Warid announces its Tijarat portal/service which allows people of the same interest to sell/buy online different products or services like property, cars, bikes, mobile phones, join book clubs or even buy tickets for concerts or live events. Warid Tijarat allows warid users to buy/sell at the ease of the palm of there hands using services SMS, Web or WAP at http://waridtijarat.waridtel.com/.

Subscription package and charges details:

Registering is fairly simple, users can subscribe to package of their choice by sending “SUB” in an SMS.

To register to Basic Package SMS “SUB” to 8225, for Premium Package SMS “SUB” to 8226, for Business Package SMS “SUB” to 8227.

Once you have subscribed, you can set your location by sending “C<space>CITYNAME” to 8229 e.g., “C LAHORE”.

Jazz introduces Apna Background Music service which allows you to set-up a background music or effect of your own choice to play in the background during your calls. You can have different background music for different friends or family. Once you have the service activated you can easily make a background music call by dialing 22 followed by the callers numbers e.g. 2203xx1234567.

How-to Manage?

You can activate the service on your Jazz number by sending SUB to 5200. To unsubscribe you can sms UNSUB to 5200. To manage your Apna Background Music service account you can dial 5200 from your Jazz number.

Service Charges: A charge of  Rs. 3.75 +tax would be charged for the weekly subscription. Any calls made to 5200 will be charged at Rs. 2 +tax per minute & any sms sent to 5200 would be charged at Rs. 3.99 +tax per SMS. All calls dialed with the prefix 22 will be charged at Rs. 2+tax per minute.

Earlier last week, Ufone also launched a similar kind of service called MyTunes.

Charges for the Ufone service are:
Daily subscription charges are Rs. 1.20
Content download charges are Rs 5.98
Call to 666 will be charged at Rs. 2.99 per minute

 Summary of media consumer activism in Pakistan from Citizens for Free and Responsible Media, Pakistan, Saturday February 4, 2012:

We are a group of activists, academics, lawyers and journalists, citizens from all walks of life — essentially media consumers serving as an independent platform to voice public concern and through people powered reform, ensure that freedom and responsibility prevails in the media in Pakistan.

We, as concerned media consumers, came together united in our outrage against a morning show broadcast on Jan 17, 2012, links to which began circulating on facebook on Jan 20, 2012. In the next few days our online petition received over 5,000 signatories. In addition, we emailed a copy of the petition text to Samaa TV chairperson, Zafar Siddiqi with cc’s to several signatories (Annexure 1). We attempted to call and text message him en-masse in order to draw his attention too. He replied promptly, expressing his concern and regrets and promising that the channel would apologise (Annexure 2).

The following morning, Samaa TV broadcast an unconditional apology on behalf of the channel. However, the host Maya Khan’s words did not constitute a proper apology or acknowledgement of her transgressions.

We again emailed Mr Siddiqi, thanking him for Samaa TV’s apology and requesting an unqualified apology from the host (Annexure 3). He replied shortly afterwards, assuring us that guidelines had been put in place to prevent such transgressions from being repeated. He also said that since the host Maya Khan had refused to apologise unconditionally, her services and her show were being terminated (Annexure 4).

Many people also sent sms messages to Mr Siddiqi’s cell phone and called the Samaa TV offices, in addition to complaining at Pemra’s online feedback form. According to Pemra officials, they received some 400 complaints about that particular show. In addition, there was a threat of legal action against Samaa TV and contact was also initiated with corporations to withdraw commercials from such shows (both actions were stopped after Mr Siddiqi’s second email responding positively to media consumers’ complaints, but both remain real possibilities for future campaigns).

The degree of participation shown and encouragement by media consumers led us to come together under the umbrella of ‘Citizens for Free and Responsible Media (CFRM), Pakistan‘. We function as a non-hierarchal platform with decisions taken by consensus among the core group members, with inputs from media consumers who can now join us on our facebook page. People can also point out media transgressions and give their inputs here, to do their bit to “reduce the social cost of silence”.

