(PPF/IFEX) – On 26 December Irfanul Haq and Iftikhar Adil, two journalists of the Lahore based Urdu newspaper “Lashkar”, were sentenced to six months in prison and fined Rs. 5000 by the Balochistan High Court in Quetta for reporting on the alleged theft of court records. According to reports, the lawyer Mohammad Azam Zakroon of […]
(PPF/IFEX) – On 26 December Irfanul Haq and Iftikhar Adil, two
journalists of the Lahore based Urdu newspaper “Lashkar”, were
sentenced to six months in prison and fined Rs. 5000 by the
Balochistan High Court in Quetta for reporting on the alleged
theft of court records.
According to reports, the lawyer Mohammad Azam Zakroon of Quetta
lodged an application against the chief justice of Balochistan
High Court, stating that the files and records regarding the
Supreme Court (Quetta bench) of Pakistan were allegedly stolen
from the office of the sub-registrar of Supreme Court. A Quetta-
based correspondent of “Lashkar” reported the story and the
newspaper ran the news item with the bold headline “Theft case
against Chief Justice Balochistan”. As a result, the court is
said to have taken action against the paper. Both Haq, sub-editor
of “Lashkar”, and Adil, its publisher/printer, were summoned in
person and convicted (despite their written apologies), though
the Quetta correspondent was acquitted of all charges.
