The joint Karachi police and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) action against newspaper hawkers and their stalls needs to be condemned as reports say that Karachi police ransacked and demolished newspaper stalls in various areas of Karachi and the officials of Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) have taken newspaper sellers into custody and snatched newspapers from their stalls. The authorities concerned must not lose sight of the fact that newspaper industry is in a deep financial crisis and struggling to survive. According to All Pakistan Newspaper Society, in these hard times, such actions are perceived to close down print media outlets completely.
The police-KMC action amounts to an attack on freedom of expression; in other words, it’s a crude attempt aimed at muzzling press freedom.