NEWS FILE TWO - PAKJOURNALIST

NEWS FILE TWO

CPNE, APNS for Immediate action
The Nation - November 7, 2000

KARACHI (PR)-A joint emergency meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors and the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, representing the editors and publishers of the print media in the country, on Monday strongly condemned the wanton bomb attack on the office of the Nawa-i-Waqt in Karachi and called for immediate action by the government to ensure the protection of Pressmen, newspapers and also the offices of the newspapers in the country.

The emergent meeting of the APNS/CPNE Executives where Mr Arif Nizami and Mr Arshad A. Zuberi together thanked all the attending members for coming to the meeting at short notice, discussed the bomb blast incident at the office of the Nawa-i-Waqt on Monday at length and opined that the bomb blast was another violent manifestation of the evil designs of those who wish to silence the freedom of expression and restrict Press freedom in the country. However, the joint meeting declared that the editors and publishers were determined to defend the Press freedom at all costs.

The meeting in an unanimous resolution termed the latest bomb blast in the Nawa-i-Waqt office after the burning of the Business Recorder office as an instrument to coerce and silence the Press in the country. However, the meeting declared, that all such efforts by the perpetrators of such crimes will fail because the editors and publishers are united in their stand to defend Press freedom and reject all forms of threats and coercion. The meeting also declared that it was imperative to have a joint committee of the CPNE-APNS to meet at short notice for considering such emergencies and laying down a line of action that should obtain the desired results including the protection of the Pressmen and newspapers, better security for newspaper establishment and apprehension of the culprits involved in these deplorable attacks on the Press.

The joint meeting of the CPNE-APNS Executive, therefore, decided that a joint Steering Committee is constituted forthwith to take appropriate action in the matter of such emergencies as created by the bomb blast at the Nawa-i-Waqt office on Monday. The joint Steering Committee of the CPNE-APNS will comprise the office-bearers of the two organisations and shall meet a short notice to pursue all such matters that threaten newspapers editors and publishers and the newspapers offices in the country.

In a general discussion on the situation created as a result of the bomb attack at the Nawa-i-Waqt office, various members stressed the need for conveying a strong and firm message to all elements including political parties and groups in the country that the Press is united in its resolve to defend the Press freedom and rejects all kinds of threats, violent attacks and pressures. They also deplored the failure of the law-enforcing agencies in bringing to book so far the countless persons involved in the acts of violence against the newspapers and Pressmen in the country. Mr Arif Nizami, President of the CPNE briefed the meeting on the bomb attack at the Nawa-i-Waqt office on Monday and said that various messages, which were covert threats, were being received by the Nawa-i-Waqt for some time. He said that the attacks on the newspaper offices were an indication of the mentality of the perpetrators of such crimes.

Taking part in the discussion, Mahmudul Aziz, member CPNE Standing Committee in the meeting said that attack on the Nawa-i-Waqt office was deplorable but it formed part of the chain of acts of violence against newspapers in the country since the past three and more decades. It goes back to the attacks on the Nawa-i-Waqt and the Jang offices in Lahore in 1980 and earlier in 1966 when all the newspaper bodies collectively organised a protest day. Again in 1990, the CPNE and the APNS in collaboration with other organisations observed the Freedom from Pressures and Threats Day for the Press in which all political parties and groups sent their representatives and pledged to uphold Press freedom and condemn all acts of violation against the Press. He suggested that the formation of an action committee to pursue all the cases of violence against the Press and seek exemplary punishment to all those responsible for such dastardly and deplorable acts. He regretted that since 1980, more than 130 cases of violence and threats including arson and attacks against newspapers had taken place in the country but almost none of the perpetrators of these crimes were apprehended by the law-enforcing agencies and given punishment by the courts of law. Therefore, it was necessary that the CPNE-APNS should jointly work through a special committee to meet all the Governors and the Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, especially in view of the commitment of the present government to uphold the Press freedom to take strong action against the perpetrators of such crimes against the Press.

