We all know how previous military and civilian governments used dirty tactics to throttle an independent media. Sometimes they succeeded by using sheer brute force and sometimes through bribery and blackmail. On the whole, the media managed to survive and came out cleaner and stronger after every scuffle. The recent attack by the so-called democratic government on Geo Super is a dark chapter in the history of the PPP government. They did manage to deprive the public of sports and entertainment for some time and to cause a loss of hundreds of millions of rupees to the organisation. They were apparently under the impression that they could bring Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman to his knees, totally forgetting that similar tactics had failed in the past to subdue his father, that giant of a journalist, Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman. There is an adage that an apple does not fall far from the tree—in this case, the son is a reflection of his father. I had once written in my column that both Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman and Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman were like tall, straight, strong pillars; they could only be broken but not bent. I am personally aware of the efforts made by the government to gain Mir Sahib’s support in Dubai for their illegal and corrupt activities. When that failed they turned to dirty tactics. Thanks to public pressure and the intervention of the Supreme Court, Geo Super is now back. One would think that the rulers would learn from their setbacks, but nothing seems to bother them. Let us now discuss the dire need for a peaceful revolution. I have emphasised this need in some previous columns, giving the examples of revolutions in France, Russia, China and Iran. The leaders of those revolutions were
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