RAWALPINDI: Commenting on the siege of Jang and Geo office, senior journalist and anchorperson Kamran Khan said that the Gherao was part of a series of some developments expected in the next few days.
Talking to Geo News, Kamran Khan said the Supreme Court will start hearing of a very important case regarding the NRO today (Monday) and Law Minister Babar Awan will appear before the court tomorrow (Tuesday). He said the apex court will hear the case regarding the Bank of Punjab (BoP) on May 26, while the hearing of the case regarding the dual office of the president is set for May 27.
According to Kamran Khan, all these cases are directly related to the current position of the government and its future. Kamran Khan said the government has started a clash with the judiciary. He said the government came out openly against the judiciary during the last hearing when it openly declared that the government would not act upon the decision of the apex court and would not write to the Swiss authorities for opening of cases against the president. Later, the PPP issued a statement that it would not make any compromise in this regard and no letter would be written to the Swiss authorities.
“On Sunday news emerged that the PPP and People’s Lawyers Forum will besiege the Supreme Court to pressurise it. All these news have been published in the media, which panicked the government. The Jang Group and Geo TV are unveiling the government’s corruption, mismanagement and bad governance and the government wants to pressurise Jang, The News and Geo and stop them from unveiling its massive corruption and mismanagement,” Kamran Khan said.
He said that the siege of Jang Group’s offices on Sunday was directly linked with the proceedings of the apex court today (Monday). “The government wants to stop the administration of Jang and Geo through any possible means from covering today’s (Monday’s) Supreme Court proceedings as the freedom of press demands,” Kamran Khan said.
He said on one hand Jang and Geo were being implicated in fake tax cases and on the other the group has been subjected to pressure tactics, threats and blackmailing.
The eminent journalist said Sunday’s incident broke all the previous records of pressurising media organisations. “The siege of Jang and Geo offices on the eve of the Supreme Court hearing and ordering the police to stay away from the protesters is an ample proof of the grim situation facing the country’s media at the moment,” he lamented. He said the silence and backing of the government for such acts shows that such incidents will continue to happen in future.
Kamran Khan told Geo News that Sunday’s papers carried the news that there will be no Gherao of the Supreme Court building, but this Gherao was ordered for somewhere else. To a question about the comparison of dictatorial and democratic rule in the wake of Sunday’s incident, Kamran Khan said the world and Pakistani media organisations believe the situation is even worse than that that of dictatorial rule when media freedom was under attack.
He said it is the responsibility of the media organisations to see where the Pakistanis stand in the wake of current scenario. To another question about life threat to journalists working in Jang and Geo offices, Kamran Khan said “we want to make it clear on the president, prime minister, Sindh chief minister and governor and other political leadership that the situation may take an ugly turn”. He said terrorists are freely roaming in the country and always looking for such opportunities. He said the government and organisations responsible for national security should realise that the anti-state elements could benefit from such situation. He asked the government and the state organisations to act sensibly as they were playing with fire by subjecting the largest media group of the country to pressure tactics and threats by resorting to Gherao of its offices.
Source: The News
Date:5/24/2010
