Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman's arrest: Jang/Geo workers continue protest

LAHORE/PESHAWAR: Protest by journalists, civil society members and office-bearers of the Jang Group workers union Sunday continued their protest against illegal detention of Jang/Geo Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman on 162nd consecutive day.

The Editor-in-Chief is in custody for the last 183 days, after his arrest the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a 35-year-old property exchange matter.

The protestors were staging a demonstration outside the Jang offices at the protest strike camp, set up by workers of Jang, Geo and The News employees for the last 161 days. They lamented that Prime Minister Imran Khan had been claiming to turn Pakistan into a Madina-like state, and was voted to power with the strong help of the media, but he had been victimising Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman for exposing the corruption and bad governance of the PTI government.

The demonstration participants termed it a blatant attack on the press freedom, and chanted slogans against the PTI government.

They demanded the chief justice of Pakistan take suo motu notice of the gross injustice to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. They vowed to continue struggle for the release of the Editor-in-Chief till his freedom and warned PM Imran Khan to reign in NAB from further victimisation of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

Those who participated in the protest included Group Editor Shaheen Qureshi, senior journalist Bedar Bakht Butt, Jang Works Union Secretary General Farooq Malik, Pakistan Times News Editor Zaheer Anjum, Awais Qarni, Humayun Zaman Mirza, Amjad Saeed, Qaiser Saleem Khan, Ejaz Rasool, Ms Ayesha Akram, Ms Riffat, Saleem Kamran, Romeo Jalib, Muhammad Shafiq, Aziz Sheikh, Mohammad Irshad, Munawwar Hussain, Shahid Aziz, Muhammad Naeem, Muhammad Ali, Hafiz Asad, Akmal Bhatti, Afzal Abbas, Mushtaq and others.

Shaheen Qureshi termed the PTI government the worst kind of authoritarian regime.

Zaheer Anjum said the media could not work for the truth without freedom.

Bedar Bakht Butt said victimisation of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman must come to an end after detention of over five months.

Farooq Malik said the fake and fabricated case against Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman should be withdrawn and he should be released immediately.

Awais Qarni said the Editor-in-Chief was a symbol of freedom of expression and the struggle was not only for his release but also for the media freedom.

Ayesha Akram said the arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was not only a conspiracy against the Jang/Geo Group but also the first step to mute all voices of the independent media.

Aziz Sheikh said Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was being punished for writing and reporting the truth.

Shafiq Ahmad said the Jang/Geo Editor-in-Chief would always be known by the nation over his stand against the enemies of the press freedom.

In Peshawar, the members of the journalist community renewed the demand for the release of the Jang/Geo Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman as they continued the protest against his arrest on Monday.

They staged the protest outside the offices of Daily Jang, The News and Geo TV with banners and placards in their hands. The protesters raised the slogans against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for victimizing the Jang Group and pressuring the free media.

Among the speakers were Daily Jang Resident Editor Arshad Aziz Malik, Shakeel Farman Ali, Sabz Ali Shah, Ansar Abbas, Imdad Ali Qazalbash, Gohar Ali, Shah Zaman and others. They criticized the PTI government for arresting Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman on false charges six months back and keeping him interned to date. The speakers deplored that the Jang Group chief had been under detention for the last 186 days as the government wanted to punish this media house for upholding objective journalism.

They came down hard on the National Accountability Bureau and said it was suppressing the opposition parties and putting under pressure the independent media. The speakers said the anti-graft watchdog was highly biased as it was not taking any notice of the big scandals which were linked to the PTI members. The requested the Supreme Court to take notice of the case and provide justice to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.