For clarification, it is better to understand that by no means pseudo-liberals are those who believe in equality, rights and freedom. Unfortunately, some people in our country have made their own meaning of ‘Liberalism’.
A liberal is a person who believes in equality, freedom and democracy. A person who has strong opinions but also respects the opinions of others. Pseudo liberals are those people who portray an image of a liberal-minded person but in actuality, they have no relation with it. They only use this as a tool to fool people.
Read more: ‘Foolish liberals’ agree with Nawaz’s Indian narrative: PM Imran
They will be full of hypocrisy and propaganda. Pakistan always had pseudo-liberals as opinion makers but since the popularity of social media, it has become easier for people to identify such pseudo-liberals. They usually hide under the banner of being a media person or someone who is from an academic background.
Pseudo liberals will tell you to fight for your education rights and education should be free and equal for everyone when they themselves will be giving all privileges to their children and asking others to fight for it.
They will tell that women should be allowed to wear whatever she wants and according to her choice but they will also criticize if a Member of Parliament or female politician will appear wearing ‘Burkha’. If it’s about choice and freedom, as they claim, then it applies to everyone, but hypocrisy is the topmost quality of a pseudo-liberal.
Read more: Nike jolts the liberals with its “Hijab Pro”
Disinformation and Propaganda
As mentioned earlier, propaganda is one quality that pseudo-liberals in Pakistan possess highly. They will always try to manipulate news according to their own choices. Their propaganda will include spinning news or giving half news which only benefits them.
An Example of half news and showing half-truth is when the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave a verdict on Presidential Reference by saying that Senate Elections will be held by secret ballot but ECP should make sure that votes do not remain hidden forever, it should be identifiable.
Read more: Senate Elections to be held through secret ballots, SC
They ordered ECP to create a mechanism with the help of technology to stop the flow of money and bribery to buy votes in Senate Elections. Moments after this news broke, pseudo-liberal jumped on the bandwagon of disinformation and started giving news that the Supreme Court rejected the narrative of open ballot and Senate elections will be held in secrecy.
They didn’t mention what the Supreme Court said regarding making Senate elections free and fair because it didn’t suit their propaganda.
Read more: Two sides of the Supreme Court’s decision
Continuing the example I gave about the Supreme Court verdict and how pseudo-liberals jumped on the bandwagon of misinformation, they will go one step ahead and if someone corrects them or calls them out, it will become an issue of suppressing freedom of expression and their rights to express.
They can criticize and abuse anyone they want to and even misinform the public who considers them as opinion makers, however, if anyone were to criticize them, then it will become an issue of media control and not giving those rights in Pakistan.
Is criticizing the Army a new fashion?
It is becoming fashionable in our pseudo liberal’s community to criticize the army and establishment. The hypocrisy seems to be following a pattern. The pseudo-liberals criticize the army or establishment because they say we believe in civilian supremacy and all power should be given to democratic leaders.
They also say that the army gets involved in the electoral process and should stay away from it. That is an agreeable point, the army does interfere in things that are none of its concern, however, this criticism comes from those who are from the privileged class.
Read more: Daughter of Shireen Mazari ‘back on’ Twitter after criticizing Pakistan Army
They’ve lived their life with all sorts of privileges and have no idea about how a common man in this country lives, yet, they still want to talk about it without having any experience. Their educational life and academics are all because of their strong background.
Pseudo liberals are those who are extremely dangerous to not only this country but every nation. When you give your opinions with influence and ask others to be honest this is the worst example of ‘Pseudo Liberal’ and they are getting very common in our Media. You call them out and they blame you for harassing them or taking away their right.
They will never consider correcting themselves and moving on with it. It’s not a matter of supporting individuals or political parties or taking sides in the media, it’s about our future generation who is getting misled and misinformed. They are in a sea of information where pseudos’ are trying their best to drown them.
Fahad Qureshi is an MPhil scholar, analyst and journalist. He has expertise in national and international politics. The writer can be reached at thefahadqureshi@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.