Mr Salim Asmi, Editor Dawn taking part in the discussion said that the attack on the Nawa-i-Waqt was manifestation of the growing intolerance in our society. The Press must warn both the government and the people against all such elements that create intolerance and promote violence in the society and in this regard, the Press should take collective action also.

Qazi Asad Abid opined that a strong protest be registered by CPNE and APNS and the matter of apprehension of the culprits be followed in a result-oriented manner.
Mir Javed Rahman recalled that the CPNE-APNS in the past did not discuss such attacks on the newspapers. However, there was need for a regular body of the two organisations to meet at short notice to pursue the emergencies and set the line of action that would result in defending effectively freedom of the Press and saving the newspaper offices and Pressmen from such acts.

Mr Arshad Zuberi said that the APNS had always gone along with the CPNE in joint action to defend the Press freedom and condemn vehemently all such acts of violence.
Mr Arif Nizami informed the meeting that APNS President Mir Shakilur Rehman telephoned him to condemn the bomb blast at the Nawa-i-Waqt office and assured him of complete solidarity with the Nawa-i-Waqt in defending itself against all forms of threats, coercion and attacks.

The meeting declared in the resolution unequivocally that it stands solidly with the Nawa-i-Waqt in rejecting all forms of attacks on the Press. The meeting called for proper action by the authorities, who had so far failed in providing the required protection to newspaper offices and Pressmen, to apprehend the culprits and give them exemplary punishment.

The meeting also appealed to all political parties and groups to honour the commitment to freedom of Press and freedom of expression. The meeting also resolved that Standing Committees of APNS and CPNE be also called separately soon to consider the line of attack that must be adopted in the defence of Press freedom and freedom of expression in the face of the new challenges and acts of violence that the Pressmen and newspapers are being subjected to.

The meeting was attended by Arif Nizami (Nawa-i-Waqt, The Nation), Arshad Zuberi (Business Recorder), Ilyas Shakir (Quami Akhbar), Saleem Asmi (Dawn), Inqilab Matri (Millat Gujrati), Mir Javed Rahman (Akhbar-i-Jahan), Syed Sarmad Ali (Jang, The News), Osama Bin Razi (Jasarat), Prof. S.B. Hassan (Investment & Marketing), Mahmud-ul-Aziz (UFP), Kazi Asad Abid (Ibrat), Waqar Yousuf Azeemi (Rohani Digest), Sohail Danish (Din), Mohammad Shabbir (Khabrain), Qutbuddin (Pakistan), Javed Mehr Shamsi (Kaleem), Mukhtar Aqil (Juraat), Aamir Mahmood (Kiran), Mushtaq Qureshi (Action) and K.M. Kazim Khan (Din).

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Reporters Sans Frontières expresses preoccupation after the bomb blast in Karachi
RSF - November 7, 2000

In a letter sent to the Pakistani interior minister Moin-ud-Din Haider, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders - RSF) expressed its profound preoccupation after the bomb blast in the offices of a press group in Karachi. The press freedom organisation asked the minister to "intervene personally in order that an inquiry is launched to identify the people behind this bombing that has left three people dead, one of them a manager of the group". "This new attack against a press organ in Karachi, six months after the criminal burning of the Business Recorder, is a deterioration of security conditions for journalists there", stated Robert Ménard, general secretary of RSF.

According to the information collected by RSF, a bomb exploded on 6 November 2000, in the advertising office of the press group which publishes the dailies Nation in English and Nawa-i-Waqt in Urdu, in Karachi. A woman allegedly entered the advertising manager's office a few minutes before the blast that lead to the death of at least three people including this unknown woman and the staff manager, Najmul Hasan Zaidi. Nation and Nawa-i-Waqt are known to be very conservative publications that support views of fundamentalist movements and the party of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, jailed since the 12 October 1999 coup. Recently, Nation published articles about corruption cases inside the army. Nobody claimed responsibility for the bombing but according to AFP, the editor of Nation, Arif Nizami, accused the Mutthahida Qaumi Movement, a party that defends the interests of the Pakistanis who arrived from India after the independence.

