A member of the Kalasha community and a student of

Economics at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece

Using religion as a tool to promote a political idea has seriously affected the country and gained ground for the cancer of religious fanaticism. PHOTO: FILE

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former prime minister and president of Pakistan and the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), still remains one of the most popular and most controversial figures in Pakistan. With the title Quaid-e-Awam (leader of the people), he is undoubtedly the most charismatic political leader Pakistan has ever seen.

Bhutto was also the first democratically elected leader to introduce the culture of using religion for political gain in Pakistan. In 1974, Pakistan’s parliament, under his premiership, adopted a law declaring Ahmadis to be non-Muslims.

For Bhutto, the move was purely political as he sought to appease religious conservatives. If this move was not political, would he have dared marrying the Iranian-Kurdish Begum Nusrat Ispahani, who was a Shia Muslim? Let’s avoid this question because some argue that the Bhutto family is Shia Muslim by faith themselves.

When Bhutto orchestrated, authorised and administrated the most ambitious scientific research on nuclear weapons, didn’t Bhutto know that his most senior and trusted science advisor Abdus Salam was an Ahmadi Muslim by faith? Salam played a major and influential role in Pakistan’s science infrastructure and was responsible for not only major developments and contributions to theoretical particle physics, but also promoted scientific research to a great extent in the country. As a science advisor, Salam played an integral role in Pakistan’s development on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and he also directed the research on development of weapons in 1972. Because of this, he is regarded as the ‘scientific father’ of this programme by the scientists who researched under his umbrella.

But Bhutto, in a desperate attempt to buy off religious parties anxious for his departure, declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims.

Because of this controversial move, Pakistan lost the national treasure, Abdus Salam. He left Pakistan to settle in the United Kingdom in protest when he could have contributed much more to the development of science in Pakistan. In 1979 Abdus Salam, together with Sheldon Lee Glashow and Steven Weinberg ‘the American physicists’, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics:

 For their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current.

Salam holds the distinction of being the first Pakistani and the first Muslim Nobel Laureate to receive the prize in physics.

Bhutto’s injection of religion into politics didn’t stop there. In 1977, he banned alcohol consumption, again in an attempt to appease religious conservatives and distract the population from a less than stellar governance record – when in fact he was a drinker himself.

Bhutto had publicly admitted to drinking alcohol when speaking at a rally where he accused the religious political leaders of ‘drinking’ the people’s blood.

Yes, I do drink wine, but at least I don’t drink the people’s blood.

When General Muhammad Ziaul Haq overthrew Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a coup d’état on 5 July 1977, Bhutto became a victim of his own winning strategy. Zia used religion against him and started the Islamisation of Pakistan to fight off Bhutto’s popular ideology.

Since then, using religion for political gain has been an integral part of Pakistani politics. This has seriously affected the country and gained ground for the cancer of religious fanaticism. Religious fanaticism has shown its face as sectarian violence, as we have seen serious Shia-Sunni discord and attacks on Ahmadis. It has also had an impact onreligious minorities as they now live in fear under the blasphemy law. A country that is in crisis at every level is going up in flames.

The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, envisioned the creation of Pakistan as a secular state and he made it clear in his Presidential Address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11th August, 1947.

You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.

In fact, Bhutto was an opportunist who misused religion by stirring up the masses. He was the first to distort Quaid-e-Azam’s vision of Pakistan.

The Pakistan Peoples Party, the current ruling political party of Pakistan, following the footsteps of their founding leader, used similar tactics to handle the controversial blasphemy case of Asia Bibi, even isolating their own prominent PPP party leaders like Sherry Rehman and Salmaa n Taseer who spoke against the law.

Sherry Rehman submitted a private member bill to the National Assembly Secretariat seeking amendments to soften the blasphemy law after Asia Bibi was sentenced to death under the blasphemy law, which also sparked an international uproar.

Salmaan Taseer, a brave and outspoken secular politician, spoke against the law, calling it a ‘black law‘, and it exposed a deep rift between conservatives and liberals in the country.

The PPP instructed all its leaders including Ms Rehman and Mr Taseer to change their stance but Taseer stood firm to defend the rights of women and minorities in the country. One of Taseer’s last tweets was:

I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.

