Last year March 27 was undoubtedly a tragic day in Sialkot when Zeeshan Butt, a local journalist working for a Lahore-based newspaper (Nawa-e-Waqt), was on phone. He was talking to the Sialkot District Council Chairperson Hina Arshad Warraich and complaining about death threats hurled on him by a PML-N backed Union Council Chairman Imran Cheema.

Zeeshan complained he had visited Imran’s office in Sambrial tehsil and questioned the recently introduced taxes on shops in Bhegowala bazar. Instead of giving the answer the journalist had sought, the UC chairman abused him and gave death threats. He wanted the issue to be hushed up and not brought to the notice of high-ups.

While Zeeshan was in the middle of the phone call, Imran appeared on the spot with his accomplices and fired shots at Zeeshan. The deafening noise of the shots was followed by a pin drop silence. The victim fell to the ground and succumbed to the fatal injuries.

These details were not narrated by any eye witness or aide of Zeeshan. In fact, these were all recorded and recovered from his cell phone taken into custody by the police. Even the sound of the shots fired at him were recorded and heard by countless people who had access to this audio circulated widely on social media.

Soon afterward, it became an issue about threats to media and freedom of expression. Voices emerged from all over to bring the culprits to justice. Journalists from the entire country built up pressure on the concerned quarters to arrest and punish the culprits. However, at the same time, anti-narrative was flared up too, propagating that it was a result of personal enmity and not the other way around.

Reportedly, there were repeated attempts to spread this perception because the police was finding it hard to sustain the pressure from the journalist fraternity. Meanwhile, it was a pity that hardly any media organisation mentioned the name of Zeeshan’s organisation while carrying follow-up reports about his murder and investigations. The main accused, Imran, has escaped abroad. The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) took up the case and ordered the police to arrest the murderer as early as possible. Police arrested Usman alias Sheeshu, Shahid, son of Arif, and Saqlain alias Maula while the main killer Imran Aslam Cheema escaped from the country and is not yet arrested.

Mazhar Abbas, former secretary general Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), believes there are several reasons for the lack of progress and convictions in the cases of journalists’ murders. The foremost is the general inability of the heirs to follow up these cases and go through the long process starting from registration of FIR to investigation, trial in sessions courts and hearing of appeals in the high court and the Supreme Court. In many cases, they do not have enough financial resources to hire lawyers and spend at police stations. So, if the family decides not to pursue the case or drop it any stage it cannot proceed. Police is reluctant to provide copy of the FIR and President of PFUJ says PFUJ doesn’t have any record of the slain journalist Saleem Shahzad’s family. No one is ready to talk on the issue.

The second reason is the missing support that should have come from their organisations. A majority of the slain journalists in Punjab, he says, “were found to be affiliated with small organisations and based away from big urban centres”. The journalist unions, he says, “do raise voice but these are the media organisations which must own their workers and pursue the cases.”

This is just one case in point and reflects the general trend in the Punjab province. Here journalists are mostly threatened, harassed and killed by influentials who are annoyed by exposition of their wrongdoings. A quick glance at the incidents of journalists’ murders in Punjab shows most of them were district/tehsil correspondents of media organisations who had tried to expose the influential politicians, criminals, gangsters etc. There are others, too, who died due to excesses by invisible forces or terrorism in Punjab, but their numbers are very few.

However, regardless of the type, one finds that the fate of these cases is similar. From reporting to investigation and prosecution, award of financial compensation to the heirs, role of the employers, there is a strange resemblance with the extraordinary happening in a few cases.

To start with, one can discuss the cases of Saleem Shahzad, whose body was recovered from a canal in Mandi Bahauddin, and Ejaz ul Haq, an employee of City 42, shot dead by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists in Lahore.

