Pakistan Press Foundation

**Updates IFEX alert of 22 June 2000** (PPF/IFEX) – The following is a PPF press release: Peshawar: On 22 June 2000, the spokesman for the NWFP provincial government issued a clarification that the governor’s statement banning cable television networks only meant that “illegal and unauthorised cable networks” would be closed down immediately. While addressing a […]

(PPF/IFEX) – The following is a PPF press release: PESHAWAR: On 21 June 2000, Lt General (retired) Muhammad Shafiq, governor of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, announced a ban on cable television networks while addressing a meeting of religious leaders. “I order the closure of cable television networks in the province from […]

(PPF/IFEX) – During the evening of Thursday 18 May 2000, a violent mob, which was protesting the murder of leading Islamic scholar Maulana Yousuf Ludhianvi, attacked, ransacked and set fire to the offices of the Karachi business daily “Business Recorder”. Ludhianvi was killed by unknown gunmen near the Federal B Area of Karachi. The newspaper […]

(PPF/IFEX) – On Wednesday 26 April 2000, armed persons belonging to a political party ransacked the office of the evening daily “Sham” in Hyderabad, a city in Pakistan’s southern province. According to press reports, some 40 to 50 unidentified persons raided the newspaper office and destroyed three computers and a scanner. They also tried to […]

On 12 April 2000, “Islami Tehrik-e-Taliban” activists attacked video shops and destroyed video cassettes, televisions and VCRs in the town of Miranshah, in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan. According to press reports, the Tehrik had earlier warned that video shop owners, drug traffickers and others involved in immoral businesses would suffer dire […]

On Monday 24 January 2000, armed men barged into the offices of the Sindhi daily “Halchal” and proceeded to manhandle staff and ransack the office. According to reports, armed persons allegedly belonging to the Asif Ali Zardari Release Committee, forced their entry into the office and threatened the staff members with dire consequences for publishing […]

(PPF/IFEX) – Nawaz Zulfiqar Memon, a young journalist, has died in Thatta after being severely tortured by law enforcement agencies. Memon, 29, a district reporter for “The Daily Nation” in Thatta (100 kilometres from Karachi), had gone to Islamabad in a bid to seek justice from Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf when he was taken […]

(PPF/IFEX) – On 19 November 1999, a number of persons, including journalists, were beaten up by law enforcement agency personnel when the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, went before the anti-terrorism court in Karachi. The police had resorted to the “baton charging” of all those present outside the court, including many journalists trying to enter […]