MD inaugurates APP Station office at D I Khan

D.I.KHAN March 3 (APP): The Associated Press of Pakistan is committed to realize its responsibilities with regard to promoting the soft image of Pakistan as well as face the present challenges, said Rai Riaz Hussain Managing Director APP while addressing inaugural ceremony of APP Station Office here on Monday. The MD said that APP is the largest and premier national news agency, disseminating news on different aspects within its video and print journalism capacity.

He maintained that Pakistan was faced with different challenges of modern age. Signifying organizational aspect of APP, he underlined that with its 750 professionally trained and skilled staffers had emerged as powerful media institution of Pakistan to confront the challenges. Rai said APP was focusing on the main national issues with its objective and creditable reporting. He informed the participants including local newsmen that in recent few months the Agency further accelerated its performance. He added that APP was not merely restricted to project official version rather believes in progressive and liberal motives of media industry and for this purpose the organized news agency was giving maximum space/coverage to all political forces in line with an acceptable press freedom.

While referring to Video News Service, Rai Riaz further highlighted that taking into account the needs of the modern age APP had recently introduced its video news service so as to ensure timely and fast flow of information. He informed that Rs. 250 million have been spent to launch this major project. Rana Akif Ali Station Manager D.I.Khan also addressed the ceremony. He called upon local newspapers owners to acquire credible and objective news, photos, features on different national and regional issues from APP to enhance quality and objective journalism.

On the occasion local newsmen interacted with the Managing Director and discussed various issues of national and local journalism. Local correspondents and officials also attended the colorful inauguration ceremony of APP from information group.

Blast injures three in DI Khan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A bomb blast in Shah Ajmal area of Prowa Tehsil injured three persons here on Saturday. The injured, identified as Ghazi Muhammad Wazir, Ghazi Khan and Annan Gul, were rushed to hospital. Unknown miscreants had planted the bomb near the wall of a house.

Bomb attack in north-west Pakistan kills three policemen

Islamabad - Suspected Islamic militants killed three policemen Friday in north-west Pakistan by targeting their vehicle with a remote-control bomb, a police official said. The early morning attack in the Dera Ismail Khan district of the volatile North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), where Islamic militancy is rife, also injured two officers, said Hamza Masud, the district police chief. He said the area's deputy police superintendent, Javed Iqbal, was among those killed. "He was leaving for the office from his residence when suspected militants targeted his vehicle with a remote control roadside bomb," Masud said. "The vehicle was completely destroyed."Dera Ismail Khan lies close to Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, from where Taliban, al-Qaeda and other armed militant groups frequently target security forces across the province as well as other parts of the country with suicide bombers and roadside bombs. Meanwhile, a British-based non-governmental organization has resumed work in Pakistan following an attack Monday by armed men on its offices in the NWFP that killed four local staff. Plan International, which works to help children in developing nations, reopened its offices in Islamabad and Punjab province, but continued a suspension on work in the NWFP's Mansehra district until an investigation into the attack was completed, a statement released Friday said. Several men armed with rifles attacked the Mansehra office without warning on Monday afternoon, setting off explosive devices that burned the building to the ground. The motive in the attack remained unclear, the statement said.

Pakistan, a Different Country!

Benazir selling Benazir Chai or Benazir paan massalla!

The Army crime syndicate in Pakistan is down but not out by any means. City after city and village after village, as I traveled through the heart of Pakistan, I got one overwhelming message…people can’t stand the army anymore but also are realistic enough to understand that it will take a lot to get rid of the army from the politics and break the power structure the army has created over the years. My impression was that this structure has been damaged and is deeply hurt in Pakistan.

The night before Benazir’s chehlum in Larkana, a young man, barely in his early twenties, challenged me to describe the mood in Sindh and on hearing my take claimed that I have lost touch with Sindh after living away for so many years. Driving with a candidate to attend election rallies and public meetings, the slogans I heard were against the army and listened to the speeches that would have had intelligence agencies declare people anti-state when I lived in Sindh. I knew of many friends who suffered years in jail for saying a lot less. Larkana has become a crowded city after her death. There were people everywhere. Benazir is now remembered as a Rani, a princess and soon will turn in to the first woman Saint in Pakistan.