Saleem Shahzad worked for Asia Times Online based in Hong Kong and Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI) and was killed on May 10, 2011. Reportedly, he had been kidnapped from Islamabad while he was on his way to the office of a TV channel to take part in a talk show. The global rights body Human Rights Watch claimed Saleem had informed them about threats received from the country’s premier intelligence agency as he had been writing sensitive stories not acceptable to it. This could not be proved during investigations as well as by the judicial commission formed for this purpose. Though, the commission did not clearly identify the culprit, it came out with suggestions on how to avert similar incidents and proposed monetary compensation for Saleem’s family, employment for his wife, and state-funded education for his children.

I contacted Zubair Akhtar, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Sadar Mandi Bahauddin Police Station to get an update on the case. The SHO informed that the case had been closed because of lack of evidences. He was also not aware of the current status of the case and could not recall anybody from the family approaching him for this purpose. The SHO seemed to be in a hurry to end the call and denied having knowledge of the whereabouts of Saleem’s family. (You can get the contact details from FIR or PFUJ, please talk to them). Police is reluctant to provide copy of the FIR and President of PFUJ Rehman Bhutta says PFUJ doesn’t have any record of the slain journalist’s family. No one is ready to talk on the issue.

Saleem Shahzad’s wife, Anita Saleem, has given an interview to AKI which appeared on November 29, 2018. In the interview, she disclosed, the family has not received any support from the government or any other source. She said, “We will never know who killed Saleem, and why.”

On May 28, 2010, during a terrorist attack on Ahmadi community’s worship place in Garhi Shahu, a journalist Ijazul Haq was killed when he was giving live updates on his cellular phone to his TV Channel City 42. At least 98 people were killed on the spot and 120 got severely injured in this terrorist attack.

According to Amir, a technician in City 42, a colleague and friend of the slain journalist, Ijaz was very humble and a hardworking man. He said after his death, Mohsin Naqvi, the owner of City 42, extended financial help to the family. The family, residing in Lahore at that time, was given Rs 0.5 million by the PPP government which also announced free education for his children.

Another colleague of his who does not want to be named, revealed that the entire family left Pakistan and settled abroad. According to him, it was alleged that he was an Ahmadi and his family received support from the community and settled abroad.

Coming to the cases of journalists falling victims to enmities developed with individuals or groups, we take up a couple of cases for discussion and analyse them. For example, Amir Wakeel, correspondent of daily Awami Inqlab, was killed by unknown assailants in Rawalpindi on January 23, 2009. He left behind four kids who immediately moved to their ancestral area of Karak, KPK, after his death. His brother Kamal Asfar was an active journalist who had contested for National Assembly seat from Rawalpindi but disappeared from scene after pursuing his brother’s case for some time.

Abdul Waheed Anjum, Secretary Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club, says some journalists believe the brother of the slain journalist was also threatened by unknown men and warned not to pursue the case. Footprints of unknown killers were reportedly traced back in tribal areas of KP but not a single killer of Amir Wakeel has yet been arrested.

On January 23, 2009, afternoon, Amir Wakeel was killed at Committee Chowk in Rawalpindi by unknown killers. He was shot at and two bullets hit his head. He was shifted to District Head Quarter (DHQ) hospital Rawalpindi where he died.

Similarly, on April 22, 2014, Shahzad Iqbal, who was affiliated with Sama TV as a correspondent for six years in Mianwali district, was killed. Reportedly, the killers included Shafaullah Khan, Shabbir Khan and Irfan Khan. They shot fire at Shahzad and his brothers Sajjad Iqbal and Sikandar Iqbal when they were riding motorcycles. The assailants intercepted them in Nai Abadi Mianwali. All three of them received serious injuries and were shifted to District Hospital Mianwali where Shahzad was pronounced dead.

After one week, the killers were apprehended by police and presented before the court. The case continued for one and a half year. Later, the family settled the dispute with the accused and pardoned the murderers on May 26, 2016. Now, the accused are free. According to Sajjad Iqbal, the brother of the deceased, the organisation and Press Club Mianwali did not cooperate with the family. While defending the settlement, he explained that the family did not want to promote enmity. When inquired about the blood money in exchange of this pardon, he did not answer in affirmative. Sajjad was also injured seriously in the armed attack and this act of pardon appears quite unnatural. He was killed over an old enmity.

