ISLAMABAD: A gathering of media practitioners and legal experts was told on Thursday that there was no law in Pakistan that guaranteed the safety of journalists, and that the state – rather than protecting journalists – actually creates an enabling environment where media personnel can be targeted for doing their jobs.

An official from the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights also raised many eyebrows on Thursday when he said that journalists were “among the most vulnerable groups in society”.

Speaking during a discussion on impunity for those who perpetrated violence against journalists, the law ministry’s Khashishur Rehman said, “If something happens to them, it impacts the society as a whole.”

These claims were made at ‘Supporting Safety of Journalists in Pakistan’, a consultation held to assess the journalist safety indicators developed by Unesco. The event was attended by journalists, media practitioners, academics, legal experts and UN representatives.

The indicators are meant to pinpoint matters that impact the safety of journalists and map the features that help assess the extent to which journalists are able to carry out their work safely.

Wali Babar’s brother makes impassioned appeal to end impunity against the press
Mr Rehman also admitted that the issue of impunity stems from “the erosion of the criminal justice system”.

He also said Pakistan was one of the most over-legislated countries in the world.

Discussing the legal aspects of the impunity with which journalists can be silenced, lawyer and columnist Saroop Ijaz pointed out that actions such as banning YouTube and outlawing online criticism of the government created an environment that encouraged extremist views regarding the media and freedom of expression.

“When the state tells people to ‘shut up’, it sets a precedent that it is OK to force someone into silence,” he said, referring to the murder of Saleem Shahzad. He said that only national security states ‘measured’ how patriotic a journalist was.

He said that all protections and legal cover for journalists would be for naught if they were not allowed to cover what they wanted to. “Journalists aren’t responsible to any notion of national security, but the truth. Everything else is a corollary.”

He concluded by saying that journalist safety could not be divorced from the state of free expression in any country, adding that in Pakistan, both were under threat.

Talking about protection mechanisms for local journalists, Guy Berger – Unesco’s Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development – said, “You can’t import or export journalist safety; there are no UN peacekeepers in blue helmets who will come and protect you. Local actors must take the lead in this regard.”

Wali Babar

Most of the speakers highlighted that in Pakistan, only two cases of journalists who were murdered had reached any conclusion so far: the murders of Daniel Pearl and Wali Khan Babar.

The most moving talk of the day came from Murtaza Babar, brother of the slain Geo TV reporter, who made an impassioned plea for journalists to look after their own. “For God’s sake, take notice. Enough journalists have died. Hanging the culprits won’t bring my brother back, but it will benefit journalists working in dangerous environments,” he said.

Speaking about the hardships that he and Wali Babar’s family had to endure after his murder, Murtaza Babar said that “three courts, four judges and eight public prosecutors later”, his brother’s murderers still eluded justice.

“At least seven people – including informants, police officers and their relatives – were killed because they were connected to Wali Babar’s case,” Murtaza recounted. “No lawyer was prepared to take up our case, and one who did was also killed.” He claimed that no one from Wali Babar’s organisation or the various journalist bodies had inquired after the family while all these killings were taking place.

“There have been three attempts on my life, but I’ve not gone public with this information, for fear of scaring off the few people who are helping us,” he said.

Murtaza also suggested that journalist bodies help strengthen the investigative capacity of law enforcement agencies, since that was the weakest link in the system.

Dawn

KARACHI: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said that in Pakistan last year’s conviction of six suspects for the assassination of Geo Television reporter Wali Khan Babar would herald a new dawn for journalists have dwindled in the face of fresh violence and the leadership’s failure to implement a series of commitments to CPJ to address impunity.

According to the latest “CPJ’s 2015 Global Impunity Index Report, three journalists have been slain since the last index period, bringing Pakistan’s total to 22 for the most recent decade. They include Shan Dahar who was gunned down while investigating illegal sales of aid medicine at a local hospital.