While kidding with many young Sindhis Turks, I blamed them for Benazir’s death as they had taken a hard-line on her arrival which caused her breakup with the army. The kids just laughed. I then asked them how are they going to treat Asif Zardari? Mostly the answer was: he better listen to us or he too will take the Liaquat Bagh route!

I was told the Sindhi nationalism as I knew it has since died its natural death but the Peoples Party in Sindh is really the Sindhi Nationalist Party. Young Sindhis believe in Pakistan but would not hesitate to break away if they felt the need for it. No one thinks about joining with India as the old Sindhi Nationalists used to dream of but an independent Sindh would be a much preferred option. Young Sindhis are now joining the army and some are climbing the ranks pretty fast.

Lahore and Pindi were in full election mould. Pictures of candidates and the leaders were on pretty much every space that was available on walls and hoardings. Benazir was so prominently displayed in so many different poses that often I felt she was the only movie star in town. Knowing the Punjabi penchant for hero worshipping and taking it to the extreme, I felt that soon they will have Benazir selling Benazir Chai or Benazir paan massalla to her followers in Punjab.

While Pindi is bursting through the seams, Islamabad looked its best from the margalla hills and the Manal restaurant where I had lunch with an old flame. We had problems keeping our hands to ourselves despite couple of grown kids on both sides.

Peshawar is just another story. I have some great memories of that city which I last visited in 1987 for just a few hours. This time around, I barely had a few hours to spend in Peshawar again. I asked my friends to drive me around the city while we talked. I was unable to recognize the city. New shopping malls in Saddar, my old hang out hotel Deans now a shopping mall and office complex. The Green hotel looked different. The cinema in Saddar where I used to smoke charas during the shows was gone too. The great shopping areas in Hayatabad with Sikh shop owners and Sikh Hakims just belied all the storylines about Peshawar and Peshawaris living in fear of Taliban and the suicide bombers. New six lane roads, a ring road and the Pushtoon car and bus drivers had my heart in my throat almost every time I was on the road. Peshawar is no more a sleepy town it used to be in the 70s and 80s, the life in the city is hectic and the traffic has increased manifolds like in Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore and Islamabad! If someone now tells me that Peshawar is going down to Taliban, I would slap that person hard enough to show fingerprints all over his/her cheeks. Though I must admit the uncertainty of the suicide bombers had surely put some dent on the city’s rep.

Peshawar University looked as beautiful and unspoiled as it was a long time ago. The kids in Islamia College were still wearing sherwanis and the girls in their chadors looked as pretty as ever. Girls were clearly noticeable in pretty much all areas, some did not care very much about chador covering the heads or not. I found many of them walking alone unescorted contrary to the stories that I had heard and believed. Peshawar has extended well beyond Gul Bahar colony on the GT road on the east. Hayatabad on the west, it seems, is as big as Peshawar itself right next to the tribal area. Hayatabad was a small development when I last saw that, this time around I was looking at houses as big and as great looking as one can find in Defense or Clifton, Karachi or some areas in Islamabad and Lahore.

This was just another Pakistan. Things have changed so drastically between my visits that often I was lost in the areas where I grew up in Karachi and Hyderabad. New highways, bright shining roads or just the amount of construction overwhelmed me. The face of Karachi is changing, Hyderabad still lags behind but lots of changes had already made me feel good about that city.

Lahore or at least the parts of Lahore that I saw showed me that it is perhaps the best city to live in Pakistan right now. Lahore looked better than Karachi and Islamabad both and traffic too was a little less crazy. My only long distance drive was from Pindi to Peshawar and back. The Daewoo bus took the GT road which is now a four lane highway. The Bus conductor was a young, petit, pretty, and apparently Pathan/Hazara girl in her 20s. That was a big no-no (especially in NWFP) during the old days but now seemed common. I kept cracking jokes with her to her amusement. I guess age allows one to be a little bold with young girls! The driver turned off the video and the music upon entering NWFP. When I asked the conductor to play it back she said, “Na!na!! mullah ghussa karega!”

My return journey on M1 was just fabulous. M1 is a six lane highway that can leave many highways in the West to dust. I took a Mercedes van on my return journey and the driver followed all the traffic rules for lane changes and passing other traffic. I thanked him for excellent driving and gave him a great tip for just making my life easy on Pakistani roads!

