I earlier liked because well they did try and cover news now reminds me of Fox news of US. While yes a whole host of India and world's problems emanate from Pakistan, can we actually have a more nuanced discussion rather than simply calling them liars and duplicitous over and over again? CNN-IBN the other channel that I watch for news is somewhat fairer but again I do not see the kind of reporting that say Geo TV (that broke the story of Kasab's family being in Pakistan and first shots of his being Pakistani) does in Pakistan. Other Indian new channels are a travesty of news where breaking news might be a detailed coverage of what Rakhi Sawant wore to a party!
So long as there are these brave souls in Pakistan who risk life to show reality to Pakistani society there is still hope. Now to wish the same for India.