Inquiry into journalists’ trolling ordered, Senate told

ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed on Monday that the government had ordered an inquiry into targeting and social media trolling of some journalists and anchorpersons by a group on the basis of their political ideology.

Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar shared this with the House in response to the concerns, expressed on the floor of the Senate, as PPP’s Saifullah Khan Dhareejo raised the issue of the campaign against senior journalists Syed Talat Hussain, Hassan Ayub, Muneeb Farooq and Muzamil Hussain Shah through anonymous social media accounts involving several followers of a political party.

Tarar explained the matter was highlighted during a meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar besides three other cabinet members as well the information minister.

The law minister lamented that the names of journalists’ children and details of their schools were being shared on social media as part of trolling and harassment campaign. Parliamentary leader of the ruling PMLN, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, regretted that in the last few years, a new trend had been set by not listening to other side’s voice and suppressing the voice of dissent in total disregard to democratic traditions, tolerance and patience.

He pointed out that a party, which he did not want to name, had in a very systematic way, when it was in the government, rendered these journalists jobless by putting pressure on their respective organisations.

“Such tactics no matter whosoever uses, don’t work and the voice of truth cannot be choked; You may attack the truthful journalists, target their families. These kinds of traditions needed to be eliminated. We fully express solidarity with the journalists. These are the journalists who were fired from their jobs during the tenure of this political party,” he noted. He condemned that in the cases of truthful journalists, more oppression was being done in Pakistan than in Indian Occupied Kashmir and Palestine.

Senator Irfan noted that they defame the state institutions in the world by resorting to such tactics and they could not be considered Pakistan’s friends. However, he said that genuine criticism from any side was everyone’s right and this should be safeguarded.

“I will also convey this matter to the prime minister. The culture of silencing voices must end. And there should be a full stop to resorting to violence in the name of peaceful protest,” he added.

PTI Senator Saifullah Abro, in his speech on the recent PTI protest in Islamabad, proposed formation of a House committee without representation from his party to look into the killing of relative of a Senate employee named Mobeen on November 26.

He waved a death certificate purportedly issued by the PolyClinic hospital and claimed gunshot had been mentioned as cause of death in the certificate. He pointed out the death occurred at 5:12pm when Article 245 had not been invoked.

To this, the presiding officer Irfan Siddiqui said the PTI had taken the matter to the court and should present evidence there. However, Senator Abro stressed that the proposed committee should also ascertain as to who was behind putting Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Nawaz Sharif and his spouse and other prominent political leaders in jail and this be followed by the joint condemnation by the House of those responsible.

He suggested that it should also be probed as to why a money-laundering case involving billions of rupees had been registered against ‘innocent Shehbaz Sharif’ during the PTI’s days in power. He continued that he would condemn if the case was found out to be concocted; Otherwise, those who played role in acquittal should be condemned.

PMLN’s Khalil Tahir said he could not understand what type of freedom they wanted, as one of their leaders recently said that Donald Trump had won elections and he would now get freedom for Imran Khan, who would then liberate Pakistan. He wondered did they want freedom to dub those who had brought them as Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq and Dirty Harry.

Referring to the PTI’s recent protest in Islamabad, he said it was their party’s workers who had asked Ali Amin Gandapur not to flee and had thrown shoes at him and beat him with sticks, but still “he managed to run away on a punctured vehicle from the protest”.

He asked what type of people were they that their leader Omar Ayub claimed that a bullet had hit his chest and next day he was holding a news conference. He noted that Gandapur had again announced coming to the capital with guns. “If there are four arteries, and one of them is choked, then the entire system will be halted, but this would never happen by saying so,” he said.

Zeeshan Khanzada of the PTI said what options were left with them after so many months, the government appeared unmoved on one of their two major demands of formation of a judicial commission on the ‘stolen mandate’.

He said the government said it had not made cases against Imran Khan, then why the outside world was saying that injustice was being meted out to him. The PTI lawmaker said that the government wanted to trigger fighting within his party by talking about who had not come to the rally and who had gone away. “Our party’s support is there just because of Imran Khan as long as he is there, none can harm our party,” he declared.

At the outset, the House offered Fateha for the departed souls of the martyrs of Army Public School (APS) Peshawar tragedy and senior politician and PMLN leader Siddiqueul Farooq. The Senate also warmly welcomed a delegation of Palestinian medical students in the visitor gallery, who are studying now in Pakistan to complete their education.

The law minister said that the government would try to accommodate maximum number of students from Palestine as a mark of continued support to the cause of Palestinians and solidarity with them.

The House referred ‘The International Institute of Technology, Culture and Health Bill, 2024’ to the Joint Sitting of the Parliament for consideration. The House will now meet on Thursday afternoon.