In between, I took a short trip to Taxila museum and the monasteries in the area. My driver cum guide had worked in Taxila for years and knew the area inside out. Still I used professional guides on every site. I was just a teenager when I first visited Taxila and never caught on the significance of the archaeological sites there. Walking in Sirkap, climbing stairs to Jaulian or checking out the monastery in Mohra Moradu just had another feel to it. At Mohra Moradu, I met an interesting man. Throughout the drive from Pindi, my driver kept talking about a Scotsman living in Mohra for the last forty years. The driver thought he was some sort of a saint and took me to his place. This long haired, bearded Scotsman, Luqman called his place a Khanqah! Turned out this Luqman guy was actually a Canadian from the Montréal area. I had visited Montréal just in August-Sept for three weeks so we started talking about the changes in Montréal. He not only had access to the Net but was also connected to his friends in Ohio via skype! He invited me to his Olive Garden just above the Mohra monastery, which I declined citing lack of time.

Driving down from the Taxila museum to Jaulian, I, all of a sudden, found myself on a well paved and well maintained road. I thought the quality of the construction was due to the tourist traffic to Jaulian. But it turned out just above Jaulian, the Pak army maintains a big ammo dump. I had visited some US army dumps in New Mexico and the layout of the area looked very familiar to the missiles/nuke sites in New Mexico. Once I climbed the mountains and in Jaulian, using Binoculars, I tried to spot the entrance and climbed farther than the guide would allow me to take pictures. It appeared that there were two sites both had unmarked cars, buses and trucks parked there. Nothing would disclose that they were military sites. However, it was clear that the army was hiding something there. One can hazard many guesses but hoarding missiles and nukes next to the prime archaeological sites could only be a Pak army idea!

The night after the elections, my old friends got together in a Clifton house of a friend for a party. I had taken two bottles of Chivas with me from the US but these guys were already loaded with all brands of scotch. The eight of us had our last party in a Khairpur rest house sometime in 1983. That night we could only get cheap Indian whiskey but things have changed. All were successful and loaded with money now. In the Khairpur rest house we had four girls serving us and in 2008 in Karachi, eight girls were assigned to the party. The service was good, drinks and food was fabulous. Politics again was the main topic as all of us are still attached to the politics in many different ways. We broke up at about three in the morning and would probably see each other on my next visit, whenever that happens.

Elections

Before the elections the discussions in Larkana and the other places were that there would not be much rigging in Sindh or NWFP but most of the rigging would take place in Punjab and that too against Nawaz Sharif. No one expected Nawaz to bag more than 40 seats and after rigging the number of seats for N league was expected to be around 15-20. On the night of the elections, it became clear that either the pro Mush forces deceived themselves or there was some hidden hand that prevented rigging. Still, the consensus was that the PPP would be forced to form coalition with parties minus Nawaz. This still can happen but right now if the PPP tried to shake hands with Mushraf, expectations are that the PPP would break apart right away! Everyone is now watching the changing situation and they are many a slip!

However, this election would go down in the Pakistan history as the most rigged election ever. In Karachi and in parts of Sindh, people wherever they could have, rigged the whole thing. In Karachi, MQM was unable to bring out its supporters to vote and the motivated PPP voters were showing up at every polling station, on seeing that the MQM high command just decided to take over the polling stations and the results in Karachi are more dubious than any other place in Pakistan!

All other parties contested elections on some program and with some agenda. PPP for democracy, PML(N) for Judges, ANP for provincial autonomy and against the MMA but MQM really had no agenda, no program and offered nothing to its voters and thus its voters stayed away from the polling booths. More on elections later!

(http://chowk.com/articles/13666)

Taliban Facilitated Elections in Waziristan!

In North Waziristan, the government sought the help of the militants to conduct peaceful polls

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

The Taliban in North Waziristan tribal agency facilitated the Feb 18 polling, where the tribespeople, unlike the rest of the tribal regions, evinced a keen interest in exercising their right to vote.

Almost a day earlier, in the militants-dominated North Waziristan Agency, the government had struck another peace deal with militants with the hope of restoring peace to the militancy-stricken tribal region.

In the peace deal, the government and tribal militants, who prefer to be called Taliban, had pledged to work together in future for maintenance of peace and resolving disputes.
The militants, on Dec 17, 2007, had announced a unilateral ceasefire and then extended it almost five times when the government reciprocated accordingly.

A senior militant commander on condition of anonymity said that the peace truce was signed in the grand 'jirga' where the militant commanders, tribal elders as well as government officials were present. He said that it was almost the same agreement which had been signed on Sep 5, 2006, between them and the government.