With the exception of Babar’s case, impunity remains the norm in these murders and in a slew of recent, non-fatal attacks, such as the shooting that gravely injured popular news anchor Hamid Mir. Threats to journalists stream from military and intelligence agencies, political parties, criminal groups and militants, and corrupt local leaders.

Pakistan is a focus country for the UN Plan of Action for the Safety of Journalists and issue of Impunity, an initiative that has improved dialogue and coordination among civil society, media, and the government but not yet led to any significant reduction in impunity. Impunity Index Rating Pakistan 0.119 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants, Last year Ranked 9th with a rating of 0.123.

The News

This he said while speaking at a function, organized by the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) at a local hotel to mark the World Press Freedom Day. He said that there was a demand for shifting the venue of trial court proceedings of the case of slain media person in the context of the case of slain Geo News TV journalist Wali Khan Babar as recently convictions were secured against the killers of Wali Babar by shifting his trial court case to a town in interior Sindh.

On the demand of Owais Aslam Ali, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, said the trial court proceedings related to the murder case of slain media person Munir Sangi, belonging to Larkana, would be shifted to any other town of the province in accordance with the demands of heirs in the family of the deceased media person.

Memon said that the Pakistan People’s Party’s government in the province would never accept the shutting down of the publication of Daily Jang or the closure of the transmission of Geo TV as it would be in sheer violation of principles of freedom of the media.

He said that Geo TV (Jang Group) is a big organization and we are proud of it, adding that the PPP always supported the cause of freedom of press.

Memon said the PPP government would always be tolerant to criticism, due or undue, being propagated by Geo News but it would never accept the complete shutting down of transmission of the channel. He said the all television channels and outlets of the media should have full freedom to criticize governments but they should never be penalized in the form of shutting down their transmission.

The Sindh information minister said the present situation in the country, where different institutions and sections of the society had become highly polarized in the aftermath of the attack on Hamid Mir, had been going highly in favor of enemies of the country. He regretted that nobody was available on the current scenario to defuse the situation in an amicable manner through talks and negotiations. Rather every other person is found active on the scene trying to add fuel to the fire.

Memon said that he would never support the latest stance of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan for boycotting the Daily Jang and Geo TV as such a decision would be completely against the spirit of freedom of the media and the principles of democracy.

He said the media and journalistic fraternity in the country should observe complete freedom and solidarity among their ranks to give support and uphold the cause of freedom of the press. He said ensuring freedom of press was a compulsory condition for the continuity of democracy in the country.

He said that media institutions, TV channels and newspapers should not be subjected to censorship or restrictions as the media should embark upon the course of self-regulation, self-reform, and self-discipline as it has always been the norm in a democratic regime.

Other speakers at the forum said the media and journalists’ fraternity would never accept shutting down any newspaper or television channel by the establishment as such an act would create serious repercussions for the independence of the press and for the existence and future of other media institutions in the country.

They also eulogized the journalistic services of injured Geo News senior anchorperson Hamid Mir as saying that the armed attack on his life on the evening of April 19, 2014 could only be perceived as the attack on the freedom of press in the country. They said the only crime committed by Hamid Mir, owing to which he was attacked, was that he had become the representative voice of downtrodden Pakistanis, especially because he had upheld the cause of the people of Balochistan struggling for their long-denied rights.

They said the journalists’ fraternity, regardless of the conflicting business interests of media houses, had complete unity in their ranks for the cause of freedom of press and in no way were they ready to accept any propaganda being aired regarding the attack on the life of Hamid Mir.

Editor of Daily Jang Nazir Leghari said the establishment, which at present had been trying to brand Jang and Geo TV as disloyal to the state, in the past had declared the leaders of East Pakistan AK Fazlul Haq and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, who in fact had been at the forefront in the struggle for the creation of Pakistan, as traitors. He said the same tyrannical fashion of the state for unduly awarding certificates of disloyalty had dated back to the times of Socrates as the famous Greek philosopher had been sentenced to death while declaring him an enemy of the state.