Muhammad Aftab Alam, a lawyer based in Islamabad, shares that the cases of journalists’ murders are taken like any other murder by the police and are not registered under any special law. Though a provision to invoke Article 7 of ATA has been taken and incorporated into substantial law, there is no supporting amendment in the procedural law that defines procedures to implement laws and award punishments.

Aftab believes that murder of a journalist is homicide as well as a curb on freedom of expression which is a constitutional right. Therefore, such cases must be treated under special laws. At the moment, the cases stay unresolved because the heirs are the complainants and they have to get things moving in a highly non-cooperative environment. He says cases of homicide cannot proceed if complainants are not aware of the complexities of our criminal justice system.

The News

LAHORE: Punjab Food Authority (PFA) is ready to spread its awareness wings for the counselling of public. In this connection, the PFA will establish its first-ever non-commercial FM Radio, approval has recently been granted by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).

The approval of the licence was given in the 146th meeting of PEMRA. In the first phase, PFA will establish radio channel in Lahore and two more radio channels will be established in Multan and Bahawalpur in second phase. The programme will be expanded by establishing FM Radio Station at divisional level.

The News

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) says it is concerned about putting activist Gulalai Ismail on the exit control list (ECL) and confiscation of her travel documents.

An HRCP press release says Ms Ismail was taken into custody in Islamabad on Oct 12 in connection with a first information report filed in August against 19 leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) – including Ms Ismail –for participating in a public gathering in Swabi.

The press release says that “freedom of movement is an internationally accepted fundamental right. Ms Gulalai has alleged that her name was placed on the ECL for having participated in ‘anti-state activities’. This has become an expedient label for human rights defenders, particularly those associated with the PTM. The right to peaceful dissent – especially when this means articulating ‘uncomfortable’ truths about curtailed rights and freedoms – should not be branded routinely as “anti-state”.

“HRCP calls on the authorities to remove all restrictions on Ms Ismail’s freedom of movement and her other rights, and to avoid using the ECL as an arbitrary and often politically motivated tool to curb the work of human rights defenders in Pakistan.”

Dawn 

The RTI Act was passed with a majority on December 13 2013, and the government signed it on December 16 2013.

Clause 5 of the Act states that a Public Information Commission (PIC) should be constituted. The PIC will frame rules and regulations in consultation with the Punjab government, and then make recommendations for the training of designated PIOs.

The government has appointed two information commissioners and the chief information commissioner on March 5. Justice (r) Mazhar Hussain Minhas was appointed as chief information commissioner, and Additional IG (r) Ahmed Raza Tahir and Mukhtar Ahmed, an NGO director, were appointed as information commissioners.

Tahir and Minhas joined the Punjab Information Department last week but have not been provided with offices, staff, or a budget. They said they had been asked to wait for further directions.

Mukhtar Ahmed said that the non serious attitude of the bureaucrats concerned had led to his delay in joining the department.

He told The Express Tribune that he would join immediately if he received indication that concrete work was to begin. He also said that he was working on another project at present.

Two months ago Punjab Information Secretary Momin Agha had told The Express Tribune that he could not disclose the names of designated officers at public bodies. Information Department Deputy Secretary Asad Ali Khan who looks after matters pertaining to the RTI told The Express Tribune last month that the government had designated 400 PIOs so far across the province but refused to disclose their names.

Clause 7 of the RTI Act only requires PIOs to be appointed in public bodies. However, it does not say what is to be done if a public body does not nominate a PIO.

Agha did not provide a comment on why PIOs had not been notified, and why the department concerned had not provided the information commissioners with offices, staff or a budget. Khan did not attend the phone.

Parliamentary Secretary for Information Rana Muhammad Arshad told The Express Tribune that it was the government’s objective to remove obstacles to public access to information.

