Jang group to fight it out in court: Shakil
ISLAMABAD, JANUARY 25: Mir Shakil ur-Rehman, editor-in-chief of the Jang group of publications, stated here on Monday that his organization would go to a court of law over the government’s demand for payment of Rs. 2 billion in taxes.
“We will,” he said at a seminar on “The government versus the press”, organized by the Jang group, “place all our affairs before the court in the interest of justice. This is the struggle for our survival. Had we been wrong we would not have taken this recourse.”
Senate Chairman Wasim Sajjad presided over the seminar.
Mir Shakil said what to talk of Rs. 2 billion “we are ready to pay Rs. L00 billion, if this is the price of freedom of the press, but we will not pay jagga tax.”
He claimed that the powers that be were “forcing us to act contrary to our conscience.” He recalled that when the country was being dismembered, “we were ashamed of the manner in which the newspapers were being fed. What we are going through today is the result of that ‘bay zameeri’ (unconscientious behaviour).” However, he added, it was now time “to repent that and to pay heed to our conscience.”
The Senate chairman, in his speech, did not make any mention of the strained relations between the government and the Jang group, but paid rich tributes to Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman, owner-founder of the group, on his seventh death anniversary.
According to the programme, Information Minister Mushahid Hussain was to participate in the seminar as one of the chief guests. But he did not turn up. One of the organizers read out a message in which the minister had expressed his inability to participate in the seminar ostensibly on account of advertisements appearing in the Urdu and English dailies of the Jang group regarding the alleged attitude of Senator Saif-ur Rehman, chairman of Ehtesab Bureau.
Consequently, what was expected to be a lively encounter between the government side and the opposition represented by Senator Aitzaz Ahsan ended up being a one-sided affair.
To compensate for the government side’s absence, Mohammad Anwar-ul-Haq Ramay, parliamentary secretary for information was invited to explain the official point of view. After coming to the dais, however, Mr. Ramay, said he had come to the seminar in his personal capacity and his presence had nothing to do with the government. He however, remarked that it was the wish of the entire nation that the press should be free to play its due role.
I.A. Rehman, former chief editor of Pakistan Times and director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, expressed grave concern over the shrinking civil liberties in Pakistan, particularly, the attempts to tighten the noose round the press. The intimidation of the press was not the problem only of journalists but of the entire civil society.
“The entire system of checks and balances has collapsed with serious consequences for the viability of the civil society,” he remarked. Parliament, he observed, was moribund in that one house (National Assembly) which was reduced into the position of a captive audience, while attempts were being made to bypass the other (Senate). The prestige of the judiciary had been at a low ebb ever-since the 1997 assault on the Supreme Court.
As regards the press freedom, Aft Rehman said, it was under threat. The situation was worse than before independence because then no plainclothesmen ever raided the houses of a woman editor and brazenly intimidated the journalists. “The fact is that the government has stopped feeling ashamed or being remorseful over its actions vis-a-vis the concerns of the civil society,” he added.
Constitutional lawyer S.M. Zafar, in a prepared speech, said in the atmosphere of rampant corruption prevailing in Pakistan, it was all the more important that the media should play its role without any fear or temptation.
Sen. Aitzaz started by assuring the audience that the opposition and the legal community would continue to uphold the freedom of the press. Recalling his tenure as interior minister in the first government of Benazir Bhutto, he said almost every day files were put up before him for action against some newspapers or journalists but he, invariably spurned all such proposals.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Jang group in Karachi said Customs officials on Monday stopped the delivery of imported newsprint at the KPT gate, which was aimed to threaten the publication of its newspapers.
The press release said Customs officials stopped the delivery of newsprint loaded on 12 trucks and nine trawlers and when the higher officials were approached they showed their helplessness in this regard.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/26/1999
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