Despite the explosion of social media and YouTube channels, television remains the dominant medium in Pakistan. And here lies the irony. Switch it on at any hour, and it is the same loop: a relentless stream of court cases, accusations, denials, glares, and statements. Who said what to whom, who is up, who is down. The faces and voices shift from channel to channel, but the obsession does not.
Meanwhile, Pakistan quietly grows. Thousands are added each day. No countdowns. No flashing tickers. No “breaking news.” No prime-time debates. The demographic time bomb ticks away in the background while anchors argue about bail hearings and legal technicalities that change nothing for the lives of ordinary people. Verbal sparring among politicians dominates screens—endlessly recyclable, endlessly dramatic. Unemployment, jobs, education, and healthcare—these take work. Data, context, tough questions, scrutiny of policy, performance, and accountability. And so they are sidelined, pushed off-screen by noise that is cheaper, louder, and easier to sell.
Civil–military relations hold a similarly privileged position. Every hint, every whisper, every rumour is dissected with obsessive attention. Knowledge of power corridors confers prestige. The education system, weak and unequal, quietly condemns generations to diminished lives, does not. A classroom crumbling under overcrowded benches cannot compete with speculation about who met whom behind closed doors.
Health is treated no differently. Hospital corridors, absent medicines, and exhausted doctors all fade into background noise. Elite conflicts, on the other hand, are dramatic. They have faces, voices, moments that can be replayed endlessly. The suffering of ordinary people lacks spectacle.
And then there is climate change—perhaps the starkest example. Floods submerge districts, heatwaves kill quietly, and water scarcity tightens its grip. Television attention flares, then fades. Short bursts of emotion, a few images, some commentary—and silence. Elite rivalries, by contrast, are constant, milked day after day, with no structural challenge to the reporting ecosystem. Climate crises demand vision, long-term policies, and coordination. Our channels focus instead on immediacy, sensationalism, and personalities.
Obsession with personalities over substance, conflict over consequence, creates a dangerous imbalance
Inflation and the rising cost of living: these crises affect everyone, every day. Yet the coverage spikes briefly and then vanishes, eclipsed by elite controversies. Why? Because systemic economic failure points not to personalities, but to design. Poor governance, mismanaged finances, and structural inequality implicate everyone at the top. Focusing on personalities allows the system to pretend that the right faces could somehow fix everything.
Youth unemployment, brain drain, and the absence of opportunity are existential questions in a country of young people that are reduced to moral panics, lamentations, brief segments, and then vanish under the noise of elite feuds. Young Pakistanis are expected to watch, not speak; to adapt, not question. Their futures, their anger, and their voices remain invisible because they lack power.
Malnutrition, child stunting, and food insecurity are treated with similar neglect. They are uncomfortable, morally indicting. They expose a society that fails its most vulnerable.
Elite politics, by contrast, flatters the illusion that what happens at the top is all that matters, that if the “right” people prevail, everything else will somehow fall into place. Debates about elite rivalries overshadow problems that affect millions of people daily: energy shortages, failing public transport, overcrowded cities, and rural neglect. It is easier to discuss power struggles than to question why the state cannot provide basic services: clean water, sanitation, and electricity.
Equally neglected are systematic tax injustice, entrenched inequality, and the absence of functioning local governments. Serious discussion would mean confronting the foundations of privilege. Taxation raises the question of who does not pay. Talking about local government means devolving power. Discussing inequality admits that the system works brilliantly for some, but not for most. Elite confrontations are safer. They generate heat without light, noise without consequence.
The paradox is this: issues that affect millions are ignored because they lack spectacle. Issues that affect a few, which are televised, debated, and looped, are endlessly amplified. Every prime-time hour, the drama repeats, the stakes are hyped, and the consequences for most of the country are irrelevant. Elite feuds matter simply because they are visible. Obsession with personalities over substance, conflict over consequence, creates a dangerous imbalance. For a country facing immense challenges—demography, youth unemployment, inflation, climate, healthcare, education, and inequality—being consumed by elite spectacle is a form of national neglect. It is the gap between what is reported and what truly matters.