The PPP government thereby distanced itself from Governor Salmaan Taseer after religious edicts were issued against him, and brought forward Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani to assure religious conservatives that the government does not have any intention to amend the blasphemy law. This move was again pure politics to stir up the masses to save their government as they have failed miserably to lead the country. Finally, governor Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard for speaking against the blasphemy law.

In Pakistan, unfortunately, religion is placed above its citizens, excluding them from equal rights. This was certainly not the vision of  our founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of The Express Tribune.

AN OBITUARY

ISLAMABAD. Jan 14: Veteran journalist, a legend and a great hero of journalists -Minhaj Mohammad Khan Barna, died here on Friday morning in Islamabad after a prolonged illness.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) decided to observe a seven-day mourning throughout the country to condole his death by holding condolence meetings and references at all the news centers, unions of journalist offices and at the press clubs to pay tributes to one of the founders of the PFUJ and the founder of the All-Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation (Apnec).

He was buried at the Rawalpindi Graveyard near Race Course ground and his funeral prayers were offered by hundreds of his admires, journalists, trade union activists, political parties workers and a large number of people belonging to various segments of society.

The firm feet on which we see the fourth state standing today owe the strength to the long, brave, untiring and selfless struggle of journalists which was led by Minhaj Barna who through most difficult years of Pakistan’s history worked relentlessly for its freedom at the cost of his health and continued it as a mission throughout his life.
Quite a few Rohailkhand Pathans of Qaimganj (in Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh in India) achieved distinction as accomplished wielders of both the sword and the pen, some of them may have abandoned soldiery for academics but they never gave up fighting. Foremost among them in the modern period stands Dr Zakir Hussain, the builder of the Jamia Millia, Delhi, one of the greatest Muslim achievements in the subcontinent, where Minhaj Barna spent some of his formative years.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND CAREER

He was born in 1925 at Qaimganj, Farrukhabad, going to Bombay where he started as a teacher, then joining an Urdu newspaper as a translator, moving to Delhi where he worked at the Jamia Millia, got his graduation from there and joined the Communist Party.

He moved to Quetta in 1949 and then to Lahore working at Imroze and later as a correspondent for the Pakistan Times. He had several stints abroad as correspondent and even as a press counsellor in New York when Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister. Throughout in his life, he possessed the years of a rich life and had lived according to his ideals.

He was among founders of the PFUJ when he was elected General-Secretary of the union of Journalists Dhaka.

It was a very unique period of time when only very committed people would join the profession. Since Barna had been associated with the Communist Party, his efforts were to wean the journalists struggle towards the larger frame of the labour movement. This progressive leaning kept the PFUJ in constant conflict with the establishment, in particular when he was its general secretary and later became its president.
It was around that period when he went on the longest hunger strike that any leader of any party or group had ever observed. It caused his health grievous and irreparable harm.

One of the most worst period in which the media was suffered in known General Zia-ul-Haq legitimised under a Supreme Court judgment in the name of the so-called ” Law of Necessity, and this period remembered for its oppressive measures, including long spell of censorship, banning of independent and dissenting newspapers, arrest of editors and journalists, sentencing them to rigorous imprisonment under Martial Law regulations and even whipping them, it was also marked by memorable resistance put by the journalists and press workers, led by the PFUJ and Apnec under the leadership of late Minhaj Barna.

This great struggle, unprecedented in the annals of the Fourth Estate the world over, began towards the end of November 1977 in Karachi only about five months following the advent of Gen. Zia’s Martial Law.

The PFUJ’s struggle launched by deceased Barna was triggered by the government’s ban on publication of Daily ” Musawaat”, Karachi. After the failure of efforts to convince the Martial Law authorities to lift the ban, the PFUJ and Apnec launched a campaign of hunger strike in Karachi from first of December 1977 and within eight days of the struggle in which journalists and press workers from all over the country participated the government surrendered and lifted the ban.

