Zia regime is said to be black era for freedom of expression in Pakistan.
Have we got rid of that haunted period completely?
Are we at par with the other countries of the region when it comes to freedom of media / press?
The FACT…Ziaul Haq period was worst for press freedom in Pakistan
Although successive rulers in Pakistan have hounded working journalists, the worst period was the repressive regime of late military dictator Gen Mohammad Ziaul Haq, who through sheer demagogy and deceit, ruled this country for over 10 years and brutalised Pakistan society.
“The successive governments of Pakistan have in the past felt no qualms about dubbing the national press ‘public enemy number one’, but none with as much virulence and contempt as the post-1977 martial law regime of General Mohammad Ziaul Haq, according to one of our most fearless and respected journalists Zamir Niazi. “I could close down all the newspapers, say, for a period of five years, and nobody would be in a position to raise any voice against it. If they try to organise a meeting or a procession, I will send them to jail,” he was quoted in Zamir Niazi’s book ‘The Web of Censorship’. It was in that repressive regime when four Pakistani journalists — Nasir Zaidi, Iqbal Jafri, Khawar Naim Hashmi and Masudullah Khan — were flogged by a summary military court.t.
As we observe World Press Freedom Day today (May 3) it seems that journalists in Pakistan are working in relatively better conditions. However, that impression becomes illusionary if we recall some of the incidents since January 2002.
World Press freedom Day was established by the United Nations on May 3, 1991 to highlight the basic principles of press freedom. It is a day to encourage and develop press freedom initiatives and to spur assessments of the state of press freedom worldwide. World Press Freedom Day should serve as a time of remembrance for the many journalists who have been killed in the line of duty.
As we observe World Press Day, it would be worthwhile to recall some of the major events in Pakistan when journalists were imprisoned, threatened and even killed.
January 22, 2002: Ghulam Hasnain, TIME magazine stringer disappeared. He was allegedly harassed by intelligence agencies.
January 23, 2002: Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was kidnapped by a fundamentalist group. His dead body was recovered on 17 May 2002.
July 30, 2002: Muzaffar Ejaz, editor of Jasarat, was kidnapped by an intelligence agency. The agency reportedly wanted to know the source of a story. He was released the next day.
August 21, 2002: Aziz Sanghur, a reporter at The Nation, was allegedly invited by the managing director of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) over a cup of tea where his aides thrashed him for an hour for writing a piece against the organisation.
October 20, 2002: Shahid Soomro, a correspondent of Kawish in Kandkot, was reportedly attacked by people of the Bijarani tribe and shot dead. The correspondent had filed a story, which had provoked the tribe.
December 25, 2002: Rashid Qamar, a correspondent of Pakistan, Faisalabad was shot and injured by unknown assailants.
April 14, 2003: Journalists were baton-charged when they protested against the speech of Khalid Maqbool, governor of Punjab, who accused them of telling lies. As many as 51 journalists were injured, three of them seriously.
June 1, 2003: Rashid Butt, correspondent for the Daily Lashkar in Quetta, was arrested and released after 4 days. Azam, a young journalist of Balochistan, was arrested while taking a picture of protestors. Ayub Khoso, a correspondent of Daily Alak, was given 17 years in jail for publishing an article on homosexuality.
January 6, 2003: Javed Akhtar Malik, an activist of Faisalabad Union of Journalists, was attacked. Amir Mateen, correspondent at the Daily News, Rawalpindi, Rauf Klasra, Kamran Khan and Ansar Abassi, correspondents The News were allegedly harassed by intelligence agency.
April 8, 2003: Sami Paracha, Dawn correspondent in Kohat, was kidnapped after he filed a story about an influential person who was under arrest. The police later rescued him. In Hyderabad, journalists Nadeem Panhwer, Sharif Abro, Irfan Burft, Shahid Khushk and Haji Khansial were arrested under the Anti-terrorism Act after they covered a women’s demonstration.
Sept 2003: Nasrullah Afridi of Daily, Mashriq and Aurangzeb Afridi of Daily, Subh in Khyber Agency, were put in a private jail by the religious organisation Tanzeem-e-Itehad-e-Ulema and told not to write about press freedom. Later they were released through the intervention of influential people.
October 3, 2003: Amir Bux Brohi, Daily Kawish correspondent in Shikarpur, was murdered. His relatives were pressured to hush up the case.
November 20, 2003: A Herald correspondent’s car was burnt in Lahore.
December 16, 2003: French newspaper L’Express correspondent and cameraman Jean Paul and Marc Ephtine and Pakistani journalist Khawer Mehdi were arrested. They were charged with making a fake film on Taliban. On January 12, 2003, they were presented before the Sindh High Court and they were fined Rs 200,000 each. Khawer Mehdi was kept in confinement for 45 days. Khawer Mehdi was produced in a court in Quetta on 24 January 2003. Case is still pending.
January 29, 2004: Majid Tanoli, Daily Shumal, Mansera was allegedly murdered by district nazim and advocate Khalid Javed. The correspondent had filed a story about the illicit liquor business of Khalid Javed.
March 16, 2004: Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, a reporter of Daily Khabreen, was arrested near Wana and released after a few hours.
March 18, 2004: Shaukat Khusk, correspondent at GEO at Dab Kot, was arrested and kept in confinement despite having an accreditation card.
March 19, 2004: APP reporter and photographer and 6 other journalists who were going to Wana were arrested and forced to leave.
March 21, 2004: Haroon Rashid, BBC stringer and Saiful Islam, correspondent at Daily Surkhab and Al-Jazeera Channel, were arrested at a Peshawar military hospital where they tried to interview injured military personnel. Their tape-recorder was seized.
Its old data, but killing of journalists in recent past like Wali Khan Babar is alarming.