He said the 180 million population of the country would never be affected by the propaganda of the establishment as it would always hold Hamid Mir in high esteem as the torchbearer of the struggle for securing the rights of the people of Pakistan.

He said the dissenting voice of the media had not been stifled during the draconian and repressive military and martial law rule of the 1980s in the country and in the present modern-day, no state authority would be able to shut down publication of newspapers or transmission of TV channels through the coercive means.

He said it was high time that the owners of media houses and publishers of newspapers sort out their mutual and conflicting interests for the greater cause of freedom of media.

Tahir Najmi, Editor of Daily Express, said the journalistic fraternity had only one consensus opinion about the attack on the life of Hamid Mir that the incident was highly condemnable, tantamount to curbing the freedom of press, while the criminal elements and conspirators behind the attack, regardless of their influence or status, should be brought to justice without any undue delay.

He said the business interests of owners of media houses had been behind the present situation of division and polarization persisting on the national media scene following the attack on Hamid Mir.

He said the working journalists and their representative associations like Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists had always been in the forefront in the struggle against censorship and curbs on the media and press but associations of editors and newspaper publishers had never played their due role in securing the freedom of press.

Saeed Khawar, Resident Editor of Daily Nawa-e-Waqat Karachi, said the media institutions should show harmony in their relationship with each other so that there should be no damage to the cause of freedom of the media.

He said the shutting down of any TV channel or newspaper in the country would be perceived as an act of the state in total disrespect of morality and ethical norms being considered necessary for freedom of the media in the country.

Dr Jabbar Khattak, secretary-general of CPNE, said the democratically elected governments had always been tolerant to criticism of the media and press against their policies while military regimes in the country had always tried to stifle the voice of the dissenting media.

Aamir Mahmood of CPNE also said the CPNE as the representative forum of working and publisher editors in the country would never accept the present form of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), and its repressive laws, mainly due to abnormal constitution of the electronic media regulator. He said Pemra in the present form was not in a position to consider any application forwarded to it for revoking the license of any TV channel.

Vice-president CPNE and chairman of its Sindh Committee Shaheen Qureshi said that World Press Freedom Day in the country should be observed from next year as the day to commemorate Shuhuda (martyrs) of journalism in the country as over 100 journalists in the country had so far laid down their lives for upholding the cause of freedom of the press.

Pakistan Press International

A case in point is the attack on Hamid Mir, senior anchorman and journalist at Geo News.

His attack has left the journalist community shattered, for he was respected for his views and news.

The media are no longer free; they are operating under constant threat of gun and bomb attacks, as is visible with the security arrangements each media house has made outside their offices.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) states that 54 journalists – including Wali Khan Babar, Daniel Pearl and Saleem Shahzad – have been murdered in the country since 1992. Seven journalists were killed in 2012 alone, making Pakistan the world’s third deadliest country.

The CPJ’s 2014 Global Impunity Index ranks Pakistan ninth in the list of countries around the world where an attack on a journalist may go unpunished.

Twenty two cases of attacks on journalists are currently pending in the courts.

The present year has probably been the most dangerous for journalists.

On New Year’s Eve, Shan Dahar, Larkana bureau chief for a television channel, was gunned down.

In January, three employees of a media group were killed in a gun attack on their digital satellite news gathering van parked outside the Board of Secondary Education Karachi.

On March 29, Raza Rumi, editor of a weekly newspaper and anchorman for a media group, was attacked in Lahore while he was being driven; his driver lost his life in the incident.

Following the attack, Rumi wrote in a column: “I am now at a safe location, unable to move out and have been told that my case is exceptional with six men – most armed – had attempted to eliminate me and they failed. And that the security agencies can only protect me if I remain locked up in a ‘safe’ location.”

According to independent journalist unions, six media workers have been killed in targeted attacks since January, while over a dozen have already received death threats, including three anchorpersons.

The situation is far more alarming and threatening than it has been realised. The risk factor for the media has increased as conflict escalates.