Egged on by its oppressive nature, the government again took recourse coercive methods against the dissenting press and banned the daily ” Musawat”, Lahore , and weeklies like ” Al-Fatah” and ” Meyar” and others, critical of the Martial Law regime. After the failure of protracted negotiations with the Government the national executives of PFUJ and APNEC again launched countrywide hunger strike movement from Lahore commencing from 30th April, 1978, under the direct supervision of Minhaj Barana.

This historic movement was spread over two stages: one beginning in Lahore from April 30 and ending on May 30 and, the second beginning in Karachi from July 18 and ending on October 10, 1978. The two had their own distinct and memorable features marked by common inspiring spirit and enthusiasm. In the first phase’ in Lahore, the journalists and press workers who joined the hunger strike were arrested and sentenced under Martial Law Regulations from six months to one year rigorous imprisonment, including three who were ordered to be flogged (Nasir Zaidi, Khawar Naeem Hashmi and Iqbal Jaferi were in fact flogged. The fourth, Masoodullah Khan was spared on the intervention of the doctor in view of Mr Masood’s disability.

The resumed struggle which started in Karachi with the arrest of PFUJ and APNEC President Barna continued until 10th of October (almost two months and 25 days) had its own memorable features. For besides the journalists and press workers who came from all over the country to court arrest, scores of trade union workers, students and militant haris from interior of Sindh joined the movement and filled almost all the jails of Sindh. (During the Lahore struggle, the arrested journalists and press workers were disbursed to almost all the jails of the province of Punjab).

The Sindh phase of movement would also be remembered for the mass hunger strike unto death inside the jails. The hunger strike culminated in the acceptance of most of the APNEC-PFUJ demands by the Government. As a result “Musawaat” Karachi resumed its publication, arrested persons were released, and most of the 30 dismissed journalists of the NPT papers (Pakistan Times and Imroze) were reinstated (only four including the President of the PFUJ and APNEC were not taken back).

The Pakistani media should always be beholden to the audacious and daring leadership provided to the community by its first generation leadership. The late Nisar Osmani and Minhaj Barna and the likes of them had dedicated their lifetime to the struggle for press freedom. These pioneers had built the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) into a formidable platform from which to wage the war for press freedom.

He also contributed poetry as a chronicle of the various phases of peoples struggle for their democratic rights. In this small book, he expressed himself boldly in words as in actions throughout his life as a journalist and a progressive fighter of human rights. It was hard for ordinary people to be honest and truthful like Barna. Because of his pivotal role on driving seat for the struggle and just rights of the media persons and freedom of press he had become the movement itself. The media persons used to always raise slogans in their meetings, rallies, demonstrations “tairay sath jeena tairay sath marana; Minhaj Barna, Minhaj Barna”.

The entire Journalists community paid tributes to the valuable and remarkable service and struggle of Great hero of journalists Manaj Barana adding that his services would always be the torch bearer for journalists for all times to come.

Jan. 14, 2011

ISLAMABAD: The management of Daily Times has shut down its Islamabad newsroom – yet another indication that all is not well with the newspaper.

Three desk staffers were terminated abruptly with plans now to have all the city pages done at the paper’s Lahore headquarters.

It is not the first instance of sackings at Daily Times. In 2009, a big lot of employees that also included reporters and sub-editors were laid off from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad centers with the promise their salaries and other dues would be paid off quickly. However, those payments were never made.

The reluctance of the managers in paying off the dues prompted several employees to go to court while others staged protests but all in vain. Salaries to current staff regularly get delayed.

The newspaper has struggled ever since its Founding Editor Najam Sethi quit in October 2009 reportedly because of differences with the management over employee rights while the killing of publisher Salman Taseer by his own security guard in January 2011 only complicated matters.

Pakistan has been declared as one of the most dangerous countries for media persons in the second year in row by all the leading media organisations working for safety and cause of the journalists.

The media outlets also failed to provide insurance to employees working in hostile environments.

Apart from 13 who lost their lives in 2011, at least 67 media persons were “wounded, tortured and extended threats by agencies especially in Balochistan” in about 54 incidents of violence, attack, abduction etc. durign this year.

The year 2011 also witnessed “record retrenchment of over 1,300 media-related employees,” including 940 journalists in the electronic and print media, and they were removed without any legal formalities or payment of legitimate benefits.

