(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 1 February 1999 CPJ letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif protesting the continued harassment of the Jang Group of Newspapers: **Updates IFEX alerts of 1 February and 8 January 1999, 16 December and 15 December 1998** February 1, 1999 SENT BY FAX – to 011-92-51-920-5532 His Excellency […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 1 February 1999 CPJ letter to Pakistani
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif protesting the continued harassment of
the Jang Group of Newspapers:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 1 February and 8 January 1999, 16 December and 15
December 1998**
February 1, 1999
SENT BY FAX – to 011-92-51-920-5532
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister’s Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the range of
tactics your administration is using to harass and intimidate the Jang Group
of Newspapers, Pakistan’s largest newspaper publishing company.
Earlier today, officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)
impounded supplies of newsprint bound for Jang’s Rawalpindi headquarters.
The action came just hours after a ruling in the Jang Group’s favor by the
Supreme Court, ordering the government to allow the immediate delivery of
newsprint to the group, which has only enough paper in its reserves to
publish through tomorrow. The Supreme Court’s order came on the first day of
hearings on a case filed by the Jang Group, accusing the government of
conducting a campaign of “vilification, intimidation and harassment.”
Government officials have reportedly announced that they will not comply
with the Supreme Court’s directive on the grounds that the Jang Group owes
customs duties on previous shipments of newsprint amounting to 1.6 billion
rupees (US$31.4 million). The government has also delivered a stream of tax
evasion notices against the company-as well as against Jang’s publisher, Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman-that now total more than 2 billion rupees (US$40 million).
Meanwhile, on January 30, an official acting “on behalf of the state,”
according to the police report, registered a case at Karachi’s Civil Lines
Police Station charging the company’s Urdu-language daily Jang-along with
the Urdu-language newspapers Amman and Parcham-with sedition. Shakil-ur
Rahman is named in the police file, and is accused of publishing a political
advertisement that “has created hatred in the public by virtue of seditious
contents.”
These threats constitute a multi-pronged assault on Jang’s ability to
publish. In addition, two prominent journalists associated with the company
have recently reported incidents of personal harassment. Maleeha Lodhi, an
editor with Jang’s English-language daily The News in Rawalpindi, wrote a
letter to Interior Minister Shujat Hussain on January 30, complaining that
in a 24-hour period she had received several anonymous phone calls
threatening that she would be killed and that her house would be “blown up.”
Lodhi believes the threats are aimed at her journalistic work and that they
have assumed “an ominous nature because of the current climate of hostility
created by the government’s assault on the Jang Group of Newspapers.”
Kamran Khan, investigations editor for The News in Karachi, reports that he
is being followed by agents who say they are with Pakistan’s Intelligence
Bureau. On January 28, intelligence agents visited Khan’s home in response
to a story he had written, and, according to Khan, sent a message that “I
must behave because they knew well about my movements and activities.” Khan
says that officials have confirmed that the Intelligence Bureau is tapping
his phone calls, and that transcripts of his conversations have been
provided to the government’s Ehtesab (Accountability) Bureau to “dig [for]
some weak points.”
The Ehtesab Bureau, established by your administration to investigate
corruption charges, is headed by Sen. Saifur Rahman, who has been accused by
the Jang Group of making a number of demands on the company at the behest of
the government.
As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of our colleagues
around the world, CPJ is outraged by your government’s blatant attempts to
control the independent media in Pakistan.
CPJ’s initial protest was sent to your office on December 15. In that letter
we enumerated several cases of official harassment, and listed the names of
15 Jang journalists (including Lodhi and Khan) whom the government has
allegedly targeted for dismissal. We received a reply from Principal
Information Officer Ashfaq Ahmad Gondal on December 19, stating that “the
government has never asked the management of the Jang Group of Newspapers to
dismiss any of their employees” and that “a government that is wholly
committed to press freedom cannot even for a moment consider steps that
impinge upon freedom of expression.” And yet, in a press conference held on
January 28, Shakil-ur-Rahman played excerpts of his tape-recorded
discussions with Senator Rahman in which the senator clearly orders the
dismissal of several senior journalists, advises the publisher to hire only
those journalists who would report favorably on the government’s policies,
and demands that Jang’s papers desist from publishing reports critical of
the government’s performance. According to the tapes, Senator Rahman said at
one point that “If we see any positive change in your attitude, we will
settle your problems in a positive manner.”
CPJ strongly urges your administration to cease all actions against the Jang
Group and its employees in order to demonstrate Pakistan’s commitment to the
“promotion, protection, and preservation of the freedom of press,” as
pledged in your principal information officer’s December 19 letter.
We appreciate your attention to this matter, and await your response.
Sincerely Yours,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Similar appeals can be sent to:
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister’s Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
Fax: +92 51 920 5532
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
