Talking to a journalists’ delegation, he said, if needed, he would personally talk to President Hamid Karzai for the release of Faizullah. The delegation informed the President that an Afghan court has sentenced Faizullah Khan to four years in prison for not possessing travel documents. Faizullah’s wife Sania Faiz and his son also met the president.

The Nation

Faizullah Khan, a reporter with the Pakistani private TV channel, ARY News, was arrested in April by Afghan security forces in Nangarhar Province. He was sentenced earlier this month to four years in jail for entering without travel documents and communicating with militant sources.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Pervaiz Rashid urged President Karzai to issue a presidential pardon.

“I appeal to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to use his powers to pardon Faizullah Khan,” Rashid said in a press conference in Islamabad. The spouse of the detained journalist and PFUJ President Afzal Butt were also present. Rashid said that Pakistan was also using diplomatic channels for the release of its journalist. “Both the ministry of interior and the ministry of information have been pursuing this matter from day one, the day he was arrested,” he added.

Rashid said that Pakistan respected Afghanistan’s judicial system and was appealing the verdict in an Afghan court.

Wafiullah Usmani, the head of the national security court of Nangarhar, in eastern Afghanistan, last week told AFP that Khan had no travel documents at the time of his arrest. Khan was arrested with two members of the Pakistani Taliban on the Afghan side of the border, he said.

Pakistani journalist organisations have staged protest rallies across the country and have demanded the Afghan government release Karachi-based Faizullah Khan before the Muslim festival of Eidul Fitr expected on Tuesday.

According to APP, Rashid said that Foreign Office and the Information Ministry were coordinating and taking up this issue seriously and that the Pakistani counsel general has also met Faizullah in jail and lawyers have been hired for his defence.

Earlier, wife of Faizullah Khan appealed to the Afghan president to pardon her husband so that he can return home before Eidul Fitr. She thanked the government of Pakistan and journalist community for their efforts for Faizullah’s release.

PFUJ President Afzal Butt also thanked the Pakistani government for standing by the journalist community in difficult times. He also appreciated the cooperation being provided by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Information and Broadcasting.

Daily Times

Reporters Without Borders and the Pakistani NGO Freedom Network condemn the four-year jail sentence that an Afghan court has imposed on Pakistani TV reporter Faizullah Khan for illegally crossing into Afghanistan while researching a story on the Taliban.

Announced on 13 July, the sentence was imposed by a military court in the eastern province of Nangarhar that specializes in threats to internal and external security.

The two organizations question the court’s motives for imposing such a heavy sentence. Was it a message to foreign reporters entering Afghanistan without proper travel documents? Or was it a warning to foreign reporters investigating subjects regarded as “sensitive”?

In either case, Reporters Without Borders and Freedom Network call for this utterly disproportionate sentence to be quashed on appeal.

“Such a sentence for a journalist is scandalous and out of all proportion,” said Iqbal Khattak, the executive director of Freedom Network and Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “We suspect the intelligence services of being behind this harsh sentence, and we call on the authorities to explain why a military court was used to try an administrative offence.”

Khattak and Ismaïl added: “We also urge the Afghan justice system to take more account of the role of media and journalists as guardians of public interest, and we call for a more relaxed visa regime for reporters, including the possibility of visas on arrival.”

Khan, who works for the Karachi-based TV station ARY News, was arrested by the Afghan authorities in Nangarhar in April after travelling to Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, to interview Taliban leaders and then suddenly losing contact with his colleagues.

His arrest in Afghanistan was reported by the Pakistani media on 5 May. Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) was subsequently said to suspect him of spying but no formal charge was brought against him.

The issue of the Taliban is often a source of tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with each country accusing the other of being “lax” towards the Taliban or even being directly involved in the terrorist actions that affect both countries.

Afghanistan is ranked 128th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Sania Faizullah, wife of the Karachi-based journalist, had filed an application with the court about her husband, who had gone missing from the tribal areas on April 22.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Shahnawaz Tariq, called for the documents by July 22. Sania said her husband, working with a private-run television channel, went to the tribal areas on assignment, but did not return.

Sania said the TV channel’s administration told her that her husband had been detained by Afghan intelligence agencies. She pleaded with the court to order the federal government make all efforts for his return.

The standing counsel Saeed Memon said Faizullah has been convicted in Afghanistan. The counsel said that according to his information the federal government had filed an appeal in the Nangarhar High Court against the conviction.

The bench acquiesced and adjourned the hearing till July 22.

Express Tribune

During a protest held outside the Karachi Press Club, leaders of the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ-Dastoor) and office-bearers of the press club warned of holding demonstrations at Afghan consulates in the country if the imprisoned journalist was not released before Eid-ul-Fitr.

The demonstrators were addressed by president of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ-Dastoor ) Idrees Bakhtiar and Karachi Press Club President Imtiaz Khan Faran.

Faizullah of ARY channel was sentenced by a court in Nangarhar province last week.

DAWN

An Afghan court in eastern Nangarhar province convicted Faizullah Khan, a reporter for the Karachi-based privately owned news channel ARY News, of illegally entering the country and sentenced him last week, ARY News Senior Vice President Ammad Yousaf told CPJ by phone.

Afghan authorities had also accused of Khan of spying, but the three-judge bench dismissed the espionage charge, according to his lawyer, The Express Tribune reported.

Khan had traveled to Peshawar in April to report along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and had been regularly checking in with his colleagues, according to Yousaf. Then he suddenly stopped communicating. A few days later, on April 27, ARY received a call informing the channel that Khan was being detained in a Jalalabad jail, Yousaf told CPJ. Khan had traveled to the region to interview Taliban leaders, news reports said.

“We call on Afghan authorities to immediately release Faizullah Khan,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. “No journalist should face such a harsh prison term for going about reporting.”

In the days following Khan’s arrest, ARY notified Pakistani officials, who raised concerns with tribal chiefs and officials in Afghanistan, but were unsuccessful at gaining Khan’s release, Yousaf told CPJ.

An appeal in the case has been filed, he said.

Committee to Protect Journalists

Faizullah Khan, a reporter for Karachi-based ARY News, was detained by Afghan authorities in eastern Nangarhar province in April this year. Some reports had earlier suggested Faizullah was on assignment to interview Taliban leaders as part of his professional duties.

“A panel of three-judges in eastern Nangarhar province has convicted Faizullah Khan,” a Pakistani embassy official said, while speaking from Kabul via phone.
Faizullah was also accused of spying; however, the bench dropped espionage charges and jailed him for illegal entry to Afghanistan, his Afghan lawyer says.

An Afghan source in Jalalabad, who is privy to the court’s proceedings, said the judges also mentioned Faizullah Khan’s attempt of interviewing the Taliban in the verdict.

An appeal against the conviction will be filed in an Afghan High Court, a source said.

Pakistani embassy in Kabul and the country’s consulate in Jalalabad had been actively involved to help the journalist in the legal battle, the embassy spokesman, Akhtar Munir said, talking to The Express Tribune from Kabul.

He said Ambassador Abrar Hussain had held a series of meetings with key ministers and senior officials to secure the release of the journalist. “The embassy will continue efforts to help the Pakistani journalist while using all legal options,” the spokesman said.

Sources said South Asian Free Media Association (Safma) Afghan chapter had been contacted in Kabul to seek its help in the release of the Pakistani journalist. However Safma’s in-charge in Kabul had called for a letter from Safma office-bearers in Pakistan.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) urged the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments to act urgently for safe return of the journalist.

International media groups say both Pakistan and Afghanistan are dangerous regions for journalists to operate with poor safety and security situations and impunity in attacks on journalists.

Express Tribune