Cases registered against dailies | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Cases registered against dailies

On 28 January 1999, the Police of Sindh province has registered cases of ‘sedition’ against Jang, Amn, and Parcham (Local Urdu dailies), for publishing an advertisement of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a political party in the province of Sindh. The papers were charged with sedition aimed at inciting people against the state.

The cases have been registered against the editors, publishers and printers of these dailies. The persons named in these First Information Reports (FIRs) include Mir Shakil-ur Rehman, chief executive, editor in Chief and publisher of Jang besides the Khidmat-e-Khalq Committee of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM); MQM senator Ajmal Dehlvi, editor and publisher of Amn and Aamir Liaqat and Mehmooda Sultana editor and publisher of Parcham.

The charges under the cases consist of “exciting or an attempt to excite hatred, contempt or dissatisfaction towards the federal or provincial government, by words, either spoken or written, or signs or visible representation or other wise”.

The Jang Group of Newspapers owned by Mir Shakil-ur Rehman is engaged in a legal tussle with the government. Currently the groups’ newsprint and accounts were frozen disrupting the publication operations. The Government has charged the Jang Group of tax evasion.

Source: Nation, The News

Date:2/1/1999