(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 27 August 2002 letter to General Pervez Musharraf, CPJ drew his attention to recent harassment of well-known journalist Shaheen Sehbai, who is living in the United States, and his family members who are living in Pakistan. On 20 August, police in Rawalpindi filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Sehbai, editor […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 27 August 2002 letter to General Pervez Musharraf, CPJ drew his attention to recent harassment of well-known journalist Shaheen Sehbai, who is living in the United States, and his family members who are living in Pakistan.
On 20 August, police in Rawalpindi filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Sehbai, editor of the online weekly “South Asia Tribune”, falsely accusing him of criminal acts allegedly committed in February 2001. The complaint was made by Khalid Mahmud Hejazi, who is, according to Sehbai, a civilian employee who works at the Pakistani army’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi. Hejazi was formerly married to a cousin of Sehbai’s.
The FIR states, among other things, that Sehbai threatened to rob Hejazi at his home at gunpoint, and names Sehbai’s wife, as well as several nieces and nephews as complicit in this crime.
Sehbai and his wife live in the United States, and so are in no danger of arrest. However, police have been harassing Sehbai’s relatives.
On 21 August, the day after the complaint was filed, Rawalpindi police arrived at the home of Asif Khan, a relative of Sehbai’s whose son was named in the FIR. Police said they wanted to question the boy, who is a teenager, about the alleged incident. Khan told police his son was not at home, and the officers left without incident. The next day, police went to the shop of another relative, asking for the whereabouts of the teenager, whose name is Imran. On 26 August, police went to Imran’s cousin’s home and questioned relatives there about the boy’s whereabouts.
On 27 August, in the afternoon, police returned to the home of Imran’s father, Asif Khan, and arrested him. Police at R.A. Bazaar police station in Rawalpindi told local journalists that Asif Khan had been arrested for public drunkenness, according to Sehbai.
Sehbai believes that the original FIR accusing him and his family members of criminal actions was registered at the instigation of officials in the military government who are unhappy with reports critical of the regime that were published in the “South Asia Tribune” (www.satribune.com). The government’s Press Information Department issued a statement on 27 August denying these allegations and claiming that the “filing of the case [against Sehbai] is coincidental rather than intentional.”
Sehbai had previously worked as editor of the national English-language daily “The News”, one of Pakistan’s most influential newspapers. He resigned from the “The News” on 1 March, citing government interference with the paper’s editorial content.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– expressing concern that the harassment of Sehbai and his relatives is politically motivated
– urging him to order a prompt inquiry into police actions against Sehbai’s relatives
– asking him to guarantee that Sehbai’s cousin Asif Khan is not harmed in any way, and that he is released immediately
Appeals To
His Excellency Gen. Pervez Musharraf
President, Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan
Fax: +92 51 922 4206
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
