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NEW YORK (US): Large number of Pakistani's gathered on a very cold day at Columbia University, New York to brainstorm the rationale behind the recent onslaught on Pakistan by western media.

The programme was organized by Association of Pakistani Professionals (AOPP) www.aopp.org, a US based think tank that strives to work for educated point of view about Pakistan in the western world.

The panel comprised Dr. Adil Najam from Tufts University, Boston, Dr. Saeed Shafqat from Columbia University New York and Mr. Hassan Abbas, a Fletcher scholar and Executive Board Member of AOPP. Consul General of Mr. Haroon Shaukat was also present at the session.

Inspirational DVD

An inspirational DVD of four minutes was shown to the participants which will be available soon at the AOPP's website. This video developed by Munir Mashooqullah, one of the founding and executive board members of the AOPP shows the progressive side of Pakistan - rarely shown in the western media.

The panelist and participants discussed in length about how to engage media and think tanks who are experts in South Asia. They talked about the importance of approaching the academia in the United States and utilize the role of Diasporas.

Participants emphasized about importance of engaging media in a proactive manner to help create a better understanding about Pakistan, its society, people, diverse culture and the issues that confront them at turn of a new millennium.

Media's single-track Agenda

Media's single-track agenda, influenced by the political goals of special interest groups gives this dangerously false impression that Pakistan begins and ends with extremist. The session concluded that by devising strategies of interacting with the media, we can break this misleading spell by widening the focus on Pakistan and its peoples. It was decided that it is imperative to build a strong relationship between the journalist, think tanks and academia who work on South Asia and to build a relationship with them to show the unheard side of Pakistan.

Asif Welcomes

In his welcome speech, Syed Asif Alam, President of the Association of Pakistani Professionals welcomed the panelist and Consul General of Pakistan, Mr. Haroon Shaukat. He also put forward the questions and ideas to the panelist and the participants for brainstorming. He asked the panelist to discuss about the bias against Pakistan and ask ourselves some tough questions whether this built-in bias was a contribution of our link with Islam or something like lack of democracy.

More importantly the tunnel vision of Pakistan in the United States about our nuclear assets and extremism and what can done by the Pakistani American to change the image. He also talked about the recent interaction of AOPP with the Editorial Board of New York Times and other season journalist who live on speculations. He shared intense exchange of email with a seasoned western journalist who earlier this year speculated in his article that Pakistan will provide nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia but later reverted that Pakistan will only provide a deterrent.

While premiering the DVD by Munir Mashooqullah, he invited the students and professional to order free copy of the DVD from AOPP's website to show the good side of Pakistan.

Pirzada's Letter

A letter was distributed prepared by Dr. Moeed Pirzada who is AOPP's Chairman of Editorial Board, which asked the participant to look deep into 'New York Times' and 'Times London' that carried full page sensational reports alleging that Pakistan was the hub of proliferation worldwide. These reports, without anything new, only capped similar stories that were appearing for many months. Why such synchronization? What was the objective? Who coordinates? What interests influence media? What economics lies behind such moves? Could advertising markets, and large blocks of readership influence what media preaches? Why such stories do not appear about Israel and India even when major failures take place? How special interests and lobbies prevent potentially damaging news from appearing in apparently a free market? Is the market for ideas and information free?

Haroon Congratulates

Consul General of Pakistan, Mr. Haroon Shaukat congratulated Association of Pakistani Professionals on holding a brainstorming session of such importance and asked the participants to help AOPP and like-minded associations in their goal of better Pakistan.

Saeed Shafqat on Culture

Dr. Saeed Shafqat talked about the importance of culture and discussed in length about the importance of showcasing our culture to the American people. He said that it seems that peace seems to be returning and it is important we play an important part in making sure that Pakistan and Pakistani's gets it right share by advertising showing to the world that we are peace loving people.

Hassan Criticizes

Hassan Abbas questioned the Pakistani's who for "just being quoted" in major publications give what the western Journalist asks. He said that what we see in the press is what is told by Pakistanis, which in turn comes to haunt us. It is imperative that we take pride in being Pakistani's and put Pakistan before getting credit of being quoted in major publication.

He also touched upon the subject that the Pakistan - United States relationship is more or less a relationship between Pakistan Army and the Pentagon, the challenge for us is to convince both the governments to focus on the Pakistan and the US people.

Dr. Adil Najam on Image

Dr. Adil Najam said that we need to ask tough questions to ourselves before we go on fixing our image. He said that our image is soiled and the primary reason is that we don't respect each other. He talked in length about the ingrained bias against Pakistan which he said was the combination of some malicious intent combined with domestic drivers, lack of image management by our government.

He pointed out the domestic crises of sectarian unrest, political institutions, and military rule act as a catalyst of negative media and unless we change at home, it becomes very difficult for us to reverse the image here.

Role of Students

Kashif Siddiqui, President of Organization of Pakistani Students at Columbia University talked about the role of students. Senior Vice President of AOPP, Mr. Rizwan Raheel and Vice President, Mr. Mushtaq Khalil introduced the participants and told the participants about various projects of AOPP.