The government had almost made up its mind to reschedule polls in the adjacent North Waziristan after postponing the election on NA-42 in South Waziristan due to the mass migration of the Mahsud tribespeople to distant Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and other parts of the country as a result of clashes between security forces and Baitullah Mahsud-led militants.
Later, the government announced to conduct elections in North Waziristan but declared all the polling stations there the 'most sensitive' ones and suggested extraordinary security measures for holding free and fair polls.

Keeping in view the security concerns in the region, the government sought the help of the militants in conducting the election in a peaceful manner.

A senior government official said that the task was given to the Taliban after the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and Khasadar force or tribal police personnel expressed their reluctance to provide security to the polling staff deputed in the remote and the most sensitive areas.
Tribespeople from parts of North Waziristan told TNS that not a single security personnel was sighted in almost all the 10 subdivisions of the volatile tribal region, including Miramshah, Mirali, Shawal, Data Khel, Ghulam Khan, Spinwam, Shawa, Dosali, Razmak and Garyum in the election day. Residents in Miramshah, North Waziristan's regional headquarters, said that militants were the ones who conducted the polls and provided security to the voters.

People felt it was primarily that reason, the presence of Taliban, which encouraged the already terrified tribesmen to come out of their homes and cast their votes.

"It seemed more like jubilation here. The people enthusiastically participated in elections and there were no signs of fear as the well-armed militants were deployed everywhere in and outside the polling stations," said Mohammad Salimullah, a tribesman while talking to the TNS by telephone from Miramshah.

The residents said that they felt a threat from the militants before the elections, but when learnt that they themselves were part of the game then everyone came to the polling station.

"It was the day of the militants and they proved themselves more capable than those who were supposed to do the job," said Haji Gul Halim, a resident of Dande Darpakhel town, near Miramshah.

During the polling, witnesses said, heavily armed militants were seen patrolling the streets and thoroughly searching voters before entering the polling stations.

"In some of the polling stations, militants, even briefly detained people for allegedly violating the Taliban's code of conduct which they had set for the election," said Mohammad Rahman in Mirali town, the second biggest town of the agency.

He, however, added that the Taliban were later seen releasing the detainees and giving them advice to help the people elected a sincere and pious representative. Interestingly, when the polls finished, militants informed the local political authorities that their job was finished and that they should collect the ballot boxes.

"The ballot boxes were then taken in armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to Miramshah and the name of the successful candidate was announced," said a government official, but wished not to be named.

16 candidates were contesting the election for the lone National Assembly seat of North Waziristan Agency (NA-40). Except for a few, like PML-Q's Ajmal Khan, who served as federal minister in the past, and an

independent candidate Abdul Qayyum, the majority of the contestants belonged to Maulana Fazlur Rahman's Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), but only Maulana Nek Zaman, a former pro-MMA MNA from North Waziristan, was JUI-F nominee on NA-40.

The remaining candidates, including Aurangzeb, Haji Kamran Khan, Fazal Subhan, Mufti Sadeequllah and Nisar Ali were JUI-F dissidents and decided to contest when the party refused their nomination for the election.

Some of them are considered to be very close to the militants, including Abdullah Shah, who belongs to a banned outfit Al-Rashid Trust, Haji Kamran Khan and a few others. Now some of the losing candidates had started raising questions over this unique trend of involving militants to hold elections.

They have accused the government of allowing militants to help elect their blue-eyed candidate, Haji Kamran Khan in the polls.

They said that the militants organised a huge rally in support of the winning candidate and fired shots in the air when Kamran Khan was declared the winner.

(Coutesy The News)

My Comment: This report of cooperation between Taliban and the Government of Pakistan in Waziristan suggests that if there is enough will for peaceful co-existance, peace might not be so elusive an ideal, after all. Indeed, it suggests that while US and Taliban may remain irreconcilable, the same may not be true for Pakistan and Taliban. In the interests of the people, both parties can, and should, arrive at some reconciliation. Pakistani state, on the other hand, would do well to learn from history and keep itself out of that difficult region; above all, it would do well to spill less blood, there and everywhere else.

(http://pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com/2008/02/taliban-facilitated-elections-in.html)

Pakistani press

Pakistan - Annual report 2008

Area: 796 100 sq. km.
Population: 159,500,000.
Languages: Urdu, English.
Head of state: Pervez Musharraf.