Reporters Sans Frontières defends jailed journalists and press freedom throughout the world, that is, the right to inform and be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Sans Frontières has eight branches (Belgium, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland), representatives in Bangkok, Washington, Abidjan and Istanbul and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.

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Nawa-i-Waqt bomb blast
The Nation
By Wajid Shamsul Hasan

In the forenoon of November 6-just a few hundred metres away from the mazar of the Quaid-a severe bomb blast reduced the office of Nawa-i-Waqt into a debris killing two staff members and one woman who still remains to be identified. Three others were seriously injured. In a follow-up chorus, the incident was condemned by the high and mighty in the country and loud commitments from them that they shall leave no stone unturned till those behind the bomb blast are nabbed have yet to produce any result. However, Mr Arif Nizami, Editor of The Nation and President of the Council of Newspapers Editors, has rightly described the bomb blast at the Nawa-i-Waqt and The Nation offices, as a brutal attack on freedom of Press. Such an incident is a proof of the incompetence of the government and administration that have failed to provide protection to journalists and security to their institutions, is the view of the CPNE President shared by the entire media community. It is, indeed, a matter of grave concern since it was the third major attack on the Nawa-i-Waqt group in Karachi alone. In May last, another newspaper office-Business Recorder House-was reduced to ashes. Nawa-i-Waqt group has been a target of constant threats of ethnic and nationalist groups. The authorities have also been kept fully informed of these threats. Targeting of Nawa-i-Waqt is understandable. It is an avowed champion of Pakistan's ideology and one of the few upholders of two-nation theory now left in the country. Militant ethnic groups seeking independent identity of their own, therefore, do not like its policies. It was attacked in 1995 and later when the alleged supporters of an urban ethnic group launched a rocket at its offices. Investigations in the November 6 blast have remote chances of yielding any positive results. Karachi's one and the only bomb disposal expert has already declared it as a case of a suicide bomber-first of its kind in Pakistan's history. Merely a conjecture-though of a very serious nature-it has gone a long way in giving altogether a new hue to the political thought process in Pakistan. Suicide bombers are breed of a people who are convinced of the righteousness of their cause or whose patience has been pushed to a point of no return by those who they hold as usurpers of their rights. However, in a country where unemployment has reached the point of starvation for hundreds and thousands, where hunger suicides have become almost epidemic, it is not very difficult for any one interested in putting on the mat junta's claim to good governance to hire a suicide bomber. The offices of Daily Business Recorder were burnt down in May last by an angry fanatic mob from the nearby Banori Mosque protesting the failure of the administration to arrest Maulana Ludhianvi's killers. What was intriguing was the mob's going out of the way to attack the offices of a business and commerce newspaper, which had nothing to do with religion or politics. There was definitely something more than meets the eye. Successive regimes have been opposed to free Press. Since partition there has been a constant tug-of-war between the de facto and de jure rulers on various issues of national importance. And it started in the life time of the Quaid when the de facto establishment issued its first Press advice to the newspapers to drop those paragraphs from Jinnah's historic August 11,1947 speech in which he had declared that religion will have nothing to do with the business of the state. While we had started our march to freedom and independence under a leader who fought the British rulers to uphold freedom of expression, the ruling troika (comprising civil, military and judicial bureaucracy inherited from the Raj) had different view. It submitted itself to dance to the tunes played by the West to stem the tide of communism and in the process it introduced Safety Act etc., to curb free expression of progressive and secular ideas. As a consequence those very pen pushers who had tirelessly worked for Pakistan, were put behind bars for their progressive thinking as a threat to the 'ideology of Pakistan'. A free and democratic West that had braced itself behind the iron curtain in the post Cold War period, extended ready support to military takeover by General Ayub Khan to convert Pakistan into its most special ally east of Suez. Newspapers like Nawa-i-Waqt and Pakistan Times of Mian Iftekharuddin, though ideologically in different camps, found themselves on one side opposing totalitarianism of Ayub Khan. While Nawa-i-Waqt stood its ground at a great loss, Pakistan Times was forced to join the National Press Trust, a brainchild of bureaucratic geniuses like Qudratullah Shahab and Altaf Gauhar. Altaf Gauhar also introduced Press and Publication Ordinance to further shackle the Press in Pakistan. Creation of Writers Guild was yet another beautifully camouflaged attempt by them to bringing in line with the official thinking all intellectual activity. In General Yahya's time there was a free-for-all in the Press although his Information Minister General Sher Ali Khan tried to promote rightist hold on it. He failed and the attempt to remove and burn all record and traces of Quaid's August 11 speech also did not succeed. It got back into circulation when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over power only to disappear from the scene in Zia's eleven long years. It got restored when Benazir Bhutto had it widely published and distributed. Zia's martial law was the worst in Pakistan vis-a-vis Press freedom. Scores of newspapers were closed down. There was total censorship. Journalists were arrested, jailed and lashed and his Goebbel's Lt. Gen. Mujib, a trained spy-war expert, tried to emulate his civilian predecessor under Ayub Khan and used his godfathered Press and Publication Ordinance to control free expression. Non-party quasi-democratic tenure of Muhammad Khan Junejo was definitely a healthy break from the past. Benazir Bhutto's first tenure, however, opened floodgates of change in the area of free expression. And despite Nawaz Sharif's best efforts, through intimidation and lifafa journalists, Press has kept on a dauntless struggle to remain free since. During the last one year General Musharraf and his regime have not given much cause for concern to the journalists directly. However, attacks on Nawa-i-Waqt, Business Recorder and raid on the office of Daily Dawn following General Musharraf's New York yatra where he was given tough time by its correspondent need lot of explanation. There is a view that the de facto jihadi establishment has a different agenda and in its scheme of things there is no room for free Press. Musharraf must bring to book those responsible for attack on Nawa-i-Waqt, Business Recorder and raid on Dawn. Unless his regime proves that it means business, it cannot dispel the impression that it also has a hidden agenda up its sleeves to tame Pakistan's Press and those journalists who have braved and defied all sorts of foul weather.

