TFT: Press freedom under assault in Pakistan

Defaming Musharraf’s Pakistan

Najam Sethi's editorial(TFT Dec 9-15)

It is generally understood that if armed non-state actors like certain extremist religious and ethnic groups don’t like what is written about them in the local Pakistani press, they are inclined to take ‘action’ against the offending journalist or paper. That is why some journalists have been assaulted or even assassinated in Pakistan [like the editor of Taqbeer many years ago] and some papers have been vandalized [like Nawa i Waqt in Karachi and The Frontier Post in Peshawar], most often in Karachi which is plagued with both ethnic and religious violence. But they are not the only ones who can take the law into their hands and wreak vengeance. Mainstream political parties, too, have been known to accuse journalists of “treason” and “terrorism” when their leaders have been faulted for corruption or misdemeanour [as in the case of the editor of this paper by Nawaz Sharif].What is less well known or recorded for obvious reasons are instances of abuse at the hands of the intelligence agencies or the military. Here are some examples from the Musharraf regime [which receives international kudos for a relatively free press].

Some years ago, a senior reporter of an English daily paper in Islamabad wrote some uncomfortable truths about the nepotism and unaccountability of a general who was head of the Pakistan Cricket Board. The next day the poor hack was “picked up” by unidentified men in a jeep, dragged off to a nearby wood and beaten black and blue as a warning never to trifle with men in khaki. A shadow of his former self, he has refused to go public with his ordeal and never written a bad word about a serving or retired soldier since. Another respected journalist wrote about opposition in the army to General Musharraf’s pro-West policies. He “disappeared” for several days but his family was “advised” not to lodge a complaint. After he returned home, he taped his mouth, packed his bags and left the country. Other offending journalists have been luckier. One was persistently argumentative at press moots with General Musharraf. “They” simply pushed his uninsured car out of his driveway and burnt it to ashes in the dead of night. He is on good terms with the big man now. Another got the same “car” treatment when he wrote about the nexus between the Pakistan intelligence agencies and a don wanted by India.

Two new troubling cases have come to light in the last seven days. A journalist in the tribal badlands of Waziristan who challenged the official military account of an Al Qaeda activist’s death has “disappeared”. He is Hayatullah Khan, a reporter for an Urdu-language daily and photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA). He was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen last Tuesday in Mir Ali in the tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan. “Khan’s reporting had cast doubt on the official account of how a senior Al Qaeda militant was killed on December 1 and raised the sensitive issue of the US army’s participation in the fight against terrorism in Pakistan,” says Reporters San Frontiers, an international press watchdog. His disappearance comes a day after a journalist was killed in Darra Adamkhel, in another part of the Tribal Areas. His abduction came just a few days after he contradicted Pakistani army claims that the death of Hamza Rabia, a leading Arab militant in Al Qaeda, and four other people on December 1, was the result of an accidental munitions explosion in the home of a person identified as Mohammad Siddiq, who turned out to be an uncle of Khan. “On the basis of photographs he took at the scene, Khan said Rabia was killed by a US missile. Villagers said the explosion was caused by a missile fired from a plane or a drone,” said RSF. Locals say the Pakistani security forces had it in for him. “He was arrested in an arbitrary fashion by US forces in 2002 when he was trying to cover Al Qaeda and Taliban activity in the border region. The Pakistani military harassed him the following year after he wrote about the misuse of army vehicles in Mir Ali,” wrote RSF.

Another recent incident in Bahawalpur is also noteworthy. The local police has filed a case against nine men under the Maintenance of Public Order 16 for “defaming the armed forces” during the launching ceremony of a book titled “Gernailon Ki Siyasat’ [The Politics of Generals]. These include the former Pakistan ambassador to Norway and various party political heavyweights who spoke on the occasion. Earlier, it was revealed, the authorities had tried to prevent the book launch by denying permission to hold it at the Circuit House and Rashidia Auditorium, and leaning on local hotels and marriage halls not to entertain such miscreants.

If General Pervez Musharraf doesn’t formally sanction such selective action it is clear that he condones local military commanders out to “protect their asses”, as the Americans would say. But the fact is that they defame the image of “Musharraf’s Pakistan” and hurt him more than the press. Mr Hayatullah Khan should be released immediately before his case becomes a cause celebre abroad.