The non-government organizations Network for Consumer Protection, Intermedia Pakistan (both headed by senior, respected journalists), and Bytes for All support our cause and had begun work on a legal petition against Samaa TV. Following the successful outcome of our social media campaign to force Samaa TV management to address concerns around the concerned morning show, they announced on Jan 29, 2012, that they would “withhold their planned legal challenge in the Supreme Court on privacy rights around this case, since one of the desired outcomes has already been achieved.” They stated that, “as now ourselves part of the Citizens For Free and Responsible Media, be available to lend any support required in realizing the objectives of this Forum.”

So far we have adopted a multi-pronged approach: online activism, as well as direct communication with the channel or person concerned, as well as lobbying through other channels. The possibility of legal action is not ruled out, nor is the possibility of approaching corporations to ask them to re-consider advertising in shows that violate basic ethics and human dignity.

A recent case we took up involves a reality show, Thori Si Bewafai on A-Plus TV. Within hours of our having started another petition the host of the show announced that he has quit the show, that the show was based on re-enactments and that the channel had not given this disclosure as they were ethically bound to do, and as per their agreement with him. (Annexure 6) (The channel subsequently removed the offending shows from its Youtube website and also the description posted earlier on its website copy pasted here verbatim before it was removed: “It’s hidden cameras reality television series that documents people who are suspected of committing betrayal /cheating on their partners on any term unfaithful to their close relative. Investigation by the headed by the team which carry out the task of spying on the suspected individual through different means and capturing all the evidence on the camera is the primary goal later on all the footages / investigation reports disclosed to grieved party / Complainant in front of camera. At the end of the show investigation team lead the complainant to the location where he/she will catch the subject red handed”).

CFRM’s goal is not to get channels banned or to get TV hosts or journalists fired, but to encourage channels to evolve their own set of guidelines and code of ethics in conjunction with senior producers, journalists and concerned citizens, to ensure that privacy and human dignity are not violated. We urge them to make these guidelines public.

We also urge them to incorporate a channel for media consumers to approach in case of complaint or redress, and appoint internal ombudsmen for this purpose.

We also urge the industry to revise the current ratings system, and align the ‘quality of content’ with the ‘quantity of viewership.’

Citizens for Free and Responsible Media (CFRM), Pakistan

http://www.facebook.com/C4FRM

c4frmpk@gmail.com

(Click here and scroll down to access Annexures mentioned in this post)

Slacktivists! Gah!

Ah, Slacktivists.

You know who I’m talking about. The Facebook users who ‘like’ every page calling for “Da Peaze in da Pakistan” and “We da true Pakis” and then blog angrily about how angry they are whilst tweeting under a pseudonym name like “Pakiz4Ever”. If I get another, “If you want peace and love in #Pakistan, RT this,” I will go Hulk on someone.

This phenomenon has risen as social media platforms have become increasingly more popular. The Express Tribune recently revealed some interesting statistics related to Pakistan and its presence on Facebook. According to the news outlet, over 6 million Pakistanis now use Facebook, making us #26 out of 213 countries that use the platform in the world. Given that internet penetration is just over 10%, Facebook usage is still relatively small (only 32.86% of the total online population), but the demographics are still significant (18-24 years, English-speaking, educated, “liberal”). Meanwhile, the use of Twitter has also increased significantly, though those numbers are harder to come by (one source noted it was over two million).

While I sometimes look upon Slacktivists with disdain & dripping snark (especially for those who do little more than ‘Like’ a page and feel like they are changing the world), there have been two recent cases for how social media activism can make a dent.

The Maya Khan Episode. Social Media: 1 | Vigil-Aunties: 0

For those of you living under a rock, blissfully unaware of Samaa Television‘s Maya Khan and the subsequent uproar, here is the breakdown. On Monday, Samaa TV fired newscaster Khan “after she led a self-styled moral crusade against dating couples that set off a furious public outcry,” reported the NY Times. These “vigil-aunties” (So p-unny! Ha! Ha!) essentially paraded around a park in Karachi, to ‘expose’ young unmarried couples on camera, even demanding to see a marriage certificate. After the show was broadcast on January 17th, “members of the liberal elite vented their fury on social websites at what they said was intrusion. Pakistan’s English-language media also took up the cause,” reported BBC News‘ Nosheen Abbas. Despite (two) public apologies by Maya Khan, the network dismissed her and her team and terminated the show. CNBC Pakistan (which owns Samaa) head Zafar Siddiqi said the company didn’t “absolve such behavior irrespective of ratings the show was getting.”