It was an annus horribilis for journalists in Pakistan. Six reporters were killed, nearly 250 arrested and more than 100 incidents were recorded of threats and physical assault. The brutality came from all sides: the army, Islamists, political militants and local organised crime. And Gen. Pervez Musharraf, rocked by a protest movement launched by judges and lawyers, made life impossible for privately-owned television and radio stations.

Pakistan has been through a year of major political crisis which began in March 2007 with the sacking of the President of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, deepened with the 3 November declaration of emergency rule and culminated in December with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the historic leader of the leading opposition party. Pervez Musharraf’s reaction to this crisis only aggravated the situation. After unleashing a first wave of repression and censorship in April and May, the head of state at the start of November ordered a blackout of all independent television and radio stations.

The president and his ministers however constantly boasted of the “total freedom allowed to the Pakistani media”. In March, when several TV stations were censored for showing footage of demonstrations in favour of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani told Reporters Without Borders that, “The government never banned the media from broadcasting these images. It was a decision of the Supreme Judicial Council. The media are close to our heart and no station has been censored”. The authorities in November rejected international condemnation of the ban on privately-owned broadcast media, claiming it was not censorship but a necessity to “save the nation”.

The political crisis prompted a craving for news among Pakistanis. Newspaper sales soared, particularly supplements devoted to the state of emergency, after the ban on private TV and radio. The Urdu service of the BBC World Service boosted the number of news bulletins while its programmes were pulled from Pakistan’s FM band after the army closed the FM 103 station. And although only 15% of Pakistanis are connected to the Internet, more than a million people visit the Geo TV website on a daily basis.

Silencing of privately-owned television and radio

The government in 2002 allowed the development of electronic media but did not create the conditions to guarantee their independence thus exposing them to daily and unfair harassment from some government officials and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). This authority abused its power on at least ten occasions to force cable operators to halt broadcasts by certain television stations.

The government, overwhelmed on all sides, at the end of May banned live broadcasts of news events. Information minister, Mohammad Ali Durrani, warned media not to cross the “legal limits”. As a result privately-owned stations Aaj and ARY TV were pulled from the cable package by operators in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. A manager at ARY TV told Reporters Without Borders that the government claimed not to know anything about it. “But when we call the cable operators they tells us that is it the government who asked them to do it”.

The government in June promulgated the PEMRA Amendment Ordinance 2007 to boost the regulatory body’s power of censorship and control over television stations and cable operators. It gave the PEMRA the right to seize TV equipment, to close installations and cancel licences for any violation of the law. Fines were also increased from one to ten million Rupees. The regulatory authority no longer even needed to go to the complaints council set up under a previous ordinance. Faced with an outcry, the government at first backed down, then took advantage of the 3 November state of emergency to impose the new measures.

On the day emergency rule was declared, Pervez Musharraf told PEMRA to halt broadcasts on all cable networks of all privately-owned regional and national TV stations, and in particular news channels. Only state-run PTV continued to broadcast. Mobile telephone communications in the capital were also subject to constant interruption.

The head of state amended the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance of 2002 and the PEMRA Ordinance of 2002. Under these amendments, it was totally forbidden to all media to broadcast footage or news about a suicide-bombing (the terrorist, his claims or the victims); to make remarks prejudicial to the ideology, sovereignty, integrity or security of Pakistan; to broadcast any news ridiculed the head of state, the army and institutions; or to refer to ongoing judicial proceedings.

On 15 November, international channels BBC and CNN were restored after being interrupted on 9 November, while covering the house arrest of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Islamabad. The previous evening they were able to get back on air for a few hours during which President Pervez Musharraf announced that elections would be held in February 2008. The government had in July prevented journalists from the US channel from entering the Red Mosque, after it put out a documentary called, “The threat within” on the presence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

Radio Mast FM 103 in Karachi was able to resume broadcasting on 6 November after accepting certain conditions: no national or international news or presidential election news and the BBC Urdu-language news bulletin was to come off air.

The federal government was enraged to see thousands of Pakistanis buying satellite dishes so that they could still watch privately-owned television, and on 13 November decided to make it more difficult to buy decoders, modulators and other equipment, making importers obtain permission from the PEMRA. The authorities also put pressure on the Dubai government to close Geo News and Ary One World, broadcasting from the emirate. The emir of Dubai ordered a halt to broadcasts on 17 November, but following an international outcry the two channels resumed broadcasting ten days later.

