GENERAL APPEAL (Pakistan): Government’s inaction regarding a series of attack on journalists

NOTICE: The AHRC have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of some of the Pakistan authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Pakistan authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

PAKISTAN: Disappearance; suppression of media freedom; failure of investigation; un-rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received the following information from the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists regarding a serious of recent attack against the journalists in Pakistan. The government has not taken any action in any of the above mentioned cases to provide justice to the concerned victims. These incidents illustrate that how strictly the freedom of expression is restricted in Pakistan.

At around 2:00pm on 20 September 2006, Mr. Saeed Sarbazi, the reporter of the Daily Business Recorder and the joint secretary of Karachi Press Club, was allegedly kidnapped by unknown men from Lyari town, the business center of Karachi city, while he was driving his vehicle to his newspaper company office. When the men forcibly attempted to take him away, many passers-by appealed against his abduction and the kidnappers allegedly identified themselves as officials of military intelligence. People followed the vehicle and witnessed that it went inside the Malir Cantonment, where there is known to be a military torture camp. Since then his whereabouts remain unknown.

Upon hearing of the incident, members of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and other human rights groups staged a walk out from the press gallery of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh and demonstrated in front of the assembly building. Several ministers of Singh provincial government, including the home minister, said that they were aware of the abduction of Mr. Sarbazi.

Mr. Sarbazi hails from Balochistan, the west southern province of Pakistan, where the Pakistan government has been conducting military operations against the Balochi resistance groups since 2001. The government has also been criticized regarding aerial bombings using F16 air craft and gunship helicopters in several parts of the province, which resulted in the deaths of many civilians. According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, he was arrested with suspicion of having connections with the Balochi resistance groups.

Furthermore, the AHRC has received several reports regarding the alleged killing and assault of journalists by the police and henchmen of federal ministers. Details of each case are as follows:

1. On 13 September 2006, Mr. C.R. Shamsi, the deputy editor of Daily Ausaf, was allegedly beaten by the driver and guard of the federal labour minister in the presence of minister himself inside the National Assembly of Pakistan in Islamabad. He was reportedly on duty to cover the proceedings of the National Assembly. During the break time, he inquired of the labour minister about the 6 Wage Board Award which has been pending abeyance for 3 years. The minister was infuriated by his question and ordered his guard and driver to give the journalist “a better reply” to his question. The guard and the driver then severely assaulted Mr. Shamsi inside the premises of National Assembly. Due to assault, Mr. Shamsi suffered severe damage to his right ear and has been treated at the government hospital of Islamabad.  However, the hospital authority was prevented from taking medico legal action in this case and as a result, no police case has been filed against the minister, his guard and the driver. On September 14, the opposition parliamentarians from the both houses of the Senate and National Assembly, jointly protested the manhandling of Mr. Shamsi but no action has been taken against the labour minister.

2. On 16 September 2006, three journalists of different television channels namely Mr. Wadood Mushtaq of ARY Television, Mr. Nazir Awan of ATV and Mr. Zahid Malik, the cameraman of ARY Television were severely beaten by the police, while doing a coverage about the public meeting of a political party in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. To avoid any public resentment during the meeting, the Punjab province police ordered police officers of all the districts to stop the broadcasting of ARY Television, which was showing the footage of the event. The ugly incident was started when Mr. Mukhtar Hussain Shah, the Deputy Superintendent of police (Investigation) and Mr. Younas Shah, the Station Head Officer of Lohari Gate police station wanted to park their vehicle at the same place where the vehicle of the television channel was parked. The police and media persons exchanged some arguments. The Deputy Superintendent ordered the police and SHO to beat the cameraman, after noticing that a camera of ARY Television is on. The Deputy Superintendent himself allegedly beat the media men. After the incident, the Chief Minister of Punjab ordered the arrests of police officers but till now no police officer has been arrested. It is reported that due to the assault, the spinal cord of Mr. Zahid Malik was broken, Mr. Mushtaq nose was broken and the left hand of Mr. Nazir Awan was broken.

3. On 15 September 2006, Mr. Maqbool Siyal of the Online News agency was shot to death by unknown men after receiving threats from the government agencies in Dera Ismail Khan, North Western Frontier Province. At that time, he was on his way to take an interview with a local politician from an opposition party, the Pakistan Peoples Party. However, Dera Ismail Khan police have not launched any investigation into the incident and simply regarded that his killing happened due to a sectarian conflict.

4. On 17 September 2006, Mr. Shakeel Anjum, the correspondent of -The News of Islamabad- the English daily newspaper- was arrested by the Islamabad police with the charge of triple murder after being attacked by unknown persons at his house. During the attack, his son and nephew were critically injured by the firing. Before his arrest, Mr. Shakeel had written an article against the alleged fake police encounter case in May 2005, which was conducted by Mr. Idrees Rathore of Islamabad police and resulted in killings of two young men.

5. Mr. Mushtaq Ghuman, the reporter of Islambased Daily Business Recorder allegedly received threatening phone calls from the Intelligence Bureau after writing some corruption cases against Prime Minister.

The AHRC is deeply concerned by serious attacks on the journalists in Pakistan. In most of the cases, the Pakistan law enforcement officers & the government officers allegedly involved in those cases directly or indirectly encourage those attacks with no response to provide justice to the victims. Beside the above cases, the AHRC has also recently reported the case of Mr. Munir Mengal, the management director of Baloch Voice, who has been missing since 7 April 2006 after being arrested by the military intelligence (See further: UG-003-2006) and the case of Mr. Mehar uddin Marri, a journalist based in Badin district, whose whereabouts remains unknown after being arrested by the Badin police of Sindh on July 2 2006 (See further: UA-227-2006)

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a letter to government authorities to produce the missing journalist Mr. Saeed Sarbazi. Please also show your concern about the maltreatment of journalist at large by the police and government agencies including ministers.

 

 

 

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