Pakistan Press Foundation

(PPF/IFEX) – On 2 April 1999, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) arrested the owner and chief executive of the “Frontier Post”, Rehmat Shah Afridi, on the charge of drug possession. According to the ANF, Afridi was arrested after a tip off that he would try to smuggle hashish out of the country. He was arrested at […]

(PPF/IFEX) – On 26 March 1999, journalists of Hyderabad and rural Sindh held a protest rally against the police raids at the residences of two of their colleagues. The journalists held a meeting at the Hyderabad Press Club and condemned the police action. On 24th March, police assaulted Meruddin, a journalist of the Sindhi newspaper […]

(PPF/IFEX) – A settlement has come out of the ongoing talks between the government and the Jang Group of newspapers after nearly two months of hostility. The government has released the newsprint, unfrozen the frozen bank accounts and removed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) personnel from the Group’s offices. ** Updates IFEX alerts of 12 […]

(PPF/IFEX) – A settlement has come out of the ongoing talks between the government and the Jang Group of newspapers after nearly two months of hostility. The government has released the newsprint, unfrozen the frozen bank accounts and removed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) personnel from the Group’s offices. ** Updates IFEX alerts of 8 […]

(PPF/IFEX) – On 4 February 1999, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the government to release 200 of the 1,093 reels of impounded newsprint to the Jang Group of newspapers. **Updates IFEX alerts of 8 February, 5 February, 3 February, 2 February, 1 February and 8 January 1999, 16 December and 15 December 1998** After the contempt […]

(PPF/IFEX) – On 7 February 1999, in a meeting which lasted nearly five hours, the government promised to restore the Jang Group’s newsprint quota and also remove police from outside the offices of the “Jang” and “The News” dailies. The Jang Group’s chief executive of newspapers, Mir Shakil ur Rehman, Punjab Chief Shabaz Sharif, Information […]

(PPF/IFEX) – Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials and the police manhandled staff of the local Urdu daily “Ausaf” of Islamabad on 3 February 1999. The editor of “Ausaf”, Hamid Mir, said that they were being punished for helping the Jang Group, as the paper decided to supply four reels of newsprint to the Jang Group, […]

(PPF/IFEX) – On 28 January 1999, police in Sindh province registered cases of “sedition” against “Jang”, “Amn”, and “Parcham” (local Urdu dailies), for publishing an advertisement of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a political party in the province. The papers were charged with sedition aimed at inciting people against the state. Cases have been registered […]