“Today the country is caught in the midst of many conflicts – including terrorism, sectarianism, separatist movements, violence among underworld mafias.

“Journalists report these stories from the conflict zones without having any training or even understanding of the danger,” said Mazhar Abbas, general secretary of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.

He said that this was the time for media houses to demonstrate unity and fight for the right of freedom of expression.

Until that happens, truth will continue to be sacrificed as armed men roam the streets and attack with impunity.l

The News

During the past few weeks, a sustained campaign has started where journalists are being threatened, harassed and attacked.

However, Pakistani journalists are not alien to attacks as since 2000, according to some reports, more than 100 journalists have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty while several others were attacked, tortured and threatened, but all such incidents could not stop the journalists from bringing the truth before the general public.

Unfortunately, the attackers/killers of journalists roam Scot free as not even a single case has reached its logical conclusion.

Of late, senior journalist Raza Rumi was attacked in Lahore in which his driver was killed. Recently, Editor Investigation, The News Ansar Abbasi, and senior journalist Ahmad Noorani received threats through various means and now Hamid Mir has been attacked.

Earlier Najam Sethi of Geo had also received several threats.

Apart from his bravery, Hamid Mir is known for his support of journalist community irrespective of the organisations they work for.

Whether it was attack on Raza Rumi or threats to Ansar Abbasi and Ahmad Noorani or the issue of journalist Jamal Tarkai, who was forced to leave Balochistan or the issue of Umar Cheema, The News journalist who was abducted, harassed and tortured in the federal capital, Hamid Mir was the loudest voice of protest on killing of Geo’s reporter Musa Khankhel Shaheed from Swat.

Not only this, the murder of Geo’s reporter Wali Khan Babar also got unprecedented coverage in Capital Talk, the television programme Hamid Mir hosts. Hamid Mir was also the frontrunner in protesting against the murder of Saleem Shahzad. It was Hamid Mir, who appeared in every protest for freedom of press and always lent his shoulders to support the journalist community. Just to quote one incident, Hamid Mir volunteered himself to appear before the judicial commission formed on National Insurance Company Limited scam in which ex-Interior Minister Rehman Malik pushed five journalists to reveal their sources, and it was because of Hamid Mir that the journalist community won a historic case and the judicial commission handed down verdict that journalists cannot be compelled to reveal their sources even in the witness box of the court.

The state of journalism in Pakistan could easily be judged from the fact that in 2013 alone, at least eleven journalists were killed while on duty. Similarly, each year around a dozen journalists sacrifice their lives which makes Pakistan the most difficult country for journalism but on the other hand, such sacrifices also blow a new zeal among the working journalists that they could not be killed but not silenced.

Hamid Mir has been supporting the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies for their successes, but he also has been critic of army’s political meddling. He has been highlighting the negative role of Pakistan’s military establishment in ruining the political system of the country and has been very local on the issue of missing persons especially from Balochistan which,

by no means, makes him an enemy of the State of Pakistan.

The problem with Hamid Mir is that he cannot remain silent on negative role of intelligence agencies that is why he was threatened by a few elements in the agencies which he conveyed to his friends and family.

The attackers of Hamid Mir should keep it in mind that the issue never settles by silencing the messenger but by understanding the message.

Since Pakistan’s birth, there have remained Hamid Mirs in media who would never bow before the wrongs and this legacy continues.

“Hamid Mir had strongly protested against attacks on Saleem Shehzad, Umar Cheema, Raza Rumi, Wali Babar, Musa Khankhel and threats to Sethi, Abbasi, Noorani and others”

The News

Following the delaying tactics of the organised criminal gang behind the murder of journalist Wali Khan Babar and the killing of six eye witnesses, one prosecutor and, the case has finally concluded, setting an example of being a case where the killers have been prosecuted and brought to justice.

Two main killers, still at large, have been awarded death sentence and four arrested are awarded life imprisonment.

