مولانا شاہ شرف عالم ندوی
۳؍ جون کو مولانا سید علی احمد شاہ شرف عالم ندوی نے داعی اجل کو لبیک کہا وہ خائقاہ پیردمڑیا خلیفہ باغ بھاگل پور کے سجادہ نشین تھے، ۸؍ مارچ ۱۹۲۶ء کو اپنے نانہال لکھنو میں پیدا ہوئے، آبائی وطن بھاگل پور میں ابتدائی تعلیم حاصل کی اور قرآن مجید حفظ کیا، درالعلوم ندوۃالعلما لکھنو سے علوم عربیہ کی تحصیل کی، اس کی مجلس انتظامیہ کے رکن تھے، میری ان کی ملاقات یہیں ہوتی تھی، ان کے ساتھ ایک جم غفیر ہوتا تھا، وہ دارالمصنفین کے قدرداں اور معارف کے خریدار تھے، قرآن مجید اچھا پڑھتے تھے، خانقاہ کی مسجد میں امامت اور رمضان میں قرآن سناتے تھے، مریدین کی اصلاح و تربیت پر پوری توجہ دیتے، طبیعت میں اعتدال تھا، ہر شخص سے بشاشت سے ملتے تھے، اﷲ تعالیٰ غریق رحمت کرے اور پس ماندگان کو صبر جمیل عطا کرے، آمین۔ (ضیاء الدین اصلاحی۔ جولائی ۲۰۰۵ء)
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’.
Current study investigates the pragmatic and linguistic devices used in CNN headlines on the subjects of crises and political unrest in Pakistan. The study argues that in addition to the news coverage headlines also have pragmatically encoded meanings. The research is quite significant as the representation of Pakistan in the cyber media headlines has not yet been studied. Moreover, the selected period ranging from January 2010 to May 2011 covers a series of important events including political turmoil, terrorist activities, flood disaster, religious controversies, death of Osama Bin Laden and estranged diplomatic ties with the United States of America. All these events were subject to constant media debate, especially on CNN, a news channel available to two billion people worldwide. Quantitative as well as qualitative descriptive methods were applied to analyze and discuss the news headlines. The results indicate that Osama Bin Laden, militancy in Pakistan and US Pak diplomatic ties were commonly found topics in the headlines. The results also indicate that the representatives are the most frequently found illocutionary acts in the data as compared with the expressives, directives and commissives. The study finds that the headlines have variety of other illocutionary functions closely related to these acts. The study also finds that the linguistic devices not only help the headlines to function as speech acts but also help the headline writers to shape the news events in multiple ways. It has been identified that using these devices a number of features such as urgency and topicality, emphasis, emotional sense, metaphorical meanings, idiomatic connotations and irony have been incorporated in the headlines