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Govt-APNS, CPNE agree on draft of Press Council
The News - December 01, 2000

LAHORE: Representatives of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and officials of the Ministry of Information on Thursday reached a consensus on a draft for establishment of Press Council. According to official sources, the meeting thoroughly reviewed the draft jointly prepared by APNS and CPNE clause by clause. The consensus draft for the establishing of an independent and self-regulatory Press Council would now be presented before the central committees of CPNE and APNS for formal approval. The APNS was represented by Mir Shakilur Rahman, Mujibur Rehman Shami and Dr Jabbar Khattak while the CPNE delegation led by Arif Nizami comprised Zia Shahid and Syed Fasih Iqbal. The Ministry of Information was represented by Secretary Information Syed Anwar Mehmood, Director General PBC Saleem Gul Sheikh, Principal Information Officer Ashfaq Ahmed Gondal and Director General Internal Publicity I N Abbasi.--APP Our correspondent adds: Later in an interview with Pakistan Television, President of the APNS Mir Shakilur Rahman said the setting up of the Press Council was a long-standing issue. He said the incumbent government deserved appreciation for moving fast on this issue. He also congratulated the people of Pakistan on this issue as this Council would be equally beneficial for them. The complaints against newspapers by the people, institutions and the government would be addressed by this Council. This would help strengthen healthy journalism, he added. Mir Shakilur Rahman told the PTV that another meeting in this regard would be held with the officials of the Ministry of Information to settle remaining issues, after which the Information Ministry would send a summary to the Law Ministry in this regard. He said if the Council was set up according to its true spirit, it would be beneficial for all. He recalled the demand of the APNS about access to information. He said the Freedom of Information Law should simultaneously be promulgated with the Press Council. Arif Nizami of the CPNE told the PTV that representatives of the government, CPNE and APNS evolved a consensus on the draft of the Council. He said it was a step forward to promote a responsible and independent press in Pakistan. He said the Council would be a self-regulatory and self-accountable institution.

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