The Thori Si Bewafai Episode. Social Media: 1 | A Plus: 0

I first learned about the Thori Si Bewafai (A Little Unfaithfulness) show from Rabayl’s blog Obama Says Do More, in which she wrote about a reality television show on A Plus, a small entertainment channel, which claimed to use hidden cameras to intrude into real people’s personal lives and expose their alleged infidelities. Hosted by Shamoon Abbasi, the show is reminiscent of the ridiculously trashy American reality show, Cheaters. According to an online petition written by the newly created Citizens for Free & Responsible Media (CFRM),

The host of the show Shamoon Abbasi recently announced on his facebook page, that ‘Thori si bewafai’ is actually reenactments and involves paid actors. If in fact, Shamoon Abbassi’s statements are true, then the synopsis on your website and the programme itself, is a clear misrepresentation of the real nature of the show. But even if the programme is based on reenactments, the content of the show is dangerous; it encourages vigilantism and can lead to hate crimes.

Following the online petition and pressure, Abbasi quit the show, stating in a Facebook note, “I would like to clarify one last thing that myself was not comfortable doing this show in the first place and I AM QUITTING IT FOR THE SAKE OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE OFFENDED BY THE SHOW!! I apologize to any one who I may have offended.”

The show is now off the air. Another win for social media activism?

Yay and…ye-ay. While both the Maya Khan and the Thora si Bewafai debacles were examples of how social media can be used to pressure mainstream media outlets, it is more a means to an end than an end itself. Journalist Beena Sarwar noted that this campaign incorporated a multi-pronged strategy in which social media wasn’t the only tool used to put pressure on these outlets. According to Beena,

Zafar Siddiqi from CNBC Pakistan responded promptly and positively to an email endorsed by several signatories that included some known names. His response may also have been due to other actions that were being taken: a copy of the petition signed by over 5,000 people was sent to him. Many people also sms’d him and called the Samaa offices at numbers publicised by some activists, who also posted links to the Pemra feedback form that people used to post complaints to. The Chairman Pemra said in an interview that Pemra had received over 350 complaints about that particular show. In addition, there was a threat of legal action against Samaa TV and several activists had begun contacting corporations to lobby them to withdraw commercials from such shows (both actions were stopped after Mr Siddiqi’s second email responding positively to media consumers’ complaints, but both remain real possibilities for future campaigns).

Firings and getting shows that encourage intolerance and vigilantism off-air are a short-term fix, but they ultimately don’t solve the greater issue – the need for independent checks and balances on the media. While Pakistan’s electronic media boom has been an important phenomenon, there also needs to be measures to curb that rein, so that it remains (relatively) responsible. Sahar Habib Ghazi wrote recently for Dawn, “My appeal is that we cannot lose steam with the [Maya Khan] parks episode. We have to continue to build pressure for all news channels to realize that they cannot afford to sacrifice ethical standards for ratings and money.”

For those of us who crowed that Maya Khan was a victory for social media, remember that pressure via platforms may help achieve one-off victories, but they do not cut to the root of the problem. Social media activism, while a tool, can’t achieve that end – it’s too simplistic, too microscopic. As long as you are aware of that limitation, then we’re cool. But if you ask me to RT for Peace, I’ll go Hulk.

Filed under: Op-Eds

Warid introduces an exciting new service, Warid Tijarat, which provides its customers with an easy to use Trading interface.

This Tijarat service is similar to Zong’s Zmart Mobile Marketplace and both are powered by MMatcher.

Now subscribers can engage in the buying and selling of goods and services simply through their Mobile Phones.

Warid Tijarat helps to bridge the gap between people with similar interests by allowing you to trade your goods and services with someone in the same city.

You can sell property, cars, and houses, buy mobile phones and other electronics, promote your own services and businesses, find jobs and join book clubs and even buy tickets for local events and concerts!

