Meaning red, as in communist, in urdu
In April I took a trip to Pakistan, and found a fascinating story. Before leaving, popped up the road to speak to a few friends at the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank located fairly close to Prospect’s offices. My intention was to discuss the Government’s recently launched CONTEST II strategy, designed to counter radical groups. Instead, talking to one of their researchers, came accross a fascinating story – a Pakistani pop band called Laal, whose lead singer and guitarist were British based Pakistani academic marxists, had somehow gone from being complete unknowns to become the biggest band in Pakistan when one of their songs had been played regularly on Pakistani television during the time of the anti-government protests in March of this year.
I dug into the story a bit, and found it got better, taking in the first political YouTube sensation in Pakistan as well as an insurgent TV station. GEO TV was banned by President Musharraf, but now has an influence stretching as far as the UK, as British Pakistanis in places like Blackburn and Luton increasingly consumed media produced not in the UK, but in Pakistan itself. The result is a feature in this month’s magazine, entitled The Real News from Pakistan, which tries to tell the story of Laal, GEO TV, and the way in which television is opening up Pakistan, a society long shrouded in political, moral and relgious censorship. Hope you enjoy, leave any comments below as ever.
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Its a good article about Geo TV but the writer was not fair with Hamid Mir.Geo News and Hamid Mir are pride of Pakistan.Writer of this article gave an impression that Hamid Mir is a journalist who make sweeping statements without any solid grounds. I remember that it was Hamid Mir who introduced the revolutionary song of Lal Band first time during the lawyers movementin 2007,Hamid Mir started saying that “Pakistan and Musharraf cannot survive together” and after that Hamid Mir was banned on television.Hamid Mir came on the roads with Lal Band.During the ban i read stories about Hamid Mir and his family threatened by Musharraf regime.I remember that within two days of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination,Hamid Mir wrote in The News International that Asif Ali Zardari will take over as the new chairperson of the PPP.He broke this story despite the fact that Zardari does not like him.18th Febraury 2008 was election day in Pakistan and Hamid Mir was banned on Geo but he apperaed on BBC with Liz Duecet and gave a sweeping statement about the expected election results.Mir claimed that PPP will get more than 100 seats,PML-N will be number 2,ANP will sweep NWFP province,religious parties will wipe out and PML-Q will get majority only in Baluchistan.Next day Mir was proved right.He is always right about Pakistani politics.Correct and to the point analysis is the main strength of Hamid Mir and that is why he is popular in Pakistani masses.Mind it that Kamran Khan appears on Geo News five times a week,Sana Bucha also appears five times a week and Hamid Mir appears four days a week but he is number one.