(RSF/IFEX) – In a 1 September 1999 letter sent to Pakistani President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar, RSF expressed its concerns about the threats received by two well-known journalists. RSF said that it is extremely worried “about these two revelations making direct accusations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other high-ranking political officials and civil servants.” The […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 1 September 1999 letter sent to Pakistani President
Mohammad Rafiq Tarar, RSF expressed its concerns about the threats received
by two well-known journalists. RSF said that it is extremely worried “about
these two revelations making direct accusations against Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif and other high-ranking political officials and civil servants.” The
organisation wrote that “for the moment, it has no reason to doubt the
statements of the two journalists, who are known for their professional
integrity.” RSF called on President Tarar “to do everything in his power to
prevent them from coming to any harm, by ordering immediate police and
government investigations, and to ensure that those responsible for
threatening them are punished – whatever their rank.” RSF also called on
Tarar to use his influence to enforce the necessary conditions for a fair
trial, in particular the presumption of innocence and access to lawyers, in
the case pending against Rehmat Shah Afridi.
According to a letter disclosed by his son, on 30 August, Afridi, the
editor-in-chief of the Peshawar-based dailies “The Frontier Post” and
“Maidan”, who has been jailed in Lahore on charges of “drug smuggling” since
2 April, expressed fears for his life as a result of a “police encounter” or
other “extra-judicial means”. Afridi has always denied the drug trafficking
allegations made by the Anti-Narcotics Forces (ANF). The journalist wrote
that “if such drastic action occurs, the entire responsibility would rest
with the following people: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief
Minister Sahbaz Sharif, the director general of the ANF and his chief for
Punjab province.” According to Afridi and many of his colleagues in
Pakistan, his arrest is a plot to muzzle the independent press.
In a separate incident, M. Ziauddin, Islamabad bureau chief of the daily
“Dawn”, was asked by an unnamed official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to
disclose the source of a report he filed last week. According to his
colleagues, “Ziauddin was asked, in a rather soft tone, to disclose the
source of his story regarding the Federal Finance Ministry’s approval of a
supplementary budget of about Rs.20 million for the prime minister’s office
in the first quarter of the current financial year.” According to an
anonymous source, the way the IB official spoke about Najam Sethi and
Hussain Haqqini (two journalists imprisoned this year) while talking to
Ziuddin, leaves no doubt that the comments were meant as a threat to the
journalist.