Anything and everything under the sky that might interest you can be accessed through a single SMS.
Register and begin posting what you want to sell or buy and Warid Tijarat will do the rest!

The Service is available on SMS, Web and Wap platforms.

• To access Web or Wap Platform go to http://waridtijarat.waridtel.com
• Terms of Use are available at http://waridtijarat.waridtel.com

Subscription Package and Charges Details:

* Basic Package – The Basic Package is a weekly subscription based package with charges of Rs. 10+tax. Users will be allowed to sell up to 3 goods and services at one time, while they can buy unlimited goods and services, depending on their choice.

** Premium Package – The Premium Package is a monthly subscription based package with charges of Rs. 20+tax. Users will be allowed to sell up to 10 goods and services at one time, while they can buy unlimited goods and services, depending on their choice.

*** Business Package – The Business Package is a monthly subscription based package with charges of Rs. 60+tax. To cater to Businesses and Retailers especially, users will be allowed to buy and sell UNLIMITED amounts of goods and services, depending on their choice.

Standard GPRS charges apply for Wap Platform.

How To ?

Simply register to your package of choice by sending “SUB” in an SMS:

Example:

Registering to Basic Package:

• SMS “SUB” to 8225

Registering to Premium Package:

• SMS “SUB” to 8226

Registering to Business Package:

• SMS “SUB” to 8227

Once you have subscribed, you can set your location by sending “CCITY NAME” to 8229 e.g., “C ISLAMABAD”


Now you can start posting your interests by sending “SELLINTEREST” or “BUYINTEREST” to 8229, e.g., “SELL Mobile Phone” or “BUY Honda Car”

Your job is done! Warid Tijarat will help you find people with similar interests and assist in trading your goods and services.


The live Tijarat powered by MMatcher can be accessed at http://waridtijarat.waridtel.com

With Warid Tijarat, Warid Telecom moves into the arena of Mobile Commerce which has internationally reached to the level where mobile phones have become wallets whereby customers can store money, cards and tickets and even pay bills by simply waving their mobile phones at cash counters!

Warid Tijarat provides an interface for users to bridge the gap between people with similar interests, otherwise unable to engage in trade. This real time trading service allows users in the same locality who otherwise would not have know their similarity of interests, to trade their goods and services, simply by posting their interests via SMS.

By making use of Warid Tijarat, members of the same locality can sell property, cars, and houses, buy mobile phones and other electronics, promote their own services and businesses, find jobs and join book clubs and even buy tickets for local events and concerts! Anything and everything that might interest them can be accessed through a click of their mobile phones.

© Pakistan Live News

When the term “group messaging” is used, the image which flashes in my mind is the time when we had devices which were nothing else than phones, when we used to make groups in lots of 10, as this was the limit per group in most of the 3xxx Nokia phones. Then came the 40 Series with the luxury of making larger groups and this perfectly coincided with a significant plunge in SMS prices. Then we got smart phones with endless possibilities and the cost of text messaging became negligible, here we forgot the original idea behind group messaging i-e. engaging with a lot of friends together, instead we resorted to forwarded messages and lame jokes.
Then came Chopaal, a brain child of Dr. Umar Saif. Chopaal aimed to change everything we did wrong about group messaging and guided us towards interactive group based discussions again. Another service which I used in those days was Mobi2weet; it was as popular as Chopaal as it brought the power of twitter without any additional charges. Both services faded away without giving their users any intimation of why they were being discontinued and whether these will be reincarnated again.

It is worth mentioning here that the idea was conceived during the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Kashmir. Means of communication were insufficient and resources scarce, hence there was an imposing need to coordinate relief activities to make them effective. Dr. Saif created a rescue group and used it to broadcast messages to all the rescue workers in his area, thus his subscribers were able to receive messages and provide supplies on the basis of information provided by others.

This was to be the founding stone, and a pretty strong one of Chopaal, which has been rebranded and re-launched with the name and style of SMSALL. With a little less than half a million groups and over 4 million users, the service has already transmitted above 4 billion text messages till date and boasts a daily traffic of around 15 million text messages.

