KARACHI: President of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) Jameel Athar Qazi, Senior Vice President Qazi Asad Abid, Secretary General Ilyas Shakir, Joint Secretary Jawaid Mehar Shamsi and Finance Secretary Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi have expressed their grave concern over the missing of bureau chief and senior editor of a private TV channel, News 5.

In a statement on Saturday, the CPNC leaders said that the missing of Munawar Malik during tenure of a democratic government was quite terrible and condemnable act.

They said that the incident was an open attack on freedom of press.

Munawar has been missing for the last 40 hours and till now no action has been taken by the government, they added. The CPNC leaders said last month, a senior journalist Saleem Shehzad, had gone missing and finally murdered as security agencies failed to take steps for his swift recovery.

They demanded of the federal and provincial governments to take serious notice of missing of Munawar and take all possible measures to recover him safely.

They also asked the government to provide security to working journalists so that such kind of incidents does not happen.

They showed sympathy and solidarity with Chief Editor Khabrain Group Zia Shahid, journalist community and the family of Munawar.
Source: The News
Date:7/24/2011