Tidbits of the region’s media

Pakistan's health secretary, Khushnood Lashari, made an astounding proclamation recently: no one was allowed to conduct medical relief operations in flood-hit Jacobabad (in Sindh), because – wait for it! – the Shahbaz Airbase in the area has been leased to the US for launching drones. The drama, however, didn't end there. More mud was slung all over, political vendettas and feudal rivalries were aired, and a former prime minister and known establishment lackey, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, jumped into the fray. As astounding as the entire episode was, there followed an almost complete media blackout on the subject within Pakistan.

The airbase has reportedly been used by the US since before 2001. And while the current government can certainly be blamed for not doing anything about it, it can safely be assumed that the base was leased not by 'bloody civilians', but during the tenure of some army-wallah. Chhetria Patrakar is forced to wonder, then, whether the media blackout is a case of overzealous self-censorship, or if pressure was applied from the real powers-that-be in Pakistan – the wallahs referred to previously. The US embassy in Islamabad, meanwhile, scrambled to 'clarify' its position, referring to the 'allegations' as false and laying the blame firmly at the doorstep of the Pakistan Air Force. Either way, CP calls out shenanigans. Also, why waste drones, when you can simply cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in one go by denying them their 'inalienable' right to emergency medical relief? Eh?