Media Framing of the ‘War on Terror’: The Case of Urdu-Language Elite Press During the Dictatorial Regime in Pakistan

This research is focused on press-government relationship on the issue of ‘War on Terrorism’ (WoT) during the dictatorial regime led by the then military ruler General Pervez Musharraf who remained in power till 2008 in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Global war against terrorism, generally known as ‘war on terror’ was actually started by the United States of America in the aftermath of 9/11 episode in 2001. Pakistan, on US demand, had not only become an important ally of the grand alliance formed under the umbrella of the United States but had also adopted the role of a frontline state just to fight the war against terrorism (WoT) alongside the war allies. Generally mass media have the potential to influence public opinion and help reshape the states’ policies on different issues. Likewise, mass media of Pakistan also took an active part in the war either by going alongside the then dictatorial government or against it. This research is based on examining the way the Urdu language elite press, the most popular mass media of Pakistan, covered the dictatorial regime of President General Pervez Musharraf with regard to its policy on the issue of ‘WoT’. Main purpose of this study is to know the nature of relationship between the Urdu-language elite press and the dictatorial government of Gen Musharraf in Pakistan with regard to their policy positions on ‘WoT’ from 2001 to 2008. Three newspapers including daily Jang, daily Nawa-I-Waqt, and daily Pakistan, considered to be representatives of the Urdu-language elite press of Pakistan, were selected for this study. The method used to measure the phenomenon is called framing where contents of the selected dailies were measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. Data were collected through systematic sampling method, while coding sheet was used as a tool for data collection. Unsigned main editorials of the selected newspapers were analyzed to examine the nature of relationship existed between the two entities i.e. The Urdu-language elite press, and the dictatorial government of Gen Pervez Musharraf, on the issue of ‘WoT’ in Pakistan. The results revealed that the selected elite newspapers, in general, remained critical to the dictatorial regime on the issue of ‘WoT’. The findings also revealed that daily Nawa-I-Waqt remained highly critical to the government as compared to its other contemporaries i.e. Daily Jang, and daily Pakistan. It was also revealed that the Urdu-language elite press while framing the ‘War on Terror’ remained somewhat supportive and rarely neutral to the dictatorial regime on it policy on ‘WoT’.

The Potential for Breeding Upland Cotton under Limited Water Conditions

The primary objective of the present work described in this manuscript was to develop some understanding of improving water stress tolerance in upland cotton through selection and breeding. Root is an important plant organ related to drought stress and significant achievements have been obtained, using rooting technique, for other stresses e.g. salinity. To achieve the objective, 80 cotton accessions were screened out measuring four morphological plant characters including root length, and one physiological parameter i.e. cell membrane injury. Water stress imposed for 45 days significantly reduced shoot length, root length, shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight of 80 cotton accessions, and these accessions differed to a great extent from each other, and sensitivity varied from very tolerant to very sensitive. Some of the accessions like B-557 and DPL-26 showed small leakage of ions due to stress, and were revealed as moisture stress tolerant accessions. Cell membrane injury showed a positive relationship with moisture stress tolerance. The injury was less in tolerant accessions, thus it proved to be a reliable indicator of water status. Indices of stress tolerance showed a wide range of variability based upon parameters measured. The genetic basis of variation in moisture stress tolerance was investigated using the diallel technique. Both additive and dominance properties of genes appeared to control variation at low and high moisture stress, but genes acting cumulatively were more associated with the stress phenomenon. Due to the additive gene effects, estimates of narrow sense heritabilities for water stress tolerance were greater, showing that rapid improvement in the character may be made through single plant selection from F2 segregating population, based upon final productivity of seed cotton yield. Physiological mechanisms like cell membrane injury, relative water content and excised leaf water loss are also conditioned by polygenes, and thus may be improved through selection. The overall conclusion of this work is that cotton varies for moisture stress tolerance, and this tolerance has a reasonably good additive component, and further breeding work would be valuable for developing upland cotton cultivars suitable for moisture deficit area.