Politics - Written by Farhan on Monday, September 29, 2008 22:52 - 20 Comments

Pakistani Bloggers have Risked the Exposure of Blogging

I am very disappointed while I am writing this post. Unfortunately, Pakistani blogosphere has become a party to the propaganda made against President Zardari. Just few days ago, if was being propagated everywhere on the emails and blogs that Zardari has misspelled while writing his comments in the visitors’ book at Mazar-e-Quaid. The bad thing is that bloggers gave extensive coverage to this anti-Zardari campaign without really verifying the facts. Here is what the fake comment reads:

“May gaad give us the strunt to save Pakistan”

I was reading an article is Daily Khabrain a couple of days ago, there I saw this anti-Zardari campaign was proved wrong there. I thought to wait and to collect some other references to know what really is the truth. And in yesterday’s Daily Jang, Nazeer Naji also verified that this campaign is nothing but a propaganda.

Nawai Waqt’s The Nation also vowed to verify the fact and here is what they write about this campaign:

Some hidden hands have sent an email to different journalists, newspapers and electronic organisations claiming that the President had misspelled the words God and strength.
However, a verification of this matter by TheNation revealed that the campaign was a venomous propaganda against President Zardari that was aimed at tarnishing his image in the eyes of the masses.
The upshot of President’s comments in the visitors’ book during his visit to Mazar-e-Quaid made it clear that Asif Zardari had impeccably written “May God give us strength to save Pakistan” instead of “May Gaad give us strut to save Pakistan” that was being propagated by the hidden hands through the email.

Here is another link, where they have disproved the anti-Zardari campaign.

When I first saw the scanned image of comment, where it is misspelled, it didn’t make sense to me. I mean the spellings of God and Strength are not all that difficult. Even a school going child can tell it and we know that Zardari has studied in an English Medium School. So I thought to wait and verify it. And for God sake, don’t think I am pro-Zardari.

I think we should understand that blogging gives us the platform to raise our voices and promote citizen journalism, but it on the other hand pauses a responsibility also. The responsibility of truth, and the day I entered the race of bloggers, I made a commitment that I wont alter the news and try my best to keep up with the true stories without involving my personal biases. I understand that the blogging means to express your views and opinions, but you have to be a little more careful and responsible if you really want to save the exposure of this blogging world. I see a great potential in our bloggers and blogosphere.

As Our beloved Prophet Muhammad PBUH also said in a hadith:

“Do not propagate things without verifying them”

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20 Comments

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Kashif
Sep 30, 2008 0:09

Agreed. We have this collective responsibility of verifying the source and credit where due. Most of us, in our excitement to break news, publish chain letters and spam emails without authentication or secondary check.

It is also important to accept mistake because as humans, we all err, one time or other.

Nice Post.

Duffer
Sep 30, 2008 0:32

you are very right. bloggers have really tried to undress zardari. and thank you very much for letting many ppl knowing truth including me. Thanks :)
but i think about zardari people liked this propeganda :D

admin
Sep 30, 2008 1:37

@kashif

Agreed and thanks

admin
Sep 30, 2008 1:38

@Duffer

np :) And thanks for joining Bloggers Movement! I have added you there

Teeth Maestro
Sep 30, 2008 2:21

Guppu - I could agree with the fact there ‘could’ be a ‘malicious’ campaign out to get him - but looking at the document - I am puzzled as to how you came to the conclusion that it was FAKE?

Are you being led to believe in the ‘official statement’ to say that the ‘media’ misled the nation simply based on the work of a ’secret hand’ LOL - thats an old one

I would have believed it but the image attached bears the most blatant evidence - IT CARRIES HIS SIGNATURE - !!! now how do we prove whats is wrong - are we now being told to believe that this is a fabricated signature maybe its the same signature he blatantly denied after the Murree declaration - GOSH -

His word of promise cant be trusted, now we can’t even trust his signature - bankers be aware ;) [even the swiss courts ROTFL]

Id like more convincing evidence before I jump the boat to say it was simply a spoof campaign - BUT I stand with you - if there is evidence to prove that this is fake then Ill be the first to accept it.