Much has been written about the Wali Babar murder case in national and international media. But there are many unwritten and untold stories from the murder of the journalist in January 2011 to the conclusion of the first stage of the case on March 1, 2014.

Five eyewitnesses including Rajab Bangali, policeman Asif Rafiq, Naveed Tanoli brother of Inspector Shafiq Tanoli who arrested the accused and Haider Ali who identified the accused convicts before the court and one prosecutor Naimat Randhawa got murdered. Earlier, lawyers on behalf of the complainant Arshad Iqbal Cheema, Muhammad Khan Buriro and Mubashar Mirza had refused to proceed with the matter. All three lawyers fled abroad following death threats. Buriro and Mirza later returned to Pakistan after the passage of a year.

A policeman who investigated the murder case and arrested the absconding accused in Wali Babar case said those arrested are only foot soldiers or simple agents. “The mastermind and culprits who ordered these criminals to kill Babar are still safe and will remain so because of their influence.”

“The criminal gang who ordered the killings is not only operating in the country; it is also operating from other Western countries as well as South Africa, Sri Lanka and UAE. Everyone in the law enforcing agencies is aware of this mafia but they are silent due to political compulsions,” says another policeman on condition of anonymity.

The decision from the ATC in Wali Babar case is the first stage. The criminals behind this murder will challenge the decision in the high court and are capable of challenging the case in the apex court too.
The way Wali Babar was chased and killed, how the five eye witnesses and one prosecutor of the case were murdered one by one, and the support obtained by the arrested criminals proves it was not the act of any ordinary criminal gang but the work of a highly-organised mafia.

After the killings of five eye witnesses and one prosecutor of the case Naimat Randhawa, the Sindh Government on the pressure of journalist community requested the Sindh High Court to transfer the case from Karachi High Court to Anti-terrorism Court Khandkot.

The case was transferred on November 8, 2013 and the accused shifted to nearer District Jail Shikarpur on November 28, 2013 due to pressure of their supporters.

The case was defended by the defense counsel of the accused Suleman Mujahid Baloch MNA of MQM from NA 239 Karachi. Baloch used many delaying tactics, remained absent on three hearings in a row despite the case being in its final stage. But after getting warning from the court and the decision of Sindh Government to provide counsel to the accused on state expense, Baloch appeared and argued.
There are reports that the administration of District Jail Shikarpur is still providing illegal facilities to the accused-now-convicts of this high profile murder case due to their political backing.

A well-placed source in Sindh Jail Department revealed that the convicts, Faisal Mehmood alias Nafsiyati, Naveed alias Polka, Muhammad Ali Rizvi, Shakeel Malik and Shah Rukh alias Mani confined, had not only been enjoying the facilities reserved for A class prisoners but they had even visited the city in an official car of a jail officer twice during their confinement. The jail administration is said to be providing them good quality food and has appointed two prisoners to wait on them, it was learnt. These facilities are subject to court orders only and can be provided to highly literate persons, law graduates and members of parliament.

The journalist community protested on January 18 on the call of PFUJ in front of Shikarpur Jail against these acts.

Leaders, MNAs and MPAs of a particular party have been present and fully supporting every hearing of the case, extending full legal support to the murderer of Babar Wali.

The confidential joint interrogation reports (JITs) of six premier intelligence agencies of the country including ISI, IB, CID, Pakistan Rangers and police point towards the MQM workers’ involvement in the murder of Wali Babar and also confirmed that Faisal Mehmood alias Nafsiyati, Shah Rukh alias Mani and Muhammad Ali Rizvi were workers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

According to the JIT reports, the orders to kill Babar were issued by some ‘influential people’ living in South Africa but with connections in Karachi.

The JIT report further said that accused revealed to the investigators that their group leader, Faisal alias Mota, had received orders from a man named Agha to kill Babar. Faisal Mota held several meetings with them at different places to finalise the modus operandi of the operation.