This year too media owners did not take measures for safety and training of employees despite “heavy casualties” during performance of professional assignments by them since 9/11.

In line with the previous years, 2011 could not bring any change in any sphere of life for media practitioners as they were “callously deprived by media tycoons of fair wages, job security, life insurance, training, and capacity building while they were increasingly being targeted by terrorists, pressure groups and they were fell prey to blasts and suicide attacks.

An overview the year 2011 suggested that like preceding years, from 1996 to onwards, media persons were continuously denied of their legitimate benefits by the owners, including wages under the 7^th Wage Award, unbiased gender policy, abolishment of contract system. There was no protection of life for media persons and they were forced to continue work under stress.

According to information gathered by this correspondent, 29-year-old Wali Khan Babar, a reporter of Geo News was shot dead by unidentified armed persons in Karachi immediately after beginning of the new calendar year 2011 on Jan 13, 2011.

Wali Khan reportedly received five bullet wounds, including two in forehead, one in jaw and two in the neck. He was killed shortly after covering operation against drug-traffickers in Pehalwan Goth area in Karachi.

Second month of the year 2011 also witnessed a bullet-riddled dead body of Rehmatullah Shaheen, a journalist cum poet in Barech Town within the jurisdiction of Sariab police of Balochistan province.

Rehmatullah was shot dead in the head on February 03 and his body was also bearing torture marks. He was abducted a month earlier by unidentified people.

A crime reporter, Zaman Ibrahim (40) was also shot dead at Sheedi Village Road in Lyari in Karachi on March 3, 2011. He was going on his motorcycle when two motorcyclists followed him and shot dead in the head.

The bullet-riddled body of Zareef Faraz, a poet and editor of quarterly literary magazine, the Shabjoo, was found on April 25, 2011 from Turbat.

Zareef was abducted one week before his killing when he was going in a passenger bus by uniform and plain clothes persons.

Siddique Edio’s bullet riddled body was found on April 28, 2011. He was Human rights defender and journalist. Siddique Eido and his colleague, Yousaf Nazar Baloch, also met a grisly fate. They were abducted by FC and police on December 21, 2010.

They  were seized by the paramilitary Frontier Corps and dragged into a van. Police who tried to protect them were severely beaten. Eido and Baloch were taken to an unknown location. Their bloodied, battered bodies were discovered on 28 April from Makran.

The fifth month of the year 2011 also witnessed the death of Nasrullah Khan Afridi (38) on May 10, 2011. He was the correspondent of Pakistan Television (PTV) Corporation, English Daily “Statesman” and Urdu Daily “Mashriq” in Khyber tribal agency.

He was killed when an explosive device ripped through his vehicle in Peshawar, of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).

Body of  Saleem Shahzad was found in the same month on May 31, 2011 at Head Rasul. He was missing a day earlier. He was the Bureau Chief for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times, an online publication, and the Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI) and had worked for the Dawn Media Group’s evening newspaper Star for over a decade.

Asfandyar Abid Naveed, 35, reporter of Daily Akhbar-i-Khyber, was killed and eight other journalists were injured on June 11, 2011 when two blasts ripped through in Super Market, a commercial and residential area of Peshawar of Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) province.

About 39 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the blasts. Several journalists, including Bureau Chief of “Dunya TV” Saifullah Gul, a reporter “Dunya TV”, Imran Bukhari, a young internee at daily “The News”, Shafiullah, sub-editor of daily “The News”, Barkatullah Marwat, reporter of “Geo TV”, Qazi Fazlullah, a cameraman of “AVT Khyber”, Hashim Ali and reporters of daily “Akhbar-e-Khyber”, Sheheryar and Riaz were also among the injured.

Journalist Naveed had survived a suicide bombing, which ripped through Peshawar Press Club and had received minor injuries on Dec 22, 2009.

A few months back he was hit by a speeding bus. He received fractures at one of his legs. He remained in hospital for several weeks and during that period he also lost his job.

He had recently joined his new job at daily “Akhbar-i-Khyber”. His parents had died and he was unmarried. He left behind two sisters to mourn his death.

