Pakistan: Pressure on the Press

LAHORE, Dec 17 (IPS): Already under fire from all sides for his perceived
extravagance during his recent visit to Washington, Pakistani prime
minister Nawaz Sharif has re-opened another front by allowing the Federal
Investigating Agency (FIA) to 'raid' the offices of the country's largest
group of newspapers earlier this week.

The three-hour visit by four officials from the FIA to the
Rawalpindi-Islamabad offices of the mass-circulation Urdu daily 'Jang' and
the English language daily 'The News' on Monday afternoon, was ' to check
newsprint quotas and store records' as stated by the Additional Director
General FIA who supervised the event. the FIA officials also attempted to
take away some of the records but were prevented by workers of the
newspaper unions.

The team left the office premises, saying they had been given orders from
'the top', and as government officers they had to follow instructions.

Although a government spokesman on Monday denied that that there was any
raid or any harassment, and said that '''no official from any government
agency visited the newspaper,'' Ehtesab (Accountability) Bureau Chief
Senator Saifur Rehman in an interview with BBC accepted responsibility for
the raid and said that more such action would be taken 'as needed'.

The Senator said that six months ago, the Income Tax Department detected
that the Group had concealed income amounting to PKR 2 billion (divide by
46 for USD). The FIA, he said, had been asked to probe the matter, which it
did by checking the Book of Accounts and Store Ledger.

When asked about attempts to persuade the Group not to carry a news item
about a GBP 11 million case against Sharif already published in the
Observer, London, the EB chief said that publication of this news would not
harm the prime minister as it had already been published in The Friday
Times two months ago.

He conceded that a case had been filed in a UK court, but that it was for
the amount of USD 11 million, not GBP 11 million, and denied trying to stop
the Jang Group from publishing the story.

However, the Jang Group termed it as 'part of the vindictive policy' that
the government has been following for 'the last six months against Jang
Group and other newspapers'. And Friday Times Editor Najam Sethi also
complains of harassment by the Income Tax Department, as well as phone
tapping.

Mir Shakilur Rehman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Jang Group says he
has been told by two senior officials (Chief of the Accountability Cell,
Senator Saifur Rehman and Media Adviser Mushahid Hussain - but maybe they
can't be named??) close to the Sharif to dismiss sixteen journalists. When
the harassment started in July-August, the 'dismissal list' carried the
names of four journalists, including The News Pindi Editor Maleeha Lodhi,
Benazir Bhutto's ambassador to the USA.

The list has been expanded to the following: Kamran Khan, Editor, News
Investigation Unit, Karachi, Mehmood Sham, Editor Jang, Karachi,. Irshad
Ahmed Haqqani, Editor Jang, Lahore, Maleeha Lodhi, Editor The News
Rawalpindi, Shoaib Marghoob, Editor Jang Magazine, Lahore, Abed Tehami,
Magazine Feature Editor, Lahore, Kamila Hyat, Editor The News Lahore,
Marianna Babar, Special Correspondent, Rawalpindi, Kaleem Omar, Editor
Investigations, Karachi, Sohail Warraich, Senior Assistant Editor, Jang
Lahore, Beena Sarwar, Editor The News on Sunday, Lahore, Nasir Beg
Chughtai, Senior Chief News Editor, Jang Karachi, Mudassir Mirza, News
Editor Jang Karachi, Aftab Iqbal, Incharge Telephone Survey, Karachi,
Khawar Naim Hashmi, Chief News Editor, Jang Lahore, and Sajjad Anwar,
Magazine Editor Jang Pindi

In addition, Rehman has been told to keep the policies of his publications
'supportive' of the following issues: -'Shariat' (so-called Islamic law),
-Karachi, -the judiciary, -the Mian Brothers - (Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif's
business concern, formerly Ittefaq Group).

''We've been told that nothing adverse should be written concerning their
loans, business, personal matters etc,'' says a visibly disturbed Rehman.
''They have told us that future issues will be communicated to us as and
when they turn up.'' He adds that the pressure tactics include tapping all
his telephones.

He says that most recently, the group was under intense pressure until late
at night not to carry the news story about the non-payment of a GBP 11
million loan by the PM's family, published by the London-based 'Observer'
the day before the raid. The story has been reproduced by several other
newspapers here.

Other publications have also been sustaining similar pressures. In October,
the respected Karachi-based monthly Newsline received a 'visit' from the
plainclothes officials demanding resident telephone numbers and addresses
of reporters. 'The pressure is off for now,' says editor Rehana Hakim, '…at
least until the next story.'

Weekly The Friday Times publisher Jugnu Mohsin and Editor Najam Sethi, a
husband-wife team, have for long been complaining of various kinds of
harassment. ''All our telephones are tapped, including the mobile (cell)
phones. When we go to Islamabad, senior government officials jokingly quote
bits of our conversations to us,'' complains Ms Mohsin.

Some six months ago, TFT was also harassed by the Income Tax department.
When Najam Sethi went to see them with his accountant, the officer he was
visiting asked the accountant to leave the room and told Sethi that he had
instructions from the Ehtesab (Accountability) Bureau set up by the prime
minister to follow up cases of corruption in the previous government.

Sethi then called up the head of the Ehtesab Bureau, Saifur Rehman, who
denied it, 'but then the pressure was turned off'.

Despite being an ABC certified paper entitled to government commercial (eg.
Tenders from departments like Railways or Steel Mills) as well as 'pure' or
subsidised (eg. From 'soft' or non-commercial ministries like Environment
or Education) adverts, TFT, like Newsline and The News, receives no
government advertisements at all.

The government's heavy-handed tactics to control Pakistan's independent
press has unleashed widespread criticism, nationally as well as
internationally, including faxes to the prime minister by Reporters Sans
Frontiers and the Committee to Project Journalists.

On Tuesday, the Combined Opposition reacted strongly to the government
action, and walked out of the Senate in sympathy with the journalists who
had left the press gallery in protest. The Senate has also come under
intense pressure by the Prime Minister to support the 15th Consitutional
Amendment.