Protest continues against arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman

PESHAWAR: The media workers on Thursday continued the protest against the Jang Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and demanded his release without any further delay.

They carried banners and placards inscribed with slogans which condemned the pressure tactics against the free media and sought immediate release of the head of the largest media group of the country.

The speakers included senior journalists Arshad Aziz Malik, Shakeel Farman, Imdad Ali Qazalbash, Shah Zaman, Farmanullah Jan and others. The speakers flayed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and National Accountability Bureau (NAB). They said the head of the largest media group of the country was being victimized through his detention.

The protesters said the NAB had no right to arrest a person in a three decades-old property case. They said it had become a tool in the hands of the rulers to silence the dissent. The speakers said the PTI rulers had launched a crackdown on the free media to gag the independent voices which, they said, was unacceptable to them. They said various actions were taken to pressure the Jang Media Group which included stopping advertisements and blocking the Geo transmission in one way or the other.

The speakers lamented that Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman had been arrested in a 34 years old property case without proving a single case of graft against him. They said the representatives of almost all the political parties, lawyers, doctors and people belonging to various walks of life had visited the protest camp and termed the government action illegal, unconstitutional and attacks on media. The media workers appealed to the chief justice Supreme Court of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the case to provide justice to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.