Geo’s concert honours released journalists
Geo organised a musical concert Wednesday night to honour those journalists who were detained by law-enforcement agencies while protesting against curbs on media outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.
Junaid Jamshed performed his famous song “Dil Dil Pakistan” without musical accompaniment to show his solidarity with journalists. He said he had returned to stage after gap of 20 years for the cause of the media.
Around 30 of the journalists, belonging to different print and electronic media, who faced executive high-handedness were called on stage one-by-one to share their experience in police captivity. They termed it the first stage of their struggle and vowed to continue their protest till the ban was lifted from TV channels, the end of the Pemra Ordinance, and an end to the assault on democratic freedoms.
Ghulam Mustafa who was among four journalists separated and booked revealed that a senior police officer at Sher Shah police station told them that he had orders from higher authorities to torture them. He said the the policeman also requested them to level allegations of torture against him when they are released, otherwise, the higher authorities would take action against him for not doing so. He said that a TV reporter was detained outside the KPC and severely beaten by LEAs who dumped him near the National Stadium late Tuesday night.
Tariq Moin said that the detained journalists observed the death anniversary of the great poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz at the police station by singing his poetry. Faisal Aziz said that this was the start of the sustained struggle against restrictions on the media.
Fahim Siddiqi, Qazi Asif, Abdul Jabbar Nasir, Nasim Rajput, Liaquat Mughal, Raja Kamran, Abdul Jabbar, Shams Imran and others also spoke. Shazad Mughal, Ali Haider, Rog and other singers enthralled the audience.
Geo has also installed projectors and plasmas at its building and wall so people on main I.I. Chundrigar Road could also enjoy it. Famous quotations of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah were also shown on the projector.
Many participants wore T-shirts inscribed with slogans against the emergency and curbs on media.
Source: The News
Date:11/22/2007
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