National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an anti-corruption body, arrested Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Editor-in-Chief of Jang and Geo, Pakistan\u2019s largest print and electronic media group.\u00a0 Rehman, who was arrested on March 12, on charges of securing illegal concessions in the purchase of plots for his house in 1986 in the city of Lahore.\u00a0 The media group claimed that Rehman\u2019s arrest was in retaliation for their independent and sometimes critical coverage of NAB.<\/div>\n

\nAccording to the Jang-Geo group, the property had been bought from a private party, and all evidence of legal requirements like duty and taxes was provided to the NAB. In a statement, the spokesperson of Jang-Geo group said that NAB sent their reporters, producers and editors, over a dozen notices, threatening shutdown of the group\u2019s television because of reporting about the NAB. The spokesman said NAB had through several means tried to persuade the media group to go easy on NAB.\u00a0 The spokesperson stressed that the media group \u201cwill not stop any reporters, producers or anchors from any story that is based on merit.<\/div>\n

\u201d
\nThe Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) said the arrest of the editor-in-chief of a media house, while the case is still under inquiry appears to be an attempt of harassment for the media group’s editorial policy.\u00a0 The PBA urged the government and opposition parties to look into the matter immediately to ensure that it is not an attempt to muzzle criticism by the media group.<\/div>\n

\nAll Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) strongly condemned the Rehman\u2019s arrest. Hameed Haroon, President, and Sarmad Ali, Secretary General, APNS, said Rehman\u2019s arrest was \u201ca severe blow to the freedom of press and expression and urged political, social and democratic forces in the country to raise their own voices to safeguard and protect freedom of the press and civil liberties.<\/div>\n

\nIn a statement Arif Nizami, President of Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors said, \u201cthe manner in which this arrest has taken place paints a bleak picture of the future of media freedom in the country.\u201d<\/div>\n

\nPakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) expressed concern that \u201cthere remains a strong suspicion that such actions by NAB are selective, arbitrary and politically motivated\u201d<\/div>\n

\nIn its defence, NAB denied all allegations and claimed, they are independently pursuing all cases and have not been asked to do so by the democratically elected government. They added that Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had illegally leased the land to Rahman in 1986. NAB was granted 12-day physical remand of Rehman for further investigation.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

PPF<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
$\"Editor-in-Chief$ National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an anti-corruption body, arrested Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Editor-in-Chief of Jang and Geo, Pakistan’s largest print and electronic media group. Rehman, who was arrested on March 12, on charges of securing illegal concessions in the purchase of plots for his house in 1986 in the city of Lahore. The media group claimed that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[4],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}