At the start of 2007, privately-owned channels had begun showing news programmes and talk shows which became more and more daring. The authorities applied political and financial pressure to try to stop the most troubling of them. In June, colourful television presenter Ali Saleem announced the end of his programme on Aaj because of “increasing government censorship”. He invited guests for interview in his “boudoir”, in which he appeared in drag. At the end of November, Aaj pulled its talk shows “Live With Talat” and "Bolta Pakistan".

Serious police brutality

As the crisis surrounding the sacking of the president of the Supreme Court gathered steam, journalists were frequently attacked and beaten up by the security forces. They also raided editorial offices, as on 16 March at the studios of Geo TV, in Islamabad, which had just shown footage of lawyers injured during a demonstration in support of Iftikar Mohammed Chaudhry.

Police wielding clubs in Islamabad injured at least 30 journalists on 29 September, in a bid to prevent them covering a crackdown on a demonstration by lawyers opposed to the candidature of Pervez Musharraf at the presidential elections. Journalists complained to the Supreme Court which ordered the government to suspend the chief of police and two officers, which order was carried out. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) declared 30 September to have been a “black day” and the Pakistani press called the incident, “The battle of Constitution Avenue”.

Brutality and raids against the media also accompanied the imposition of emergency rule. Members of PEMRA and about 30 police officers arrived at the offices of radio FM 103 in Islamabad on 3 November and seized broadcast equipment. Police surrounded the studios of Aaj television and radio FM 99 in the capital. Police arrested at least five photographers and cameramen in front of the Karachi Press Club on 5 November as they covered a demonstration by human rights activists. At the same time a correspondent for the BBC was arrested close to the home of a judge in Karachi. A police officer in Quetta tried to destroy a camera belonging to a reporter for Agence France-Presse who was covering a demonstration. And in Rawalpindi, police beat and insulted journalists covering a lawyers’ demonstration. Photo-reporter Muhammad Javed had two fingers broken by one officer, who also seized the memory chip of his camera.

The secret services also went after journalists, and even more aggressively. Eight agents arrested Shoaib Bhutta, editor of the Urdu-language Daily Tulou at his office in Islamabad in November. In two days of questioning, during which he was kept chained up and deprived of sleep, they quizzed him about why he was critical of the authorities. A few days later, Khurram Hashmi, of Aaj television suffered a brutal interrogation about the funding of the press protest movement against the state of emergency. He was beaten and threatened with reprisals before being released in Karachi. Secret service officers in Islamabad beat up Babar Malik, of the ARY TV in August. “If you break scandals, we can also break your arms and legs”, one of the soldiers told him, shortly after it broadcast a report by the journalist about the disappearance of Imran Munir, sentenced for spying by a military court.

Journalists campaign to defend their freedom

Journalists’ organisations, particularly the PFUJ, have also suffered official harassment. A lawsuit was started against nearly 200 journalists for defying a ban on protests after they held a press freedom rally on 4 June. The collective suit was withdrawn a few days later on the orders of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz after it was condemned in the press. Secretary General of the PFUJ, Mazhar Abbas, found an envelope containing a bullet in his car at the end of May.

During the November crisis, the principle media organisations - the PFUJ, the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors, the Pakistan Broadcasters Association and the South Asia Free Media Association (whose director Imtiaz Alam had been held for one day) - joined together to fight the new laws and demonstrations drawing thousands of journalist defied the government.

Police in Karachi and Hyderabad arrested some 160 journalists on 20 November. One police officer said he had received the order to use force against journalists who were assembling near an official building. Around a dozen journalists were beaten.

Violence in the tribal areas

The few journalists who work in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, members of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ), were targeted by the Taliban and their Jihadist allies, but also by the authorities. The vice-president of the TUJ, Noor Hakim, a journalist on the Urdu-language daily Pakistan, was killed in a bombing in June in the tribal area of Bajaur in the north-west. Four other people died in the attack that was aimed at an official.

Foreign journalists are banned from going to the most turbulent regions, particularly Waziristan, while Pakistani reporters now hardly ever venture there. The most radical Islamists use illegal FM radios to broadcast calls for Jihad.

