Journalists walk out of lower house: Remarks against woman reporter
ISLAMABAD, August 26 2006: Journalists covering the National Assembly proceedings staged a walkout at the press gallery on Friday over the remarks of a state minister and a ruling party MNA against a woman reporter of an Urdu daily based in Layyah, and the murderous attack on the editor of a monthly in Lahore. The journalists staged the walkout when Minister of State for Law, Justice and Shahid Akram Bhinder and a ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram tried to justify the act of the police to detain the woman reporter when she went to cover an event of Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi by saying that there had been criminal cases registered against the woman and her brothers.
Sheikh Akram said that the woman reporter and her brothers were involved in several cases of drinking and other crimes. He said six FIRs had been registered against them by police stations and the opposition members should not support the criminals. He even advised the journalists not to allow such people in their ranks as they brought bad name to the profession. He also passed some other remarks against the woman reporter, provoking the journalists to stage a walkout.
Mr Bhinder also stated that the district police officer (DPO) had sent a written report of the incident, claiming that the woman reporter did not have the official security card with her and she reached the venue late, while the chief reporter of her newspaper had already arrived there. It may be recalled that the issue had been lingering on in the National Assembly for the past many days when a PML MNA, Mehnaz Rafi, drew the attention of the house towards the inhuman treatment of Punjab police with the reporter Kulsoom Khaliq. She had alleged that the police had kept her and her brother in illegal detention when she was performing her duties.
Minister of State for Law Shahid Akram Bhinder told the house that the woman in question was not allowed to cover a function of the Punjab chief minister as she did not have the security pass. Later, some members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) submitted a privilege motion against the minister for allegedly giving a wrong statement on the floor of the house as the reporter possessed the security pass for the event. They also alleged that she was victimised by the police for exposing the wrongdoings of the local administration in the newspaper.
On Friday, the minister protested over the MMA’s move to bring the privilege motion and said he had received the complete report of the incident from the district police officer concerned. He criticised the MMA members for making wrong statements and for protecting criminals. Federal Minister for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain and MQM MNA Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi came to the journalists and tried to pacify them. The journalists, however, refused to return to the press gallery, demanding that first Sheikh Waqas Akram should tender an apology for the language he had used against the woman reporter. Federal Minister for Information Mohammad Ali Durrani also came to the press lounge, but he, too, could not succeed in convincing the reporters to end their protest.
The journalists also informed the ministers that Syed Manzoorul Hassan, the editor of a monthly, had been shot and injured by four persons travelling in an unregistered car outside his Model Town office in Lahore on August 23. They said the police were not registering the case, terming it an incidence of street crime. The injured journalist is in a critical condition at Ittefaq Hospital.
Source: Dawn
Date:8/26/2006
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