So let’s see what can be done with SMSALL, you can:

• Create profile
• Make your profile private/ public
• Create group
• Subscribe to a group
• Start a private group
• Activate/ Deactivate a group
• Send texts
• Give feedback

To do any of the above, the user should be armed with a mobile phone which is capable of sending and receiving text messages and credit if he/ she intends to send a text to the group and be heard. The services offered by SMSALL mean that it can be used in ways only limited by a user’s imagination.

• We can use it to keep in touch with our dear friends of the yesteryear;
• To re-live the quality time spent together by indulging in group discussions so that every one of the group can simultaneously see what others have to say;
• The service can be used to organize meetings, walks, dinners, seminars and other events;
• To share news, gossips and jokes with our near and dear ones;
• To subscribe to our favorite political party’s official group and show our support and solidarity (PTI & PML-N are already using SMSALL)
• To form interest-groups and discuss issues related with specific topics;

In addition to above we can use SMSALL in anything else which requires one-to-many or private conversations.

How SMSALL group messaging is different?

It engages you in ‘conference messaging’. Just like ‘reply-all’ feature of the email, a group message on SMSALL is sent to all group members with responses broadcast to the whole group as well. A very convenient way to keep in touch with small groups (of up to 20 people) with less than 140 characters on projects and daily tasks!

SMSALL is not only confined to individual users, corporate users are finding it extremely useful as it is more reliable than in-house GSM Modem based solutions being used by the corporate sector to broadcast bulk text messages. According to Mr. Idrees, the enthusiastic COO of SMSALL,

“We are the only player in the market who offers a legitimate and cost effective solution to corporate sector for reaching out to their customers without spending too much. Our solution can help any organization to build their new customer base and to develop a strong relationship with existing ones through interactive communication by forming loyalty groups”

The service can be used by:

• Retailers: To keep their customers posted about price changes
• Businessmen: To notify customers about unforeseeable closures, new offers and discounts
• Restaurants: To broadcast latest deals, take orders and communicate with permanent customers
• Political parties: To keep their followers engaged and informed
• Interest groups: To cultivate a habit of healthy discussions on topics of interest
• Educational institutions:
• To inform students about schedules, classes, seminars & results etc.
• To deliver periodic reports to parents & guardians
• Media & agencies: to interact with general public, arrange quizzes, conduct polls etc.

According to a document provided by the COO, SMSALL is providing following services to corporate customers:

• SMS API
• Customer Loyalty groups for targeted engagement
• SMS CRM solutions
• Contextual SMS advertising
• SMS surveys and event voting
• Facebook and Twitter integration
• Group messaging

Impressive clientele amassed by SMSALL includes but is not limited to:

• Major Political Parties
• Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N)
• Pakistan Tehreeq-e-Insaaf (PTI)
• Labor Party Pakistan
• TV channels
• GEO TV
• Organizations and Individuals
• Metro Cash and Carry Pakistan
• Oxford University Press
• British Council
• Ali Moeen Nawazish
• Tens of others, including schools, universities, call centers, ad agencies and local brands

Waqas Farooq, the CTO of SmsAll while explaining the challenges faced by the company told Telecompk:

“We worked days and nights and have created a powerful technology that can process a billion SMS a day. We are only constrained by the capacities allocated to us by telecom operators. Our vision is to register a new meaning of SMS communication in everyone’s mind.”

Conclusion

The service whose foundation was laid for the sole purpose of helping the needy can in no way be short of being impressive. However there are still a few doubts in my mind as to whether it really means something for a person like me who has the facility of internet whether in home, office or on the go?

The answer is quite simple; the service may not appeal to me and other “power users” as we are always connected to the internet and have the luxury of more than one ways of communication with our loved ones. But there are a lot of others who live in a remote part of our country where the only means of communication is a mobile phone, and that too a black-and-white one, these people need a platform to communicate and socialize with those who they cannot reach with any other means of communication.
However, there are still areas in which I think SMSALL needs to improve itself if it really wants to remain the leader in the market. For instance, the website doesn’t offer all the features available via SMS. New users find it complicated as the service foes not interactively guide the user about all features when a user is signed up. So far, SMSALL has grown virally but to increase its growth, they must improve their web presence and increase capacities to handle occasional delays that users have to face. I was told by the COO that website revamp is under process and soon users will be able to use SMSALL on the internet as well.

