Life in Karachi returns to normalcy: media joins lawyers’ movement
KARACHI (November 07 2007): Despite the emergency-oriented high alert, life in Karachi returned to normalcy on Tuesday as no untoward incident was reported from any part of the city. Hundreds of media persons, however, gathered in the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and vowed to join the lawyers in their fight for restoration of democracy in the country.
The lawyers boycotted the courts, as police mobiles throughout the day remained busy in raids to arrest and detain the lawyers as part of a crackdown on them. It may be recalled that last Saturday evening (November 3) President Pervez Musharraf in his capacity of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) proclaimed “state of emergency” in the country for an indefinite period.
Judiciary and media appeared to be major affectees of the emergency, which was strongly denounced by the international community, as Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) brought drastic restrictions on the two institutions. Depicting normal attendance in the offices and other blue collar work places remained full with business and civic activities in the city going on as per routine.
Amid a smooth vehicular movement Karachiites kept commuting to and from the city’s major markets, including Impress Market, Jama Cloth Market, Saddar Mobile Market, Kharadar Market, Zaibunnisa and Zainab Markets, Super Market, Lalookhait Market and others.
Misleading rumours, however, took their roots among the confused masses amid the government’s ban on broadcast of the private news and entertainment channels, a major source of information, in the country ever since the emergency was declared.
With heavy contingents of police and Rangers deployed around some leading journalists delivered speeches in KPC to express their discontent over the fresh curbs on media freedom. The speakers, KPC President Sabihuddin Ghausi, General Secretary Imtiaz Faran, Idrees Bakhtyar, and A.H. Khanzada besides other senior media persons.
The speakers reiterating their commitment to the rule of law and media freedom resolved that the journalists’ struggle would go side by side with the lawyers’ movement for restoration of democracy in the country.
The security personnel, well equipped with batons and shells of tear gas, blocked the main and link roads to KPC and cordoned off the building. They warned the journalists, who were enraged by maltreatment of their fellows on Tuesday by the police, against coming out of the Club and putting the law and order situation in jeopardy.
The five media men, who were arrested on Monday during protest, were set free on bail by the police. On their arrival at KPC the fellow journalists offered a rosy reception to them and chanted slogans on media freedom. Those arrested were Asghar Shah from Aaj TV, Naziruddin Khan from The Nation, Shariq Ahmed from Daily Khabrain, Mohammad Mohsin from Roshni TV, and Fazal-ur-Rehman.
On the judicial front, according to a report the lawyers community has decided that they would not attend any case in the courts being heard by judges, who had taken oath under PCO.
Backed by the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council, Akhtar Hussain, former president of Sindh High Court Bar Association, in an earlier announcement, had said the lawyers would observe a three-day “Black Day” across the country.
Red alert was also observed on various places, including Sindh High Court (SHC) Building, Governor House, Chief Minister House, Sindh Assembly Building, Radio Pakistan, Pakistan Television, and other important government institutions.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:11/7/2007
” 
” 
” 
” 
” 