But to be honest with you this was honest poking fun [at least on my part] heck people like us in the digital age have forgotten how to write / and specially write without the help of a spell checker. So misspelling is quite common - for me it was just a ragging attempt at our President - whom I still have to digest & learn to accept

admin
Sep 30, 2008 2:48

@Teeth Maestro

Sir Only his signature led you to believe that he actually misspelled. Well I have been related to the graphic designing field for more then past 4 to 5 years ;) So having this much experience in illustration based designing, I KNOW altering messages, copying signature is possible :D

and No Sir! I didn’t come to the conclusion by just keeping the official statement in view.

I rather came to the conclusion after analyzing the reports from various independent sources.

Like: you know Nazeer Naji? He is well experienced and considered to be a neutral analysts, and he mostly writes against Zardari, he also verifies that Zardari had spelled correctly (Ref: Daily Jang, Sep 28, Page 9)

And in the Daily Khabrain, the name of analyst I have forgotten. sorry

And the above reference from TheNation. They claim they carried the verification process themselves and also concluded that Zardari didn’t make the spell mistake.

I wrote this post after keeping in view not less then 5 independent sources. And believing in probability theory, ofcourse chances are still there that may be all the sources are telling lie :P

admin
Sep 30, 2008 2:50

@Teeth Maestro

And Sir I am not Guppu, my blog is. :P LOL

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Sep 30, 2008 2:57

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Teeth Maestro
Sep 30, 2008 3:32

Guppu ;) LOL -

Well the evidence being portrayed to refute the malicious rumors are only ill analyze The Nation link you share

“Some hidden hands have sent an email to different journalists, newspapers and electronic organizations claiming that the President had misspelled the words God and strength.” — OK lets assume the hidden hands are there to get him out

“The upshot of President’s comments in the visitors’ book during his visit to Mazar-e-Quaid made it clear that Asif Zardari had impeccably written “May God give us strength to save Pakistan” instead of “May Gaad give us strut to save Pakistan” that was being propagated by the hidden hands through the email.” — They have not shared the new picture, at least I have not seen it. did they publish it in the print addition paper?

“The propaganda was launched at a time when the President had gone to the United States on an official visit and during his absence nobody bothered to counter the venomous campaign and tried to present the truth before the media and the people.” — well he signed the guest book on the 11th but left for US a few days later - I ranted on A to Z on 12th Sept but mind you this was not on the ‘misspelling fiasco’ but instead at another twist http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2008/09/12/president-god-save-pakistan

“Arif said that he was accompanying President Asif Ali Zardari during his visit of the mausoleum and witnessed him express his views by writing in the visitors’ book: “God may give us strength to save Pakistan”. The Nation reporter claims to have visited and seen the book” — Id love to see a picture evidence - and to make it authentic that its not been drafted ‘after’ 11th Sept - I hope that other official dignitaries have signed after his Comment

So im now suspicious just as you. But to refute a claim you must have good evidence - I do not allege that this journalist is a liar but id love to see a picture evidence to support his claim and not just a comment - this is the same line of action taken by the intial sources who claimed the story in the first place, but they did follow it up with a picture - doctored or not - is not for me to decide.

admin
Sep 30, 2008 6:07

@Teeth Maestro

Yes I wish they would have published a photo.

BTW, I found another link that is from DailyTimes:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C09%5C27%5Cstory_27-9-2008_pg3_1

Duffer
Sep 30, 2008 11:38

why dont yuo plz enable urdu support for your pages?
pleeeeeeeeease

admin
Sep 30, 2008 12:52

@Duffer

You mean enabling writing comments in Urdu? How exactly to do that?

jalalpuri
Sep 30, 2008 16:40

I agree your opimion about propaganda against Zardari.but this is reality that Mr.Zardari’s attitude about country and ppp is place a question mark.
First he says Q League is Qatil League but now he meets pervaiz elahi in america to step down the Punjab Govt.On one side he says he want to improve standard of people of Pakistan and the other side he raised all basic things price.Patrol is coomonly used for rich people and Diesel is used for the necessities of poor people.Govt high price for diesel and low for patrol.what is this .
Firstly I think mr Zardari may be changed but now i realize that mr Zardari is same at all,Mr.10% and now may be a 100%.

