The News Minute | December 17, 2014 | 3.50 pm IST
One hundred and thirty two of the 141 people killed by the Taliban when they took over the Army Public School on Warsak road in Peshawa were children; the scale of the violence, mind-numbing and tragic beyond words.
A day later, two Pakistani English dailies have attempted to deal with Pakistan’s troubled socio-political history in their own separate ways.
The Nation published an editorial that squarely demands answers from the Prime Minister, Chairman Imran Khan, the Chief of Army Staff and equally importantly from citizens. Titled "For our children", the editorial said: “The idea is not to berate or discourage, but to offer a reality check and prompt change of policy for the sake of our children, for the sake of our country’s future. Only the truth will set us free.”
Dawn newspaper has re-published advertisements that it carried in December 1971, calling for people to support the national defence and contribute money and even clothes to the army. The series of pictures is called "1971 'Jihad': Print ads from West Pakistan". Dawn has shown exemplary courage by showing what it calls a “flashback to a darker time” of its own history as a newspaper. There may perhaps be only a handful of similar examples in the world when a news organization has openly spoken about its past mistakes.
As far as journalism goes, what both newspapers have done, are surely acts of courage that confront the past, and therein, lies the implied hope for a better future.