By Japan K Pathak, Ahmedabad, 20 December 2013

Mr. Sarmad Ali(in black coat in photo above in Ahmedabad), Managing Director of Paksitan’s largest media group (Jang Group) and Chairman of Geo TV was on Gujarat visit on Friday. Jang group owns 10 newspapers, 6 TV channels, radio channels, internet websites, music company, book publishing business and more. The group is just focused at media, and unlike other media houses it has not stepped into real estate, textile etc. In a select interaction held at Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mr Ali candidly interacted about range of issues pertaining to India-Pakistan relations and media in Pakistan. Following are glimpses of insightful interaction with Mr. Ali.

-If you get the visa to visit America, you can visit New York or Washington or Chicago, any city of your choice. But in the case of Indians visiting Pakistan or Pakistanis visiting India, the visas are issued on city specific basis! Such city specific visa regime is only between India and Pakistan. So if a Pakistani citizen gets visa to visit Delhi, he can’t move to Noida or even Gurgaon which is almost a part of Delhi now. Or if you get visa to visit Islamabad in Pakistan, you can’t drive 10 km distance to visit Ravalpindi. The governments need to rethink such rules because in the era of Google, the world has become smaller.

-I can go with my mobile phone anywhere in the world and enjoy roaming, but I can’t enjoy roaming in India. I have to buy Indian sim card during my visit to India to stay connected. Similarly if you are an Indian visiting Pakistan, your mobile phone will cease to work beyond Atari border. This is 21st century, not 1960s come on!

-Official trade between two nations is negligible, but unofficial trade via Dubai is thriving. Take this example. There’s Khanna paper mills in Amritsar, just 47 km away from our printing press in Lahore, but we can’t order newsprint from Amritsar. Instead we have to import them from Europe spending huge bucks. Duty on Pakistani fabrics is 40% while for other ASEAN nations it is just 5%. There are lots of bilateral trade issues. India has given ‘most favoured nation’ status to Pakistan, but Pakistan continues to rule out ‘most favoured nation’ status to India.

-Indian news channels are not allowed in Pakistan, but other types of channels run very well there. Dish TV and Tata Sky are in Pakistan too, and as per the figures available from regulatory authority, one lakh houses have Tata Sky and Dish TV connections there.But unfortunately Pakistani channels are not allowed in India. While it is understandable that there could be issues with airing of news channels, but atleast Pakistani entertainment channels should be allowed in India.

-Contrary to subsidized newspapers regime in India, Pakistani newspapers are costlier to buy. Average English newspaper is available for Rs. 20 during weekdays and for Rs. 25 on week-ends. Average Urdu newspaper is available for Rs. 12 on weekdays and for Rs. 18 in the week-ends.

-Media in both nations should treat the issues like arrests of fishermen and guarding of Siachen, with human approach rather than adopting nationalist or jingoistic approaches. While Pakistani media takes up the issue of arrests of fishermen aggressively, the India counterparts are not as attentive to this issue. Both nations are spending crore of rupees daily for guarding Siachen which is not even a piece of land but merely a glacier. Our jawans are traumatized there unnecessarily. Then there’s also an environment issue involved in connection with human heat. Such madness should end.

-There’s an Islamofobia in the world. My name was matching to a name of some Iraqi journalist. Just for this reason I was not getting visa. I had to approach a friend in embassy to finally get visa.

-As per the prevalent rules, Pakistani entertainment channels can show only 10% foreign content. Out of it, Indian content is allowed to occupy only upto 6%. Foreign content from other nations like for an example Turkey can occupy full 10% permitted time.

-Gujarat visit is special for me because my grand father had stayed in this city in 1930s for some time. Then India and Pakistan’s two foremost leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah were Gujarati.Another thing – Pakistan has six to seven Gujarati language newspapers even today.

-I visit India since 1992 almost every year. Most of the people in India have fix set of perceptions for Pakistan. Same is there in Pakistan. Media can bring positivity and change such perceptions. Media has major role to play. Actually when you visit the other country, your perceptions change, but lot of people who don’t visit the other country, lack knowledge about real picture. Media has major role to play in this direction.

-Neighbors are neighbors, we can’t put India or Pakistan to any other place in the world. We should have a spirit of love without any negativity. Around 60% population that is below 35, has no baggage of history to carry on their back.

-Both major newspapers of Pakistan- Dawn and Jang took birth in Delhi in India. Pakistan has 7 major newspapers. 85% readership is Urdu, 6% English, 8% other language like Pashto, Sindhi, Gujarati etc. Newspaper industry is growing in tire two-three cities. National players have presence only in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.