He said that transparency was the motto of the government, which was why the assembly had passed the RTI. He said it was being obstructed at the bureaucratic end. He added that he would seek a report from the secretary concerned and inform Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in order to immediately implement the Act.

Express Tribune

The Right to Information bill carried two amendments that differentiate it from the original act. Clause Five of the bill maintained: “Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, any information mentioned in subsection (1) may be disclosed by the Public information officer if the information is 50 years old but commission, in an appropriate case, extend this time period of 50 years to a further 20 years.”

Second, “where a public information officer or any other person has, without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an application, has not furnished information within time limits, or denied the request with mala fide or knowingly gave incorrect, incomplete or misleading information, the commission may, after providing sufficient opportunity of defense to the public information officer, direct the public information officer to pay fine not exceeding two days salary for each day of delay or to pay fine which may extend to fifty thousands (50,000) rupees.”

The assembly also passed Lahore Development Authority (amendment) Bill 2013, aimed at establishing a comprehensive system of metropolitan planning and development in order to improve the quality of life in the area of Lahore division and establish an integrated metropolitan and regional development authority.

The bill would also help evolve policies and plans relating to improving housing, industrial development, traffic, transportation, education, health, water supply, sewerage, drainage, solid waste disposal and other allied matters.

The Punjab Commission on Status of Women Bill 2013 was also on the agenda, which as per the bill, was aimed at empowering women, expansion of opportunities for their socio-economic growth and elimination of all forms of discrimination against them.

Other bills that were passed included the Punjab Weight and Measure (international system) Enforcement (amendment) Bill, the Punjab Workmen’s Compensation (amendment) Bill and the Employees’ Cost of Living (Relief) (amendment) Bill.

The four bills that were deferred till Friday sitting, which was called at 9am, included The Punjab Commission on Status of Women Bill, the Punjab Shops and Establishments (amendment) Bill, the Punjab Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers (amendment) Bill and the Punjab Payment of Wages (amendment) Bill.

Earlier, the Opposition tried to force the House to take motion pertaining to stoppage of gas to the industry and the CNG sector out of turn, but in vain. Some speakers from the opposition, including Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed, pleaded the chair to suspend the routine business and discuss the impact of the stoppage, which according to them runs into billions of rupees and will result in unemployment of hundreds of thousands of people. However, the speaker, citing rules of business, asked the Opposition to go to the Business Advisory Committee of the House to get the motion included in the discussion.

DAWN

LAHORE: The Punjab government tabled and started debate on the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Bill 2013 in the provincial assembly on Wednesday to make compulsory for government departments to provide the demanded information within the next 14 working days to the citizens.

Under the proposed laws, a special commission would be formed by the name of the Punjab Information Commission (PIC) that would consist of three information commissioners equivalent to the public officer of grade 21.

The commission will be responsible for providing information to citizens directly when they submit any request in this regard.

One of the members of the commission will be equivalent to the judge of the high court and the second equivalent to grade 21 officer, while the third one will belong to the civil society, having more than 15 years of experience in his field with skills in mass communication.

The complainants could submit a request of information about any government department to the commission directly through its online service or a written application, and the commission will provide such information within 14 working days to the applicant.

The commission will gather the demanded information from the relevant department and the authorities of that department will be bound to provide accurate information regarding the request to the commission.

However, information related to national defence and security, public order and international relations of Pakistan will not be provided to the citizens.

After the bill was tabled, the opposition benches made hue and cry and strongly opposed it, and also pointed out the quorum three time. By the reason of lack of quorum, the chair pended debate on the bill until today (Thursday).

There are high chances that the bill will be passed today despite reservations of the opposition.

Deputy speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani chaired the session on Wednesday that started one hour and 43 minutes late.

During the question hour, Minister for Forests, Fisheries and Wildlife Malik M Asif was given a warning by the chair after he gave unsatisfactory and contradictory answers to a question several times.