32-year-old Ayaz, chief editor of a weekly newspaper, was also shot dead in North Karachi in the Sir Syed police limits on June 12, 2011. Ayaz was a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal. Someone asked him by telephone to get to the place near a fast-food restaurant.

He was standing at the place when two people in a car arrived and started talking to Ayaz. In the meantime, the suspects took Ayaz some distance away from the fast-food restaurant, opened fire on him and fled.

Shafiullah Khan who was working as a trainee for an English newspaper News in Peshawar and was injured in the twin explosions in Peshawar’s Super market succumbed to his injuries on June 16, 2011.

Shafiullah was visiting the area when two powerful blasts ripped through the marketplace in Peshawar just before midnight on June 11. He received third degree burns and succumbed to his injuries.

Another journalist, Munir Ahmed Shakir, who was on his way to home after purchasing some household items from a market was shot dead by some armed assailants riding a motorcycle who opened fire on him on August 14, 2011.

Munir was hit by more than two bullets and died on the spot. He was working for a Balochi language channel, ‘Sabz Baat’, and for the “Online” news agency.

Faisal Qureshi, 28, editor for the political news website London Post, was murdered at his resident. His body was discovered on October 07, 2011 about 2 a.m. by his brother, Zahid, after family members found bloodstains outside the journalist’s house. Police reports described the body as showing signs of torture, with the throat slit.

According to another brother, Shahid Qureshi, who lives in London and also wrote for the London Postwebsite, he and his brother had received death threats from various quarthers.

Bullet-riddled dead body of Javed Naseer Rind was found dumped in Khuzdar on Nov 05, 2011. He was 25 and a senior sub-editor at a local daily “Tawar”. He was shot in the head and the bullet had passed through his skull. His body bore multiple marks of brutal torture also.

Rind was abducted on Sept 10 near his residence in the Mehmoodabad area of Hub Town, which shares a border withKarachi.

Voilance against media workers

First attack of the year 2011 was reported on the very first day of the year when some unidentified armed persons attacked the reporting team of “SAMAA TV, a private news channel, on January 1, 2011.

The assailants detained the media team for over two hours in the industrial town of Faisalabad, a largest metropolis of Punjabprovince, Pakistan.

On February 2, 2011, at least four persons including two police officials, sustained injuries when a low-intensity bomb exploded in CD Market at Charsadda district.

The bomb, which went off in a CD market, known as Doozakh Market in Umerzai Bazaar, caused critical injuries to Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Samiullah. A constable Khalil Ullah and two locals identified as Arif and Syed Akhtar Bacha also sustained injuries in the blast.

Senior anchor of Dawn News Syed Talat Hussain and cameraman Haider Ali came under attack in the interior of Sindh onFebruary 4, 2011.

A Dawn News team was recording their programme on the plight of flood-affected people in Road More area of Tehsil Jati in Thatta district, when gunmen opened fire.  The locals claim the gunmen belong to a Qabza group. Sub-machine guns and other sophisticated weapons were used in the attack and the pellets from the rounds landed around the team.

The team miraculously escaped the attack in the area of former adviser Ghulam Qadir Malkani.

Mumtaz Kanwal, a noted television and radio artist, and her husband were also given life threats forcing her and her husband to leave their house and take shelter with an NGO in Latifabad, on March 10, 2011.

Ms Kanwal also alleged that influential people had also registered a false FIR against her husband Raheel and brothers.

In the same month, Mohammad Fayyaz Qamar (25), a Lahore-based cameraman for Dunya News TV, was also shot and injured on March 14, 2011 on the premises of Punjab Assembly, a high security zone in Lahore, when he was covering an event. A stray bullet hit him while he was sitting in an area designated for journalists.

Eight armed men belonging to Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party (STPP), a nationalist political party, ransacked the office and harassed staff members of Indus FM 100.20 in the city of Tando Muhammad Khan in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on March 19, 2011.

Mohammad Rafique Balouch, a reporter of Urdu language daily “Ummat” and Vice President Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ), was abducted by four unidentified abductors in plain clothes in Karachi, the Southern port city and capital of Sindh province of Pakistan, on 21 March 2011.

