Press Club shows defiance after hibernation
After a prolonged ‘hibernation’ of sorts, members of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) showed defiance against the emergency and draconian laws against the media on November 20 with the voluntary arrests of as many as 181 journalists, including female reporters.
These journalists were released late Tuesday night but the First Information Report (FIR) was registered against five journalists including Moosa Kaleem, A.H. Khanzada, Najeeb Ahmed, Glulam Mustafa and Asghar Omar.
The KPC is known for its defiance against laws that curb the freedom of expression of the media and has played a historic role in Pakistan’s democratic movement but lately a certain segment of the prestigious club has also been taking apolitical stands, embarrassing senior journalists.
On November 5, 2007, civil society organisations gave a call to demonstrate against the emergency in front of the KPC. Since they were not allowed by the police to bring a rally outside KPC, they entered the club to hold a meeting. Political leaders, including the Vice President of the National Workers Party, Yousuf Masti Khan and General Secretary, National Party. Hasil Bizenjo, also went to the KPC to register their solidarity with the journalists and civil society organisations.
However, a majority of the KPC members were astonished when a certain journalists tried their level best to oust the civil society activists and political leaders from the club on the pretext they were receiving phone calls from the police official. The failure to do so would have resulted in the police entering the KPC premises, which would have been a first in the history of the KPC.
Not surprisingly, Yousuf Masti Khan and Hasil Bizenjo were arrested by the police when they left the KPC. Mercifully, the civil society activists were allowed to leave but five photographers and reporters were arrested.
The behaviour of this apolitical segment of journalists was contrary to the traditions of the KPC. Established in 1958 by a group of enthusiastic journalists in a Victorian style bungalow on what was then the Ingle Road (now Sarwar Shaheed Road), the KPC has been acting as a bastion of freedom and considered as Karachi’s Hyde Park since it welcomed political leaders, trade unions, student activists, progressive writers and poets, human rights organisations and civil society activists with open arms.
When the journalists went on a 10-day hunger strike in 1970 across the country for the implementation of the Wage Board Award, trade union activists joined in as well.
The KPC became the hub of political activity after 1977 during General Ziaul Haq’s era when a movement was launched for the restoration of the daily Musawaat and daily Hurriyat that were banned by the military government. Hundreds of journalists were arrested across the country. Sadly enough, some journalists were even flogged after a summary trial in a military court. .
“I think whatever happened on November 5 was the worst incident in the history of the KPC. It has been our tradition to protect trade union activists and the down-trodden. There was a time when trade unions were charged a token sum of one rupee when they addressed a news conference at the KPC. Hasil Bizenjo and Yousuf Masti Khan had come to the KPC on that fateful day to show their solidarity with the civil society organisations and the journalist community but sadly enough, they were taunted and asked by certain elements to leave the club where the police was waiting for them. On the contrary, journalists at the Peshawar Press Club protected political leaders when they faced a similar situation. It’s high time that such behaviour is condemned,” said Ahfaz-ur-Rahman, a senior journalist and former secretary general, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).
Habib Khan Ghouri, another senior journalist and a former president of the KPC concurred with this view. “The KPC has been a refuge for political activists. This has been happening since the days of the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Members of the club are supposed to support and protect the down-trodden. As an institution, the KPC has always stood with the common man and been a part and parcel of the democratic movement. If somebody was chased by the police, it was the job of the journalists to protect him since it was a part of journalists’ ethics,” he pointed out.
The political clout that KPC enjoyed previously could be gauged from the fact that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founding chairman and former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto initiated his campaign against the military dictator General Ayub Khan from the KPC and General Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, the information minister of General Ziaul Haq dubbed the club as ‘enemy territory’ due to its democratic character.
In an unparalleled move of defiance, several office bearers and members of the KPC’s governing body, including Vice President Siraj Ahmed, Treasurer Shahid Iqbal and the governing body members Syed Raza Hassan, Shabana Shafiq and Ejaz Sheikh resigned in protest in October 2004 when a top army official was invited to address a ‘Meet the Press’ programme at the KPC without their consent.
However, it seems that certain elements were now adamant to bring about a change in the character of KPC. It is no wonder then that in a well-attended meeting at the KPC on Wednesday, Ahfaz-ur-Rahman condemned the opportunist elements that were bent upon de-politicising the vibrant club.
Source: The News
Date:11/22/2007
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