The speaker directed him to probe the issue and inform the House about the real situation after collecting the required information.

However, while answering to a question regarding permission to foreigners for hunting in Punjab, the minister said that foreigners were being allowed by the Foreign Office for their “hunting adventures” in Pakistan.

He said the office used to issue special permission to them, whereas the local people were not allowed to take part in such activities.

The minister said that such special permissions were issued to figures of brother Islamic countries alone.

“They were being issued visas for specific days and to hunt a hundred brides only,” he mentioned.

Meanwhile, treasury and opposition members disregarded his statement and said that foreigners used to stay for more than 20 days and they hunted countless birds.

Asif also informed the House that the proportion of forests’ land in the province did not meet international standards, as the area should at least have a forest cover of five per cent of its total geographical area.

Out of the total 50.956 million acre land, the province had forest on only 1.62 million acres (3.1 per cent).

He mentioned that in order to meet the international standards of having forests on at least five per cent of the land, the province would need a hefty amount of Rs 1 billion along with 600 cusecs of water, which according to him was an impossible task under the prevailing circumstances.

Pertaining to a question about transfer of 55 acres in Lodhran to a politician, the minister stated that the land was not delivered to a person but an organisation in 1981.

The minister also pledged that after enacting the Forest Act, 2010, the activities of the timber mafia had been reduced by 42 per cent.

Though he admitted that the illegal activity of timber theft was taking place with the connivance of some officials of the department.

He also informed the House that the government had banned felling of trees in Murree.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, in his speech, claimed that the government was complying with the Supreme Court’s observations.

He appreciated that PML-N’s defence minister presented himself before the apex court when summoned.

Sanaullah termed Imran Khan as an unintelligent person for staging a sit-in protest in order to stop NATO supplies.

“By doing this, the PTI cannot stop drone strikes,” he underscored. PTI member Sadiq Khan walked out of the House after not being allowed to speaker on a point of order. He tried several times to speak on a point of order but the speaker did not allow him. Upon this, opposition leader Mehmoodur Rasheed also protested inside the House and asked the speaker to be unbiased towards the opposition members.

Treasury member Mian Aslam brought Sadiq Khan in the House again on the directives of the speaker.

Daily Times

Ejaz George, cameraman for “Capital TV” who received eye injury, told Pakistan Press Foundation that the scuffle started when he asked a party activist to provide him the way for coverage and stay a side. However, he said after the exchange of some harsh words between them the activist, who was carrying a party flag; hit him with the flag’s stick. The stick caused serious injury in his left eye lid and it started to bleed. Journalists rushed him to the hospital. He is in stable condition now, he said.

Many other reporters and cameramen also received minor injuries.

A large number of media persons gathered at Faisal Chowk in front of the Punjab Assembly to protest against the behavior of political party workers and stopped media coverage of the protest. They also boycotted the Punjab Assembly proceedings, demanding that strict action be taken against people responsible. Provincial Law minister immediately expressed solidarity and requested adjournment of the session till August 27. Speaking on the occasion, he said violence with the media representatives was very tragic. Media is an important pillar of the society. Those involved in this incident would be dealt according to the law.
Pervaiz Shaukat, president Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), and Amin Yusuf, the general secretary, also condemned violence by the workers of a political party against journalists and demanded of the government prompt action against culprits.

Members of Punjab Union of journalist (PUJ), Lahore Press Club and Punjab Assembly Press gallery continued their protest demonstration. Addressing on the occasion Arshad Ansari, president LPC announced his complete support and also announced a protest demonstration outside assembly at 10am on August 27. Meanwhile, PUJ has given a protest call for same day at 3pm at Faisal Chowk.

Later, Political party leaders, and Opposition Leaders in Punjab Assembly apologised to journalists. Expressing solidarity with them, the party leaders said they would conduct an inquiry into the incident and cancel the party membership of those linked to it.

Pakistan Press Foundation