MQM spokesman Wasay Jalil said the party has nothing to do with any of the convicted killers. “Every Urdu-speaking person is not an MQM worker. Such allegations are not new to the party as some people continue to spread fabricated stories against the party,” he said, adding these questions should arise only if the court convicts MQM.

Secretary General Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists PFUJ said, “The journalist community welcomes the court decision and our struggle for free media will continue.” He said the journalist community will also pursue the other cases of journalists’ murders in the line of duty.

There were two important turning points in the case which helped the prosecution to conclude the case — the confessional statement of one accused Shahrukh alias Mani before the judicial magistrate Karachi regarding the killing of Wali Babar and involvement of another accused. The other was the identification of convicts before the court by an eyewitness Haider Ali who was later killed in November, 2012.

Some questions related to the case are still unanswered. Will the judgement announced by the anti-terrorism court after three years of the murder reveal the masterminds, the actual culprits behind the murder? Will the main killers be arrested and punished?

In a country like Pakistan, especially in Sindh province where proclaimed offenders become ministers and members of parliament, anyone can imagine the situation. The main question is: Why was Wali Babar picked on? Some quarters say that he wanted to interview the ex-wife of a political leader and some suggest he was murdered due to his ethnic background.

These questions remain unanswered. The decision from the ATC in Wali Babar case is the first stage. The criminals behind this murder will challenge the decision in the high court and are capable of challenging the case in the apex court too.

The News

AT last, some accountability. Some days ago, a little over three years after Wali Khan Babar was shot dead while on his way home from work at a local television channel in Karachi, six people were convicted of the young reporter’s murder. Two of them, who have never been apprehended, were sentenced to death in absentia while four others, arrested a few months after the killing, were given life imprisonment. After Daniel Pearl, this is the first case of a journalist’s murder in Pakistan in which there has been a conviction. It is a welcome development in a country deemed one of the world’s most dangerous for journalists where, according to international watchdog organisations, scores of journalists have been killed over the last decade by violent ethnic, religious or militant groups and there have been times where even the country’s security establishment has come under suspicion.

In order to undo the culture of impunity that surrounds such murders, the successful prosecution in this instance must not be an exception; the cases of other slain journalists should be pursued with alacrity and determination. Although the Wali Babar case had all the twists and turns typical of a high-profile crime — several witnesses were murdered and two prosecutors reportedly fled abroad on account of threats — it also demonstrated that strong resolve and an innovative approach on the part of the state can yield results. The decision to move the trial from Karachi to an anti-terrorism court in Shikarpur was perhaps pivotal in bringing about a conclusive result, as it placed vulnerable individuals who were material to the prosecution at a distance from those seeking to silence them. The Wali Babar case is thus important for the signal it sends to those who would silence journalists for doing their job. The same needs to be done in the case of other journalists killed in the country, not the least of them being Saleem Shahzad. Without that, suspicions of the state’s complicity by either omission or commission will remain.

DAWN

Karachi: Four men convicted of murdering Geo News reporter journalist Wali Khan Babar filed appeals on Thursday in the Sindh High Court against their life sentences.

Mohammad Shahrukh, 24, Faisal Mehmood, 45, Tahir Naveed Shah, 34, and Mohammad Ali Rizvi, 40, had been sentenced for life by an anti-terrorism court.

The appellants’ counsel alleged the prosecution had failed to prove its charges against the men and there was no direct evidence against them. The trial court erred in its judgment by relying on the prosecution case, which could not be substantiated in the eyes of the law, he claimed.

The high court was asked to set aside the convictions and to order the release of appellants if they were not involved in other cases.

On February 28, the Shikarpur anti-terrorism court had also handed down death sentences to two absconding men, Kamran alias Zeeshan and Faisal. Another man, 44-year-old Mohammad Shakeel, was however acquitted by the court.

Babar was shot dead on January 13, 2011, in Liaquatabad. The accused were arrested from Gulshan-e-Iqbal after a shootout. During interrogation, they confessed to their involvement in the murder.