So let’s sum it up with a few pros and cons

Pros

• Same short code on all operators
•  Same tariff for all networks
• A lot of options to make and manage groups
• Attractive for the corporate sector

Cons

• Expensive for package users
• Unimpressive website
• Complicated SMS interface

It may still have some shortcomings, but I have taken the liberty of creating a group on SMSALL where TelecomPk followers will be able to follow all the latest news, previews, reviews and much more pertaining to the tech and telecom industry. Joining the group is simple, type:
Join telecompk
and send it to 8002 (Rs 1.2+ tax)

Mobilink extends congratulations to the Pakistan cricket team on its test series win over England in the Jazz Cup 2012 being held in the UAE. Jazz partnered with the Pakistan Cricket Board to organize ‘The Mobilink Jazz Cup 2012’ in the United Arab Emirates as the home series for Pakistan. The two tests held so [...]

Related posts:

1. Experience the Action as It Happens With Jazz Cricket
2. Mobilink Challenges your Cricket Knowledge with Jazz Cric-IQ2
3. Ricky Ponting out of the last Ashes Test
4. Shahid Afridi to Retire from Test cricket
5. Jazz SMS Khazana Rs. 5Mn Winner Announced

Official PC suite and USB 2.0 data transfer drivers are available from Qmobile manufacturers. These packages are free available for download by Qmobile company.

PC suite is very good if you want to save your mobile internal data, like SMS, contacts in your PC, or if you want to make backup of your data in the pc. The download link is given below.

Check this link: Qmobile official PC suite Download link.

USB 2.0 driver package is also for those operating systems that are unable to detect auto drivers of Mass storage activity in Qmobile. If you windows is unable to detect or auto configure Mass storage function. then install the drivers given below.

Download link: USB 2.0 Drivers for Qmobile

A morning show broadcast in Pakistan on Jan 17, 2012, on Samaa, a Pakistani television channel, has catalysed what could well be the beginning of a media consumer rights movement.

In the show, Subah Saverey Maya kay Sath (Early Morning with Maya), the host Maya Khan, charges through a public park looking for dating couples to interrogate. With her is a battalion of other women, who join her in self-righteously lecturing the couples they come across – does your family know you are here, why don’t you meet at home if you are engaged, and, most outrageously, if you are married, where is your nikahnama (marriage certificate)?

When the harassed couples ask for the camera to be turned off, the Samaa team pretends to acquiesce but carries on filming with sound. As several people have pointed out, this intrusive behaviour could result in putting those couples in life-threatening situations in a country where forced marriages and ‘honour killings’ continue to be the norm.

The first time I saw a link to this show was on Jan 22, shared on a facebook group, on Jan 21, 2012. I, and many others, began sharing the Youtube links on facebook and twitter. As it spread, the outrage grew. People were shocked at the level of intrusion and vigilantism on display. From India, came comments on twitter about the Saffron vigilante brigade that has been known to drag couples into temples and force them into instant marriage. Which reminded me that the mentality we are protesting is not limited to Pakistan – see my article ‘Peaceful Pink Panties to Tame Right-Wing Goons‘ about the Sri Ram Sene goons in India. This was in 2009 but I hear they’re gearing up again against Valentines Day… Of course it’s always the poor, who can’t meet in secure hotels and cafes, who are always most vulnerable against this kind of moral policing.

Maya Khan’s antics on Samaa TV triggered off several articles and reports – starting with blogger Mehreen Kasana letting rip in her post (with doodles) An Open Letter to Maya Khan, Jan 22, 2012.

