Free press in Pakistan ?

Is there a free press in Pakistan? Lets not ask this question today i.e. Monday, Sep 18th 2006.

Since morning,  one private channel, ARY has been pulled off the air waves by the Punjab Chief Minister, Ch. Pervaiz Elahi. 

A reporter , Mr.Mushtaq (name not  confirmed) covered a meeting of the opposition. The CM did not like it  and  has  according to informal media sources,

“Ordered that the Punjab police  ensures that all cable operators pull off ARY.” 

I tried to  contact friends in ARY but their mobiles were switched off.

I also could not find out what the meeting was about and what set off the CM.

Disgusting news.

Pathetic. Shameful. Disgusting. My first reaction to the news was this. It actually made me physcially sick. The news?   

That a young woman and her mother were  kidnapped and raped by a  Minister of State Raza Hayat Heraj men.  The reason? The girl belonging to the lower caste had dared to study and get a  Master’s Degree. The family was celeberating but not for long.

According to  the Asian Human Rights Commission

“Ghazala Shaheen and her mother were abducted from their house at 1:00 am by the henchmen of Mr. Raza Hayat Heraj who is a Minister of State on 25 August 2006. The victims were only freed after local villagers took action and stormed a house, while detaining the perpetrators on September 5. 

The father of the girl was also so severely beaten by the minister’s men that he could not move for two days. The police first refused to register the case after the arrest of one of the accused by local people who secured the release of the daughter and mother from the abductors.

The police then arrested one person and released the two other accused. Among them one was the guard of the said minister.However, now the victims are being threatened by high police officials.”

 

This is disgusting. Even more  so if  we remain quiet. I would request you to use  all  means  whether it is  writing letters to the editor, asking your local press club to take it up etc  to  raise  hell  about this.