Unidentified assailants also attacked at Naveed Kamal, a news reporter with Metro One TV channel on April 20, 2011 at Abul Hasan Isphahani Road in Karachi. He was 26 and shot in the neck.

Some unknown militants blew up parts of the privately-owned radio station FM 93 Dilbar Radio on April 20, 2011. The outlaws planted explosives around the building housing the station. Radio Dilbar is located in the town of Charsadda, 120 kilometres southeast of Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) province, and broadcasts a mix of news and music.

Security guards of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) of Islamabad took on the officials of Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) and journalists on April 27, 2011.

Scuffles, fights and altercations and counter-allegations were also exchanged. Sadaqat Ali of Sama TV was wounded in his head as others also suffered injuries.

Jahangir Aslam, an ARY Channel’s reporter, and Abdul Wahid Baloch, in-charge of Directorate of Public Relations Balochistan, were heading towards their residence from Press Club in Turbat when gunmen opened indiscriminate firing on them and cause critical injuries to them on May 2, 2011. Jahangir Aslam received bullets in his chest and legs.

Meanwhile staff and members of Karachi Press Club (KPC) were also attacked by armed persons.

In the same month, a team of 25 persons from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) police attacked Wasiq Mohammad, a reporter, and cameraman Zohaib from Express News on May 05, 2011 when cameraman took out his camera to capture footage of the raid.

Four constables in plainclothes snatched his camera and broke it. They took away Zohaib’s mobile phone and began hitting him. When the team’s driver tried to intercede, they hit him as well and handcuffed both the men.

During June, Abdul Salam Soomro, cameraman, “Awaz TV”, a Sindhi language news and entertainment channel, who recorded the shooting of death of an unarmed youngster by the paramilitary Rangers personnel in Karachi on June 8, 2011 received threats from unknown callers on June 09, 2011 after the footage was shown on TV channels across Pakistan.

Soomro was recording a television programme at Benazir Bhutto Park in Clifton area of Karachi, where he saw and recorded a man holding a youngster – identified as 25 year-old Sarfaraz Shah – by his hair and kicking him towards a group of about half a dozen Rangers personnel.

A paramilitary soldier pointed his rifle at the neck of Shah who pleaded mercy. The paramilitary personnel surrounded Shah and as he moved towards one with his arms outstretched, he was pushed back and shot twice in the hand and leg.

The video posted on social networking websites showed the victim lying on the ground pleading with the Rangers to take him to hospital.

In the same month, Quetta-based photo journalist Jamal Tarakai, 36, working for various media organizations, who had filmed the first video of security forces’ firing on the five Chechens including three women on May 17, 2011, was arrested, beaten and abused by police in Quetta on June 14, 2011.

Tarakai had been receiving threatening calls on his cell phone since Kharotabad incident. Tarakai is working as reporter for Daily “Nazim News” and photojournalist and cartoonist for “Independent News Pakistan (INP)”, Daily “Awam”, Daily “Dunya”, Daily “Public” and Daily “Balochistan News”. Tarakai is living with his wife, four sons and a daughter.

Shahzad Anwar, Vice president of Multan Press Club, and chief photographer of Daily “Pakistan Akhbaar”, and six other journalists were injured in a clash with the students of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) on June 15, 2011 when students were protesting for their demands outside the Press Club in Multan, the city of Punjab province in Pakistan.

40-year-old Waheed Butt, a cameraman of “Geo News”, news channel, was also arrested and assaulted by police on June 17, 2011 as he was filming the arrest of a 12-year-ol boy by the police in Lahore.

32-year-old Waqar Kiani, a Pakistan-based correspondent of British newspaper “Guardian”, was assaulted allegedly by police inIslamabad on 18 June, 2011.

He was attacked after five days of a news report published in Guardian and other newspapers about abduction and torture by suspected Pakistani intelligence agents in July 2008 in Islamabad.

After passage of 14 days of July, unidentified youths severely tortured Journalist Mohammad Yaseen Ansari and photographer Khalid Sardar in Bahwalpur.

They claimed that they received calls that some members of a Qabza group were torturing the women to grab their land and the victims needed the help of journalists.