But most importantly, the outrage was channelized into a loosely organised protest. Dozens of people sent in complaints to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) at the online feedback form, shared quickly via facebook. On Jan 22, lawyer Osama Siddique drafted a brief letter expressing outrage at the  :highly intrusive, invasive and potentially irresponsible behavior on the part of the host – a kind of vigilantism no different than the Lal Masjid variety” (referring to the black-robed women armed with sticks called the Hafza Brigade, associated with the Red Mosque in Islamabad, who went around beating up and terrorizing women whose behaviour or looks they deemed ‘immoral’ or ‘unIslamic’).

The letter protested this moral policing, and pointed out that “this kind of programming is likely to also lead to legal action for violation of dignity of man under the Constitution – which legal action we as signatories will support, propagate and promote.” It demanded an end to “this irresponsible programming”.

A group of citizens emailed the letter to the Samaa head Zafar Siddiqi (President CNBC Pakistan, with which Samaa is affiliated), and an expatriate Pakistani in California, Ali Abbas Taj, uploaded it to Change.org as an petition titled STOP “Subah Saverey Maya kay Sath” vigilantism like Lal Masjid.

Within 24 hours, the online activism had the following unexpected effects:

* In about 24 hours, there were over 2000 signatures, and by the following day 4,800 people, in Pakistan and around the world, had endorsed it.

* Maya Khan’s facebook page was closed, probably in response to the number of comments being made on it. Some of those comments were highly abusive and threatening, which we condemn and have nothing to do with.

* Maya Khan on her show of Jan 23, 2012 acknowledged that what she did could have hurt people and said that was not her intention – but she has not apologised, and appears completely unrepentant and unaware of the dangers of her actions.

* CEO Samaa TV Zafar Siddiqi wrote back to the people who had emailed him saying:  ”I have travelled to Khi to look at this matter and yesterday Maya apologised in her program for this. I can assure this will never happen again. Samaa is a progressive channel.
“There are certain other directives that have been put into place as of yesterday.
“I thank everyone concerned in bringing this matter to my attention. It’s really appreciated.”

The citizens’ response:

* We do not accept Maya Khan’s statement in her show of Jan 23 as an apology. Nor are we satisfied with Mr Siddiqi’s attempts to placate us. We want an unconditional, public apology from both Maya Khan and Samaa TV.

* We do not hold Maya Khan solely responsible for her actions; it is the producer and channel owner who set policy and allow this kind of programming to happen. We want to know what steps are being taken and what policy directives given to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

* Maya Khan should apologise publically not just to viewers but also to the couples she harassed in the park.

* There’s also outrage against a 2010 moral policing show by ARY reporter Yasir Aqeel, who is if possible even more offensive than Maya Khan, and takes harassment to another level. We protest these intrusive tactics by TV channel owners to boost ratings by harassing peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

* We would like to know what ethical guidelines TV channel owners and producers are setting down to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

* We are in contact with the commercial sponsors of television shows and will impress upon them the need to pull advertising from programmes and channels that violate basic media ethics.

BOTTOM LINE: Media is not a business like any other. It carries greater responsibility and we want its workings to be transparent and ethical.

In addition:

A college student in Karachi, started a facebook ‘cause’ on Jan 24 demanding that Maya Khan apologise to the youth of Pakistan, especially Karachi

Some activists began an sms campaign, sharing Zafar Siddiqi’s Dubai cell number with this message: Please send this sms to Mr. Zafar Siddiqui, CEO SAMAA TV if you want to raise your voice against the moral policing by Maya Khan: “Dear Mr Siddiqi, pardon the intrusion. I’m part of a citizens’ group protesting Samaa TV and its host Maya Khan’s irresponsible ‘moral policing’. We expect an unconditional apology, and this show withdrawn or at least suspended until new parameters are worked out. Thank you. “

It hasn’t all been about anger and outrage though. Predictably, Pakistanis have derived considerable mirth from the situation, some of it rather unkindly expressed. There’s this outrageous post by Urooj Zia: Things Maya Missed (relevant to my Pink Chaddis report for IPS linked above).