Silence
Oct 1, 2008 7:33

@Gappu:

The article in question on ‘Teeth” was posted by me, it’s not Awab’s fault. The same image was already being circulated in mail and on several blogs and electronic forums. The article itself (on my blog or Teeth) is not intended to humiliate Mr. Zardari, rather it is a humor and directed at majority of Pakistani leadership to prefer our National or regional language any international forums.

It is clearly stated in the post that Mr. Zardari is not supposed to be and in no case be expected to be master in English, as it’s not our first language. Apart from that, there is a valid question which was asked in article under question; “What stops our national leaders to express their view in national or local languages?”

I would take the blame for posting the image, which I am not certain is genuine or not, but its clearly explained in post itself that our national leaders must not be judged on basis of their English language skills. Said that, what makes that article questionable?

I agree with you that an campaign is going on against Mr. Zardari by some hidden hand, this image might be work of these people. It was my blog which pointed out that fact in defense of Mr. Zardari but does that means that he is above from genuine criticism? I had posted on ‘Teeth’, strongly condemning some of “Teeth’s” articles on Zardari and he published my posts against himself……this is all, what blogging is.

Unfortunately some of his media advisors are telling him that everything is part of media campaign against government (to an extent is true), but funny English of Prime Minister, stupid remarks of Mr. President made during meeting with Ms. Palin and his refusal to honor ‘Murree Accord” are genuine issues.

Once again, I would advise you to read the article with little more care and you will be surprised that post on ‘Teeth’ and on my blog were an honest fun and actually defend Mr. Zardari from being questioned for his language skills.

Best regards

islamabadobserver

admin
Oct 1, 2008 21:15

@Silence

Hey hey hey! Nowhere I said I am questioning Teeth blog or You. And it is fine if you did it for the sake of humor. :)

The unfortunate thing is that bloggers have been a party to this campaign. I saw that image with irresponsible comments on many blogs including Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi Metblogs. And those were not for humor ofcourse. Thats it. So just chill :)

By the way, My website name isn’t Gappu, It’s “Guppu” , another spelling controversy :P LOL

Teeth Maestro
Oct 2, 2008 2:01

@Farhan and Silence - I think this controversy amongst bloggers is good - it somehow brings us back to ‘the ground’ [at least me] to not be above the law - I dont think I am, but sometimes I must admit I can get carried away - so a reality check is definitely needed and Farhan here did a good job - but I must secretly challenge his sources [relying on a much-to-be-desired report by The Nation] but im not arguing that here.

But Silence’s post about the typo was ‘in the fun’ and I think many took it that, and come did not [you cant win 'em all] - what also makes me laugh is that the govt chose to negate a trivial story as such.

No hard feelings either way - @silence I must agree with you that it takes a ‘heart’ to hear criticism, but I feel Zardari needs to grow out of his cocoon and start fixing stuff or else these ranting jokes will get into a frenzy which he will not be able to control

admin
Oct 2, 2008 2:13

@Teeth Maestro - Well Said Sir jee :)

Arsalan
Oct 4, 2008 3:40

Teeth Maestro belongs to PTI so what do you expect from people of PTI? Only lies deceptions like Imran Khan gave to Sita White and still little Tyrian waiting for her Father.

The story was started by Teeth Maestro on his Blog and i suspect HE is the one who actually tempered the real views of Zardari from fake ones.

All this should be investigated and who ever is responsible must e taken to task.

Teeth Maestro
Oct 10, 2008 15:08

@Arsalan - well it seems you are about to eat your words lol - the controversy was indeed true and Zardari thugs actually tampered with the pages and then tried to make it all a finger pointing session - and a few top name newspapers joined in the official govt statement and that included Najam Sethi of Daily Times and the reporter from The Nation etc etc

For your delight I share with you two links that shed light on the matter - you decide who you want to believe.

Cowasjee - http://dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20080510.htm
Ahmed Qureshi - http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=480

Let me do a celebratory dance while you digest the information

ROTFL

Shweet

Farhan
Oct 10, 2008 15:18

@Arslan

Even if Teeth Maestro supports PTI, I would say it isn’t a crime to favor a particular political party. Is it?

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