Frontier Post case may be resolved soon says official
Frontier Post case may be resolved soon says official
PESHAWAR- The Frontier Post, a local English daily’s case of publication of a blasphemous letter on January 29 seems to be getting close to a resolution.
The Home Secretary, Syed Mazhar Ali Shah said that the in charge editorial page’s confession had made investigation easy and, hopefully the case will be resolved soon.
Although the judicial inquiry tribunal is yet to start work, all indications point towards one thing that the publication of the sister newspapers may be allowed to be resumed on the insistence of the journalists bodies in order to save a large number of press workers from starvation.
This became possible due to the positive attitude of the religio-political parties who have called off their protest campaign for one month and the journalists who avoided publication of sensitizing material.
A highly placed source said that the government has reached the conclusion that the majority of The Frontier Post staffers held on the first day of publication of the said letter could be released any moment.
The home secretary also told that the police action against daily Jasarat, Peshawar bureau was being reviewed and redefined according to law. A police party has been deployed outside the Jasarat bureau office to nab its chief to be involved in the investigations on the publication of a translation of the blasphemous letter.
The police and the NWFP administration have been convinced by the confession of the in charge editorial page that the panic and chaos on the publication of blasphemous letter had occurred due to human error of judgment and there was no conspiracy involved.
The newspaper’s management has already sought apology of the Muslim Ummah. However, legal experts are of the view that the provincial administration has not handled the case according to merits.
The experts say that under the Registration of Publications and Printing Press Ordinance (RPPPO), the government should have registered a case against the printer, publisher, editor and in charge of the said page instead of the chief reporter, paster, news editors etc.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/7/2001
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