Some funny graphics were created – like park signs saying “Beware of dog – and Maya Khan” (unkind, yes, but then, people are angry), posted by Arif Iqbal (@eusuphxai on twitter), who also posted this, that I especially liked: a still from the old Indian film “Bobby” with its famous song “Hum tum aik kamre mein band hon…” with the next line changed to “Aur Maya aa jaye” (the original line can be translated as: “what if we were locked up in a room… and the key got lost” – changed to: “… and Maya turned up”

There have also been some really nasty shares, including videos of Maya dancing, and an animation in which she gets slapped, but let’s ignore those for now, with just this comment, that we do not condone abusive language, personal insults or threats of violence.

More important, the issue has catalysed some relevant, thought-provoking reports, analyses and discussions, including those listed here:

Wusatullah Khan in BBC Urdu website, Jan 22, 2012: ‘Aap tau naib khuda hain’

BBC Urdu report, Jan 23, 2012: ‘TV channel ka anti-dating squad’

BBC Urdu Radio report, Jan 24, 2012: ‘Sawerey ka chapa’ par sakht tanqeed’ in which Samaa senior producer Sohail Zaidi rejects civil society concerns, defends show, saying, “I am not answerable to anyone”.

Vigil-aunties (a term coined by Anthony Permal) by Bina Shah, Jan 24, 2012: ‘At the very least, the channel and the anchorperson owe an apology, if not compensation, to those two individuals who had hurt nobody on that day when they were ambushed and harassed by the television anchor and her Moral Aunty Brigade. The irony is that she describes herself on her Facebook page as “very fair and honest in her dealings”. I think that girl in the niqab, crying in the park, and her blameless friend, as well as any sane person with a conscience and a respect for other people’s privacy, would beg to differ.’

‘Big Brother (and Sister) is watching you‘ – Nadeem F. Paracha, Jan 23, 2102, on the history of what he calls ‘pussycat vigilantism’ – “This strange phenomenon is not just about simple hypocrisy, it is also and actually about glorifying this hypocrisy through gung-ho acts in which pussycat media vigilantes prey upon soft targets to exhibit their ‘bravery’ but squeak away if ever an opportunity arises to do the same to those who can and will bite back.” He says the first reported case of moral vigilantism that he stumbled upon was reported in Dawn, 1980. Must read.

In the parks of Karachi, by Ejaz Haider, Jan 24, 2012 - “From the terrible scarcity of information we now have a nauseating excess of it.”

Media ethics and responsibility at Afia Salam and Faisal Qureshi’s online talk show Off the Cuff, discussing the need for a legal framework.

p.s. Well before this issue blew up, Hosh media, which aims to bridge the gap between online and mainstream media, sat down with veteran journalist and former Editor of Dawn, Abbas Nasir to initiate “a crash course in some of the stickiest subjects that journalism in Pakistan now faces”. Four of the six part series are online at the Hosh website, that Sahar Habib Ghazi wrote about at The great ethics debate (published Jan 23, 2012).

Updates will continue to be posted on the petition link. Watch this space.

Ufone brings in a package specific for the short callers called the “10 second package”. This offers a call rate of 25 paisas per 10 seconds. Subscribers can switch to this package by dialing *11# and paying one time charges of Rs.10+tax. The official PR follows:

Once again Ufone has lived up to its reputation of delighting the customers with extreme value propositions. Ufone, being one of the most affordable telecom providers in the industry has launched a ‘10 Second package’ which is specifically designed for value-seeking  customers who make quick and short calls.  This package is an easy alternative to missed calls, brief work related conversations and quick updates etc. The low rates will enable customers to optimize their expenditure and get the most value for their money by making a quick impactful call rather than sending a text message.

Ufone has once again successfully reinforced its stance as a customer centric organization by introducing this offer which is expected to create ripples in the market. To subscribe to the offer customers will simply have to dial *11# and there is a one-time opt in fee of Rs. 10+tax that will be charged upon availing the offer. Subscribers of the 10 second package will be charged 25 paisa per 10 seconds on on-net and off-net calls. The 10 second package by Ufone is currently the only such package in the market.

In the recent past Ufone has offered unmatched packages and unique discounts that have been designed to meet the specific needs of the customers. Ufone has been the pioneer in introducing the most competitive call rates in the market. Ufone offers one of the most economical SMS and call packages – some with almost unlimited SMSs and virtually free calls.