The case of Hayatullah Khan, a reporter from the tribal areas kidnapped and killed in 2006 had a further tragic twist when in November his widow was killed in a bombing at her home in Mir Ali in North Waziristan. The teacher had campaigned to condemn the kidnapping and murder of her husband. The journalist’s brother Ehsanullah Khan accused his brother’s killers of being behind the death of his widow. In the past he had accused members of the military secret services of taking part in the kidnapping of his brother, which the government has always denied. But the authorities have never made public the conclusions of the inquiry carried out by a judge in Peshawar in 2006, which identifies the killers. Ehsanullah Khan said that he informed the information minister, Muhammad Ali Durani, that the life of his brother’s widow was in danger, but the authorities did not take any steps to protect her.

Islamists in Waziristan killed four family members of Din Muhammad, a reporter for the newspaper Inkishaf, who had assisted a group of Pakistani correspondents working for the national and international press, to go to Wana, a town under the influence of Jihadist groups. Three other members of his family were kidnapped.

The home of Nasrullah Afridi, correspondent in the tribal areas for the Urdu-language daily Mashriq Khyber, was targeted in a grenade attack in May. Five days earlier, the head of the Jihadist group Lashkar-i-islam, Mangal Bagh, made a death threat against the journalist on the illegal FM radio that he runs. The journalist, who had already moved home because of similar threats, told Reporters Without Borders that “I am in fear for my life” and I will have to “leave the town”.

The army, which has proved unable to get on top of the situation, sometimes makes life difficult for local journalists. An officer in the Pakistani army insulted and threatened to kill Sailab Mehsud, correspondent for the newspaper The News and Al-Jazeera in Dera Ismail Khan, south of Peshawar, and editor of the website Karwan-e-Qabial (karwan-e-qabial.net). The former president of the TUJ had the previous evening broadcast news about a clash between the army and the Taliban in South Waziristan. “He introduced himself as a member of military intelligence based in Dera Ismail Khan. He insulted me and said I would disappear and future generations would never find me,” said Mehsud.

Islamist threats

The offensive by Islamist groups was not limited to the tribal areas. A religious leader at the Red Mosque pronounced a fatwa in June against, among others, Zubair Kasuri, editor of the fashion magazine Octane, for publishing series of photos captioned “Adam and Eve, the apple of discord”. Police in Islamabad made a “blasphemy” complaint against the magazine. Then, in July, the presenter on a talk show on state-run PTV, received death threats from extremist students after broadcasting an interview with the former imam at the Red Mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, wearing a woman’s burka, in which he had disguised himself to escape the besieged mosque.

Suicide bombers posed serious threats to the safety of journalists, particularly photographers and cameramen, who have to closely follow political figures. A young freelance photo-journalist, Mehboob Khan, was killed in this way in April during a suicide attack against the interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao. Four other journalists were wounded. The cameraman Muhammad Arif of privately-owned ARY TV, was one of the 133 victims of the suicide-bombing of the cortege of former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto in Karachi on 18 October.

Kidnappings and censorship in Balochistan

Pakistani security forces fighting separatism in Balochistan, in the south-west, secretly detained many civilians there, including journalists. The secret services in August released Munir Mengal, director of the channel Baloch Voice, after holding him secretly for more than 16 months. But police immediately sent him to prison for 30 days in Khudzar, Balochistan province under the Maintenance of Public Order. “How can he threaten public order when he is already in the hands of the security forces?” asked one journalist reporting on the case. After so many months in the hands of the military he was “weak and suffering from unexplained illnesses.”

Javed Lehri, of the Urdu-language daily Azadi, based in Quetta, in Balochistan province is disappeared since November. One colleague who request anonymity, told Reporters Without Borders, “Even if Javed Lehri belonged to an opposition political party, his disappearance seems much more likely to be linked to his journalistic work”. Editor of the paper considered that secret services agents were behind his disappearance. Javed Lehri had just done a report on a political party rally against the assassination of Akbar Bugti, the head of the Balochistan National party.

Riaz Mengal, of the newspaper Intikhab based in Khuzdar, was kidnapped on 5 October. Before his disappeared he had written articles about a car-ringing gang. “Riaz had received death threats after his reports His life was in danger”, one Balochistan journalist told Reporters Without Borders. He managed to escape from his captors on 25 November.