Police charged the defendants along with their absconding associates, Kamran alias Zeeshan, Junaid, Saeed, Liaquat and Faisal, that they had killed the reporter due to some enmity.

The News

On Saturday March 1, 2014 a Pakistani court convicted six defendants for their roles in the murder of Wali Khan Babar, a Geo TV journalist who was shot dead in Karachi in January 2011, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the convictions – the first in the murder of a Pakistani journalist – but calls on authorities to ensure the masterminds are brought to justice.

“These convictions mark a significant step in addressing the deep-rooted culture of impunity surrounding the murders of journalists in Pakistan. They indicate what can be achieved when the country’s legal system commits itself to pursuing justice,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. “But justice will remain incomplete until the masterminds in Wali Khan Babar’s case are also brought to trial.”

Judge Mushtaq Ahmed Leghari, who presided over a special Anti-Terrorism Court, sentenced Naveed Polka, Muhammad Ali Rizvi, Faisal Mahmood, and Mohammad Shahrukh Khan to life in prison, news reports said. Two others, Kamran (alias “Zeeshan”) and Faisal Mota, who have not yet been arrested, were given the death sentence in absentia. A seventh man, Mohammed Shakeel, was acquitted for lack of evidence, the reports said.

In an alleged video confession posted on YouTube, Khan said he had been told to follow Babar as he was driving home from work, according to a Reuters report. He said Zeeshan had stepped in front of the journalist’s car and shot him six to seven times. The video was authenticated to Reuters by the prosecutor, the report said.

CPJ issued a special report in May 2013, “Roots of Impunity,” that documented the lead-up to Babar’s murder and its aftermath. Babar had been threatened in connection with his coverage of political turf wars, extortion, targeted killings, electricity theft, and land-grabbing in the crime-ridden city of Karachi.

After Babar was slain, unidentified assailants murdered several individuals connected to the investigation, including a police informant, two police constables, and the brother of an investigating officer. In 2012, the one remaining witness in the case was also killed. He was due to testify in court two days later. The original prosecutors in the case–Muhammad Khan Buriro and Mobashir Mirza–told CPJ that they were threatened and eventually fired. They fled the country in late 2011. After these developments, the trial was shifted from Karachi to an anti-terrorism court in Shikarpur.

Based on early statements given by the suspects, police said the murder plot was organized by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or MQM, Pakistan’s third-largest political party and considered its most influential secular political organization. The MQM has repeatedly denied any involvement.

Prior to the convictions in the Babar murder, the high-profile killing of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan is the only known journalist murder case in the country in which partial justice was carried out. At least 46 journalists have been killed in Pakistan over the course of the last decade, according to CPJ research. The country is ranked eighth on CPJ’s 2013 Impunity Index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population.

IFEX

KARACHI: The city police have released mug shots of the two absconders involved in the murder of Geo television journalist Wali Khan Babar.

The two absconders, Kamran alias Shani and Faisal alias Faisal Mota have been sentenced to death in Wali Babar’s murder case. The city’s police chief announced on Monday a reward of Rs2 million for anyone who would assist in the arrests of the two convicts. “The identity of the informer shall be kept confidential,” assured the Karachi police spokesperson. “The names of the proclaimed offenders have also been included in the Exit Control List.”

A special Anti-Terrorism Court in Kandhkot announced on Saturday the verdict in Wali Khan Babar’s murder case, awarding the death penalty to two of the accused and life imprisonment to the other four accused.

Wali Khan Babar, 28, was gunned down in Liaquatabad on January 13, 2011, while driving home from work. An FIR regarding the incident was registered on the same day. In the court’s verdict announced on Saturday, two of the accused, Kamran alias Zeeshan alias Shani and Faisal alias Mota, were sentenced to death. Meanwhile, Faisal Mehmood alias Nafsiyati, Naveed alias Polka, Muhammad Ali Rizvi and Shahrukh alias Mani were sentenced to life imprisonment. The seventh accused, Shakeel, was discharged due to lack of evidence.

Express Tribune