“When we reached the site, 9-10 unidentified youths attacked us and snatched our cell phones. They also threatened us with dire consequences if we published any scandalous story in newspaper,” they said.

In the same month, some unknown assailants attacked a private TV channel host Sheryar Sherry in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Karachi.

A reporting team of “SAMAA TV”, channel, was also attacked on July 28, 2011 by a group of miscreants who manhandled the crew for one and half hour and warned them of dire consequences if they continued coverage in the area.

They also attacked the channel’s van, setting it ablaze in Karachi. The reporting team included reporter Ghayasuddin, cameraman Faisal Aghai and driver Zahid Shah.

Cameraman of Geo News and his colleague sustained injuries on July 6, 2011 when the Levies officials thrashed them in Makan Bagh area of Mingora.

Geo News cameraman Murad Ali and Sheraz, working for another private TV channel, were on their way to Saidu SharifHospital for coverage when they got stuck up in traffic in Makanbagh area.

The newsmen riding a motorbike tried to overtake the jammed vehicles in a bid to reach the hospital in time when officials of the Levies Force escorting the District Coordination Officer Kamran Rahman manhandled them and took away their cameras, DVD and other items.

Main office of daily “Mashriq”, a leading Urdu newspaper of Peshawar, of Khyber-Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) was also attacked by police on August 6, 2011. The police tortured the staff members including senior journalists Sohrab Khan and Asif Nisar Ghayasi.

A group of armed men with covered faces kidnapped senior tribal journalist Rahmatullah Darpakhel from Miramshah, North Waziristan on August 11, 2011.

Rehmatullah, associated with an Urdu daily Ausaf, was shopping in the bazaar when a group of armed men bundled him into a car and drove away.

In Peshawar, Hazrat Khan Mohamed, Bureau Chief of private TV channel “ATV Khyber News” was injured when a team of their TV channel was attacked by unknown armed men on August 22, 2011.

Bureau Chief of “ARY One World” TV channel, Farhan Effendi was also manhandled and injured by supporters of a former provincial minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza in his press conference in Hyderabad, a city of Sindh, on August 30, 2011.

Seven journalists, including Press Club President Azmat Alizai, Senior Vice President Naseer Hussain, General Secretary Sajjad Hussain, Press Secretary Rashid Khan, Finance Secretary Sajid Shah, Tribal Union of Journalists President Hussain Afzal and Senior Vice President Mehdi Hussain were arrested during the Muttahida Talba Mahaz (MTM) news conference at the Parachinar Press Club on September 13, 2011. They had turned up to cover the news conference about the firing by law-enforcers on a student rally.

Reporter Deewa Radio Ihsan, Mohammad Khan was on his way to home after covering the Abbottabad Commission’s visit when he was intercepted by unidentified men and severely tortured and deprived of valuables on Sept 15, 2011.

Meanwhile, unidentified men ambushed Khalil Khan Afridi, a senior tribal journalist and former Khyber Agency Tribal Union of Journalists president, on Sept 21, 2011. He was returning home from a nearby Hujra (guest house) at 9pm when he was targeted with a hand-grenade that severely injured him.

On Oct 20, house of Jawed Noor, a senior correspondent of daily “Mashriq” and the president of Wanna Press Club, was blown up with explosive device placed by some unknown miscreants in at Wanna, the headquarter of South Waziristan Agency of Federally Administrated Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

On Nov 22, Mohammad Malick, Editor “The News” Islamabad, received life threatening calls and was followed by men in a car while travelling towards his office in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.

Ehsan Kohati, a senior reporter for “Waqt News” TV channel, received bullet wounds on Nov 27, 2011 while covering a Muharram rally in Karachi. Kohati received two bullets, one in chest and another in abdomen. Eight people including Kohati were injured and two were killed in an attack on a rally of Shiite mourners on the first day Islamic calendar month of Muharram.

