Journalists, being harassed to veil misdeeds: Sethi
LAHORE: Najam Sethi, editor of a prominent local English-language weekly, has alleged that the government is harassing journalists to keep them from disclosing past and present ‘mis-deeds’ of the ruling family.
Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club Thursday, Sethi said this was the reason behind threats, arrests and abduction of journalists in the recent past. He feared the government would arrest him under treason charges, and appealed to the journalists community to forget internal differences and unite to block the onslaught of, what he termed, “family fascism”, to save the country.
Sethi was accused of delivering an anti-Pakistan lecture in New Delhi last week in a number of newspaper reports.
Sethi warned if he, his family and staff were harmed, he would hold the government responsible for it. He said abduction of a local journalist, Mehmood Ahmed Khan, by agencies, the arrest of Hussain Haqqani, who had been criticising the government in his columns, the burning of Imtiaz Alam’s car, threats to Ejaz Haider, a senior staff member at his weekly, whose house was visited by unknown individuals, arrests of correspondents and cases against Rehmat Shah Afridi were part of the same strategy.
Without taking any names, he said a senior official from Islamabad kept asking him what assistance he had given to the BBC team making a documentary which included portion on the Sharif family. He disclosed the official accused him of providing information to the team against the interests of the government. Sethi said the government had made BBC and his paper its targets only because the BBC was making a film which might expose something which the rulers did not like.
He recalled the premier was more then happy when the same BBC made a film on Benazir Bhutto, and the government even televised the film on PTV He said the press reports accusing him of saying anti-Pakistan things was a conspiracy to malign and discredit him.
He denied saying anything against Pakistan in the lecture which, he claimed, was based on one of his editorials of the first week of January 1999. He said his lecture, arranged by Pak-India Friendship Society whose head is former Indian prime minister I K Gujral, would be published unedited in the next issue of his paper so that people could judge for themselves whether it contained anything against the country.
He said he dilated on economic and other crisis of Pakistan and the reasons behind them. Besides, he said, he criticised the Indian leadership for creating tension in Kashmir. He said he held India responsible for Pakistan’s disintegration and starting the nuclear race. He said he mentioned that Indian prime ministers always backed out of their promises made during their visits to Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue. He said he had delivered such lectures in a number of countries and also at the National Defence College. Sethi said the Prime Minister was surrounded by advisors who were incompetent and in some cases had a dubious past. “These advisors are misguiding the premier,” he added.
He said the PM had offered him a seat in Senate and a post of advisor, but he refused. He said, he had opposed the idea of Press Council in his capacity as CPNE vice-president when former prime minister Benazir Bhutto wanted to implement it. He said he would continue to oppose any such council, which would curb press freedom.
Source: The News
Date:5/7/1999
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