LANDI KOTAL: The Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ) from the Khyber Agency staged a demonstration at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday to demand the early release of Rehmat Shah Afridi, editor-in-chief of The Frontier Post, who is currently in prison.

Tribal Agency and Peshawar-based journalists demanded the federal government immediately release Afridi, a senior tribal journalist who has served 10 years of a life sentence. TUJ Khyber Agency President Khial Zaman Afridi said that under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), President Pervez Musharraf ordered the release of “all big criminals and corrupt high-ranking people” while at the same time expressing his regret that a senior journalist and editor-in-chief of The Frontier Post was in jail in Lahore, a comment which ‘displayed the government’s double standards’.

He appealed to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani to consider releasing Afridi. Zaman threatened to stage a hunger strike in front of Parliament House in Islamabad if the TUJ demand was not met.
Source: Daily Times
Date:4/24/2008