Journalists of Khuzdar, a district of Pakistan’s southern Balochistan province, including Nabeel Gurnani, a correspondent of “Express News” TV channel and president of Khuzdar Press club, Abdul Haq Baloch, a correspondent of “ARY News” TV channel, Abdullah Khidrani, a correspondent of “KTN News” TV channel and Daily “Kawaish”, Munir Noor, correspondent of Daily “Balochistan News” and Abdullah Shahwani, a correspondent of “Aaj TV” channel received threats of dire consequences on November 25, 2011 by a banned militant organization “Baloch Musallah Defa Army” (BMDA).

Afnan Khan, chief reporter for the “Daily Times” newspaper, left the country on December 03, 2011 after assailants, thought to be members of the Jamaatud Dawa, attempted to abduct him in Lahore.

A group of armed persons snatched copies of “Mashriq”, a local daily, and set them on fire by in Bannu district, Khyber-Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) on December 03, 2011.

Senior anchor of Geo News television network, Hamid Mir received was threatened on December 20, 2011 through SMS messages after discussing topics on his talkshow that were critical of the Pakistani security establishment.

On 29^th Dec. 2011 in Khairpur at least ten people, including journalists, were injured after a war of words between two groups turned violent.

Journalists covering the incident also came in the line of fire, and three, Barkat Chachar, Aziz Soomro and Khan Mohammad Solangi, were injured. The police’s attempts at laying down the law apparently fuelled the situation, as members of the two sects also began shooting in the air.

Police refuse to arrest anyone in 2 child marriage cases, saying the parties involved were in ‘mutual agreement’.

According to details, Mauza Khotiyana resident Nazakat contracted a love marriage with his first cousin Saima but the family of the girl opposed the union and considered the court marriage a grave insult. The couple – Nazakat and Saima – contracted the marriage in court on November 24, 2011. “They are cousins and the family is close but everyone considered it a grave insult that they did not consult their parents and did not take into account the decision of the village elders,” said a panchayat witness Rahman Shah.

The family elders also called a Panchayat that stated they would not compromise on this issue and sent a massage to the couple to return to the village and let the village elders decide if they were willing to accept the marriage. “Marriages are made by families not the courts and the court stamp means nothing to us. It is the panchayat that will decide if they should stay together or divorce,” said Nazakat’s father Mubeen Sattar.

On December 18, Saima reached her parents house and on December 2O her father Allah Ditta moved a complaint before the Police Station Masan alleging therein that Nazakat had staged the entire marriage in court and had actually raped his daughter.

“He kidnapped my daughter and raped her and told people that it was a court marriage,” he said. The police registered an FIR   339/11 and filed a case under Section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code for committing zina. The police also issued a medical examination of Saima, which confirmed that zina was committed with her. Nizakat is still at large.

Meanwhile, Saima’s parents forcefully abducted Nazakat’s sisters Razia, 5, and Nazia, 9, three days ago and wed them to Aftab, 9, and Basit, 12. This development forced village elders to hold another panchayat, where they decided that the girls should be returned to the Nazakat’s parents and ought to be allowed to stay with their parents. “The nikah should be upheld but the girls should remain with their parents until Nazakat returns,” said panchayat leader Mukhdoom Khan. Saima’s parents returned the girls to Nazakat’s family on Friday night.

Station House Officer (SHO) Massan Saeed Chuchkana told reporters that the police had not arrested anyone so far because of lack of evidence. “We have received only the complaint of Saima’s parents but none from the other side. We initially registered a case against Nazkat for kidnapping Saima but they resolved the matter internally so there is no reason to arrest anyone,” he added.

Chuchkana said that since ‘forced marriage and the alleged incident of kidnapping the minors was an internal matter and none of the parities complained the issue was moot’. Subsequently no action has been taken by the police and the SHO also confirmed that the issue of kidnapping of minors and subsequently solemnising their Nikah had been resolved by the area elders and the decision was ‘acceptable to all parties’. “All these matters were dealt with mutual consent so there was nothing illegal,” he said.

“As for as arrest of Nazakat, who has been accused of zina, I have already constituted a police party for his arrest and he will be arrested by the next 48 hours”, he asserted.

Area District Superintendent Police (DSP) Mirza Anjum Iqbal said that the incident was not brought before his notice. “Ofcourse child marriage is a crime and an inquiry will be conducted into the incident. If the charges are true, the SHO in question, will be suspended,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2011.