(RSF/IFEX) – In a 10 August 2001 letter to the governor of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NSFP), Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, RSF protested the harassment of Hayatullah Khan, correspondent for the national daily “Ausaf”, in the Tribal Areas (north-west of the country). RSF asked for the physical threats to stop and for charges filed […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 10 August 2001 letter to the governor of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NSFP), Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, RSF protested the harassment of Hayatullah Khan, correspondent for the national daily “Ausaf”, in the Tribal Areas (north-west of the country). RSF asked for the physical threats to stop and for charges filed against the journalist to be dropped. The organisation believes that Khan only exercised his right to inform. “Such an attitude from a state representative is not acceptable. We wish to remind you that President Pervez Musharraf personally undertook responsibility for respecting press freedom throughout the country,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.
On 5 August, Khan told RSF that he had received new threats and was obliged to remain in hiding. He is the correspondent for the Urdu daily “Ausaf” in Mir Ali, the divisional headquarters of North Waziristan Agency that is part of the Tribal Areas under federal control. Since June, the local authorities have been harassing the journalist. Threatened with arrest, the journalist left Mir Ali. Chased by guards of Muhammad Mushtaq Jadoon, he had to flee the town of Bannu and seek refuge in Peshawar, where he is in hiding. Khan told RSF: “I have been so harassed and intimidated that I have left my native town and am taking shelter in one place or another to escape the administration’s strong-arm tactics.” The local authorities accuse the “Ausaf” correspondent of writing articles about the weakness of the North Waziristan administration and the growing influence of the Taliban. Under orders from Mushtaq Jadoon, men ransacked the journalist’s house and arrested one of his relatives in order to force the journalist to surrender. Moreover the local authorities lodged several complaints that were, according to the journalist, “fabricated.”
On 30 July, members of the Tribal Union of Journalists demonstrated in Peshawar, demanding Political Agent Mushtaq Jadoon’s removal.
In “Report 2001. Freedom of the press throughout the world”, RSF wrote: “In certain areas journalists are the victims of multiple forms of pressure by the authorities and influential locals. For example, the president of the Journalists’ Union in the Federally administered Tribal Areas in the north-west claims that to be a journalist, ‘one has to belong to a strong clan, otherwise you risk your life everytime you write an article.’ Arrested six times since the beginning of his career, Sailab Mehsood, an experienced journalist, explained that. ‘traditions are completely contradictory to press freedom. So one has to struggle to be accepted as a journalist.’ “
