ISLAMABAD: The Human\nRights Council of the United Nations has asked the government of Pakistan to\nclarify the reported persecution of media and media owners, including Mir\nShakil-ur-Rehman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter, David\nKaye, a special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom\nof opinion, and Leigh Toomey, the vice-chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary\nDetention, have asked the government to provide detailed information on the\nlegal grounds for the arrest and detention of Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, including\nthe reasons why the charges against him have been pressed 34 years after the\nalleged offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter said,\n\u201cWhy is Mr Shakil-ur-Rehman held in pre-trial detention and explain how these\nmeasures are compatible with international standard related to the right to\nliberty and security of the person and the right to freedom of expression, as\nenshrined in articles 9 and 19 of the International Covenant on civil and\npolitical rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also\nexpressed concerns over allegations of barriers and restrictions to freedom of\nexpression by media, and explain the steps taken by the incumbent government to\nensure that media can enjoy its right to freedom of expression free from\nthreats, harassment and intimidation of any sort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Working Group on\nArbitrary Detention has said that it may transmit the case through its regular\nprocedure in order to render an opinion on whether the deprivation of liberty\nwas arbitrary or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The working group\nhas also asked the government to halt the alleged violations and prevent their\nrecurrence and in the event that the investigations support or suggest the\nallegations to be correct, to ensure the accountability of any person(s)\nresponsible for the alleged violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Human Rights\nCouncil has referred to information it has received which includes that on\nMarch 12, 2020 in Lahore the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Mir\nShakil-ur-Rehman on allegations that he had illegally leased land in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAB alleged that the\ntransaction had been conducted in a manner aimed to favour Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman\nthrough the then chief minister of Punjab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman\nwas not provided with or allowed any legal assistance before or immediately\nafter his arrest. He is currently detained by NAB at its detention facility in\nLahore. It is reported that the arrest and detention aims to restrict his\nfreedom of expression, and that of the media group he owns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Human Rights\nCouncil has also stated that on March 13, 2020, the Pakistan Electronic Media\nRegulatory Authority (Pemra) reportedly directed cable distributers throughout\nthe country to stop transmitting Geo TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccording to the\ninformation received, the channels were taken off air without giving them a\nreason or a hearing,\u201d the UN body said, adding that it has been reported that\nNAB had threatened over the past couple years reporters, producers, and editors\nover the media group\u2019s coverage of NAB, and had threatened to use the country\u2019s\nmedia regulator to shut down its broadcast channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council said\nthat in July 2019, Pemra interrupted a live interview with opposition leader\nand former president Asif Ali Zardari on GEO TV, shortly after it began. The\nsame month, the authority blocked three television news channels \u2014 Capital TV,\n24 News HD, and Abbtakk News Network \u2014 after the broadcast of speeches by\nopposition leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newspaper: Dawn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Council of the United Nations has asked the government of Pakistan to clarify the reported persecution of media and media owners, including Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman. In a letter, David Kaye, a special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion, and Leigh Toomey, the vice-chair of the […]<\/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\/9074"}],"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=9074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}