Pakistan Journalist Harassment
Journalist harassment: SC summons interior secy, FIA DG
The Pakistan Supreme Court recently summoned three senior officials to appear before it on Aug 26 to hear the government’s version on the rising incidents of harassment of journalists.
The three officials are: the interior secretary, the Federal Investigation Agency’s director general and the Islamabad police inspector general, reports Dawn News.
The court issued the directives in response to a four-page petition complaining that journalists were facing increasing acts of intimidation at the hands of security agencies, the Pakistani newspaper reported.
The court regretted that the FIA appeared to have overstepped its mandate and undermined the nation’s confidence in the judiciary, the newspaper reported further.
A two-judge SC bench, consisting of Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, also issued notices to the secretaries of information and broadcasting, religious affairs and human rights ministries as well as to the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), asking them to state whether the allegations made in the application were correct or not.
The apex court took up the matter after Abdul Qayyum Siddiqui, a former president of the Press Association of the Supreme Court (PAS), drew its attention over the issue of rising harassment of journalists in the country.
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