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December 15, 1998
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by the
government's recent efforts to control the independent media in Pakistan.
Since August, CPJ has received numerous reports indicating that the
government has embarked upon a systematic campaign to harass and intimidate
the Jang Group of Newspapers for publishing articles unflattering to
the administration. The Jang group, Pakistan's largest newspaper company,
publishes two of the country's most widely-read papers: the daily Urdu-language
Jang newspaper and The News, an English-language daily.
Jang's December 14 publication of articles about a financial
scandal involving your family's Ittefaq Group of Companies, reports
of which have been featured in London's Observer newspaper, was followed
by a raid on Jang's Rawalpindi bureau by officers from Pakistan's Federal
Investigation Agency. Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, publisher and editor-in-chief
of the Jang Group of Newspapers, has said that the government applied
intense pressure on him not to print the offending article, which ran
prominently in both Jang and The News. On the same day, FIA officers
spent hours questioning newspaper staff, demanding to check Jang's actual
stock of newsprint against the company's records. This investigation
was apparently the latest attempt by officials to intimidate newspaper
management.
In October, the government served the Jang Group with tax notices totaling
over 720 million rupees (about $13 million). Journalists in Pakistan
report that those in power have long used the country's tax code to
punish newspapers and magazines for opposing the government. In this
case, although the Income Tax Appellate Court has stalled collection
of these taxes pending a review of the claim's merits, employees of
the Jang Group have reported continued harassment by authorities.
Various government departments have also made it extremely difficult
for Jang to obtain sufficient newsprint to publish standard editions
of its newspapers. The company's bank accounts were temporarily frozen
by government order, preventing them from purchasing newsprint, and
customs officials held a consignment of paper until a laboratory test
could be conducted to determine whether the paper ordered by the company
was indeed newsprint.
Jang has also experienced more direct pressure. For example, Shakil-ur-Rahman
says that Senator Saifur Rahman--who heads the government's Ehtesab (Accountability)
Bureau, established by the present administration to investigate corruption
charges against the previous government--has repeatedly asked him to
dismiss a number of senior journalists who have written critically about
your administration. Among the journalists on the government's blacklist
are:
Maleeha Lodhi, editor, The News (Rawalpindi)
Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, editor, Jang (Lahore)
Kamran Khan, investigative editor, The News (Karachi)
Sohaib Marghob, editor, Jang Sunday Magazine (Lahore)
Abid Tahimi, feature editor, Jang magazine (Lahore)
Mahmood Sham, editor, Jang (Karachi)
Kamila Hyat, editor, The News (Lahore)
Marianna Babar, special correspondent, The News (Rawalpindi)
Kaleem Omar, writer, The News (Karachi)
Sohail Wariach, senior assistant editor, Jang (Lahore)
Beena Sarwar, editor, The News on Sunday (Lahore)
Nasir Beg Chughtai, chief news editor, Jang (Karachi)
Mudassir Mirza, news editor, Jang (Karachi)
Khawar Naeem Hashmi, chief news editor, Jang (Lahore)
Sajjad Anwar, editor, Jang magazine (Rawalpindi)
So far, Shakil-ur-Rahman has resisted the government's demands to make
staff changes, but several of the journalists targetted by the government
have recently been silent on politically sensitive topics.
Disturbingly similar pressures have been applied to the well-respected
magazine Newsline, an English-language monthly run by a journalists'
cooperative. On October 1, plainclothes officers raided the magazine's
Karachi office, pressing staff to reveal home phone numbers and addresses
of the magazine's editors. According to Rehana Hakim, Newsline's
editor, the administration has also ordered tax audits of the magazine
and several staff members in apparent retaliation for the magazine's
coverage of government corruption. Since the magazine went public with
these allegations against the government, friends and family members
of senior staff have reported receiving intimidating phone calls asking
them to disclose their home addresses.
Although Your Excellency has stated that "no orders have been given
by the prime minister or my government to any department for any persecution
of the press," a number of Pakistani journalists see the recent actions
against the Jang Group and Newsline as indicative of the government's
growing intolerance of the independent media. The administration's decision
to withdraw government advertising from certain publications has also
been interpreted by members of the press in Pakistan as an effort to
strangle critical voices. Islamabad's English-language Muslim newspaper
which, like many publications in Pakistan, was financially dependent
on revenue from political ads announced on November 25 that it had temporarily
suspended operations after the government discontinued advertising in
the daily.
As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to the defense
of our colleagues around the world, CPJ joins the All Pakistan Newspapers
Society, Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, Pakistan Federal Union
of Journalists, Karachi Union of Journalists, and the Rawalpindi Islamabad
Union of Journalists in protesting the apparent government crackdown
on the press in Pakistan. CPJ respectfully urges your administration
to cease all actions aimed at controlling the independent media.
We appreciate your attention to these matters, and await your response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Join CPJ in Protesting Attacks on
the Press in Pakistan
Send a letter to:
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
VIA FAX: 011-92-51-920-5532
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