(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is welcoming the 2 June 1999 unconditional release of Najam Sethi, the founding editor of the English-language weekly “The Friday Times”. CPJ notes that the government’s decision to drop all charges against him is a very encouraging development. However, CPJ remains concerned over the legal propriety of his arrest and weeks-long detention […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is welcoming the 2 June 1999 unconditional release of Najam
Sethi, the founding editor of the English-language weekly “The Friday
Times”. CPJ notes that the government’s decision to drop all charges against
him is a very encouraging development. However, CPJ remains concerned over
the legal propriety of his arrest and weeks-long detention without charge.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 2 June, 1 June, 31 May, 26 May, 25 May, 18 May, 12
May, 10 May, 6 May, 5 May and 19 April 1999**
Sethi was arrested at his home in Lahore on 8 May, beaten and gagged by
government agents, secretly transferred from Lahore to a detention center in
Islamabad, and held incommunicado for more than a week. The government
eventually revealed that Sethi was in the custody of Pakistan’s
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, an army intelligence unit, on
suspicions that he had conspired with Indian intelligence operatives. CPJ
believes Sethi’s arrest stemmed from his work with a BBC team investigating
allegations of high-level government corruption, coupled with the editorial
independence of “The Friday Times”.
On 1 June, the ISI transferred Sethi to police custody, after an official
First Information Report (FIR) was filed against him under sections 123-A
(“Condemnation of the Creation of the State and Advocacy of Abolition of its
Sovereignty”), 124-A (sedition), and 153-A (“Promoting Enmity Between
Different Groups”) of Pakistan’s penal code, and Section 13 of the
Prevention of Anti-National Activities Act of 1974. But on 2 June, after
failing to produce convincing evidence before the Supreme Court to justify
Sethi’s prolonged
detention, the Attorney General announced that the government was dropping
all charges against Sethi.
CPJ is dismayed that Pakistan’s constitutional guarantees did not protect
Sethi from mistreatment.
Article 9 of the constitution states that “No person who is arrested shall
be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the
grounds for such arrest,” and that “Every person who is arrested and
detained in custody shall be produced before a magistrate within a period of
twenty-four hours of such arrest.” And Article 19 expressly guarantees that
“Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and
there shall be freedom of the press.”
The constitutional safeguards for a free press are further undermined by the
existence of provisions in Pakistan’s penal code that criminalize
journalistic activity, such as the aforementioned sections 123-A, 124-A, and
153-A. These statutes all provide for imprisonment on the basis of “words,
either spoken or written.”
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the prime minister:
protect Sethi from mistreatment
special “media cell” under the Ehtesab (Accountability) Bureau, with the
express purpose of targeting journalists for harassment
journalists in Pakistan
to
remove provisions used to punish journalists for their work would help
reassure the international community of his commitment to preserving
Pakistan’s free press
Appeals To
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister’s Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
Fax: +92 51 920 5532
E-mail: primeminister@pak.gov.pk
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