Criminal tendencies

It is in the rural areas - dominated by a quasi-feudal system - which the henchmen of politicians go after the press in the most brutal ways. For example, six men armed with Kalashnikovs on 17 June killed Nasir Ahmed Solangi, correspondent for the Sindhi-language Khabroon in Kingri, Sind province. A colleague, Khan Muhammad, told Reporters Without Borders that “Solangi had received death threats two days before the murder from the Junejo tribe which was furious about his reporting”. One of his colleagues rebutted the official theory that he had been killed for ethnic reasons. “He was killed because of his work,” the journalist said.

Also in Sind, Zubair Ahmed Mujahid, correspondent for the national daily Jang in Mirpur Khas district was shot dead on 23 November, by an unknown attacker on a motorbike. “My brother was killed because of the critical articles he wrote, including on the state of the poor in our region,” his older brother Muhammad Iftikhar said. The experienced correspondent for Jang wrote a weekly column “Crime and punishment” in which he often exposed landowners and police officers. “Our family had no family conflicts (...) My brother wrote articles about the plight of the poor, which were aimed of course at influential people,” said Iftikar.

Independents trounce bigwigs in NWFP

PESHAWAR: In the NWFP districts of Swabi, Dera Ismail Khan, and Kohistan, voters have elected the maximum number of independent candidates to the national and provincial assemblies.

Of the two national and six provincial assembly seats from Swabi district, one independent candidate, Engineer Usman Khan Tarakai, was elected to a national seat while two independents, Javed Iqbal Tarakai and Sardar Ali, were elected for two seats of the provincial assembly.

Situation in Swabi: In the NA-12 constituency, Usman Tarakai defeated Asfandyar Wali Khan, chief of the Awami National Party (ANP), while the two independent winners of PF-32 Swabi-II and PF-34 Swabi-IV defeated Amir Rehman and Amjad Ali Khan, also of the ANP. The remaining NA and PF seats were swept by the nationalists, against candidates from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao (PPP-S).

Independents in Kohistan: In Kohistan district, the single NA constituency of NA-23 was won by independent candidate Mehboobullah against his rivals from mainstream parties including the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), while all the three provincial assembly seats were also taken by independents in this district.

The three independent winners include Maulana Obaidullah (PF-61), Mehmood Alam (PF-62), and Abdul Sattar (PF-63). Kohistan is the only district where none of the mainstream political parties were elected.

DI Khan: The situation in DI Khan is similar, as two independents were elected to the provincial assembly. Two of the five provincial assembly seats – those of PF-64 DI Khan-I and PF-68 DI Khan-V - were won by independent candidates Khalifa Abdul Qayum and Murid Kazim respectively, while the remaining three seats were grabbed by PML-Q and PPPP candidates.

Kohat: In Kohat too, two of the provincial assembly seats were won by independent candidates Malik Amjad Khan Afridi (PF-37) and Qalbe Hasan (PF-38). The third seat (PF-39) was won by an MMA candidate. Interestingly, the NA seat from this district was won by ANP candidate Pir Dilawar Shah.

Haripur: In Haripur district, three of the four constituencies were won by independents, while only one seat was taken by a party candidate. Former chief minister and provincial president of the PML-N Pir Sabir Shah is the only party candidate in Haripur who stood firm before the independents, who took PF-49, 50 and 51.

One seat in each of Karak and Hangu districts was won by independent candidates, while MMA candidates also won a single seat in each district. While the election for the PF-59 seat was postponed in Batagram, one of the remaining two seats was won by independent candidate Maulana Ubaidullah. The other was taken by the MMA’s Shah Hussain.

Among the four provincial assembly seats in Bannu, again two were grabbed by independents, while the MMA was victorious in the other two, as former NWFP chief minister Akram Durrani and his son Ziyad succeeded in the two seats of PF-73 and PF-70.

Two of the three provincial assembly seats were won by a single independent candidate Anwar Saifullah, while the third was grabbed by PML-N’s Anwar Kamal. In Shangla, one seat, PF-88, was won by an independent and the other by a PML-Q candidate.

The election was postponed in PF-81 Swat and PF-92 Upper Dir, but one independent candidate emerged successful in PF-93 in Upper Dir.

In Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Abbottabad, Tank, Bunair, Swat, Chitral, Dir Lower and Malakand, no independent candidate won the election, and the seats were mostly grabbed by candidates of the ANP, the PPPP or the MMA.