(PPF/IFEX) – The editor and an employee of the weekly magazine “Pakistan News” were arrested in Karachi on 8 July 1999. Police also ransacked the magazine’s offices and seized copies of the magazine from newsagents throughout the province. According to police, Naveed Shad Arain and Nisar Mehmood, an editor and a staffer with the magazine, […]
(PPF/IFEX) – The editor and an employee of the weekly magazine “Pakistan
News” were arrested in Karachi on 8 July 1999. Police also ransacked the
magazine’s offices and seized copies of the magazine from newsagents
throughout the province.
According to police, Naveed Shad Arain and Nisar Mehmood, an editor and a
staffer with the magazine, respectively, were arrested for publishing an
article that could disturb sectarian harmony. It is understood that the
article had contained scathing criticism of the leader of one of the
sectarian political organisations.
Police registered criminal complaints against the editor, printer and
publishers under the anti-terrorism act.
The editor of the Sindhi edition of the magazine claimed that the action had
been taken because the magazine had regularly been publishing articles
highlighting police corruption and high-handedness and cases of extortion.
In the early hours of Thursday 8 July, heavy contingents of police raided
the residence of Haleem Adil Shaikh, the magazine’s publisher, who is the
brother of a Sindh provincial assembly member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim
League. However, the publisher’s brother, Member of the Provincial Assembly
(MPA) Aleem Adil Sheikh, spoke to the Sindh Inspector General of Police
(IGP) and promised to turn his brother over to police at noon on the
following day. On the morning of 8 July, Aleem Adil Sheikh again promised
the IGP that his brother would surrender himself, but both brothers later
went into hiding.
Navaid Shad Arain and Mehmood were released on 9 July “on medical grounds”.
However, the cases against them have yet to be withdrawn.
