RAWALPINDI/ LAHORE/PESHAWAR/ KARACHI: The protest of
journalists and workers of Geo and Jang Group along with the cross section of
civil society, political workers and journalists organisations continued on
Sunday against the illegal arrest of Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

The protest of media workers entered 52nd day on Sunday on
the eve of International Press Freedom Day against the illegal arrest of Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman. The protesters raised slogans for the release of Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman and pledged that the protest will continue till the release of
the Editor-in-Chief and achieving the freedom of media.

Addressing the protest camp outside the offices of Jang and
The News in Rawalpindi, the speakers called for release of Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman, saying that 52 days have past, but he was under detention in
a fake and fabricated case.

They said purpose of the arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was
only to attack the press freedom and Geo and Jang Group.

Chairman Joint Action Committee and President Jang Workers
Union Nasir Chishti said international human rights organisations have declared
the case against Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman as fake and fabricated and demanding his
release. He said the rulers were mistaken if they think that they could bring
Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman into pressure with such tactics.

“The workers of Geo and Jang Group stand with their
Editor-in-Chief and will continue their protest till his release,” he said.

Media workers said the international human rights
organisations, journalists and intellectuals all over the world condemned the
illegal arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and declared it attack on the freedom of
media.

They said Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman will never bow before the
illegal demands of the rulers.

In Lahore, senior journalists, workers of Jang Group and
members of civil society continued protest against the illegal detention of Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman on World Press Freedom Day.

World Press Freedom Day was observed worldwide but in
Pakistan it was marked with more enthusiasm outside the offices of Jang/Geo
Group in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and etc as Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, who is a
known activist of free press, was under illegal detention of government for the
past many weeks.

Outside the Lahore office, a large number of journalists
from different media organisations, workers of Jang/Geo/The News, political
workers of different parties and representatives of many civil society
organisations gathered and shouted slogans for free media, free press as well
as free Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

All of the protesters were of the view that Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman was detained in a fake case because the government wanted to
him to give up his free media stance. Prominent protesters included Shaheen
Qureshi, Geo Bureau chief Raees Ansari, Shazia Khan of Awami Workers Party, PUJ
chief Qamar-uz-Zaman Bhatti, Abdullah Malik and Jang chief reporter Maqsood
Butt. They raised slogans for immediate release of Editor-in-Chief and pledged
that they will continue to protest till Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s release.

Raees Ansari said Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman always struggled for
freedom of press. He said his detention was illegal and demanded the government
to immediately release him.

Qamar Bhatti, said international press freedom organisations
should intervene in this issue and exert pressure on the government to release
Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. He said human rights organisations,
journalist organisations and intellectuals have already declared arrest of Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman an attack on media and were demanding his immediate release.

Maqsood Butt said Editor-in-Chief and Jang Group was made
target only for bringing the truth and facts before the people. He said rulers
didn’t like free media so they arrested Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, only to put
pressure on him. “I know Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman is a man of strong nerves and
will not bow down,” he said, adding the Editor-in-Chief had already refused to
toe the line of the government in running his channel as well as newspapers.
Shaheen Qureshi said workers of Jang/Geo Group were protesting in a peaceful
manner. He thanked the civil society and political workers for joining the
protest camp and said the matter is now with the higher judiciary and they are
hopeful to get justice soon in the shape of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s freedom.

The PML-Nleader Arbab Khizer Hayat commended Jang/Geo
Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s commitment to freedom of press and
demanded his immediate release.

In his message, Arbab Khizer Hayat said that media is the
voice of the oppressed, helpless and helpless. “To speak the truth to power is
always difficult but this duty is fulfilled by the media with great courage,”
he said, but regretted that in the present era the hands of the critical media
in the country are tied. “We pay homage to all journalists who were martyred in
the way of the truth,” he added.

He said that if the present government believed in the
constitutional right to freedom of expression, then it must immediately pay the
outstanding dues to the media and save workers from unemployment and their
families from starvation. He said that there had never been a day when the
media and workers do not present the viewpoint of the ruling party. “In fact,
if Imran Khan understands, his party was established thanks to the media,” he added.
After the national print and electronic media, he said, now social media has
also come under the government’s attack, because Imran Khan now sees himself in
the mirror by social media and does not tolerate it either.

In Peshawar, the media workers from the Jang/Geo Group
continued to protest against the arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, and renewed
the commitment to continue the struggle for securing his release.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans in
favour of their demands, the protestors chanted slogans against the government
and NAB.

They were critical of both for illegally detaining the
editor of the biggest media group in a property case which was over three
decades old. The participants recalled that they had been staging the protest
for the last 53 consecutive days for the release of their editor-in-chief but
the rulers remained unmoved.

Speaking on the occasion, Daily Jang Resident Editor Arshad
Aziz Malik and others said the entire world was watching the illegal detention
of Mir Shakil. They said the Jang Group chief was cooperating with NAB but
still, he was arrested without fulfilling the legal procedures and completing
the inquiry.

This, they, said was done to pressurise the biggest media
group. They said the rulers were resorting to cheap tactics which would not
succeed.

The speakers demanded the release of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman,
withdrawal of cases against him and release of dues to the Jang Group so that
workers could be paid salaries. They said the rulers wanted to suppress
independent media and the opposition but such policies were not in the interest
of democracy and country.

In Karachi, journalists and media trade union bodies at the
protest said that marking World Press Freedom Day on Sunday (May 3),
international leaders have been directing their governments to ensure the
independence of media and safety of journalists, but on the contrary, rulers in
Pakistan have been busy in suppressing press freedom.

They were speaking to the participants of the protest camp
set up outside Jang Building, Azadi Street, in Karachi for the release of the
group’s Editor In Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. The Jang-Geo joint action
committee organised the protest camp.

They said that journalists and rights organisations,
academics and parliamentarians across the world have reacted furiously to the
illegal arrest of Mir Shakeel-ur-Rahman in Pakistan and termed it an attack on
press freedom.

The All Pakistan Newspapers Employees Confederation
(Apnec)’s secretary-general Shakeel Yamin Kanga said that on the international
press freedom day, all international leaders, including the United National’s
secretary-general, have been raising their voices to uphold media freedom and
to ensure the safety of media workers.

“But in Pakistan, the government has detained Mir
Shakeel-ur-Rahman, Group Editor In Chief of the country’s largest media
network, in a baseless and false case,” Kanga said. He said that his arrest is
the part of the government’s ongoing efforts to pressure the country’s
mainstream media.

He said that journalism and media rights bodies across the
world have been demanding the Pakistani government to immediately release Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman whose detention in a 34 years old property case is apparently
an attempt to gag and control mainstream media.

The Pakistani government has deliberately been showing its
shamelessness and keeping Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in detention for the past 52
days without any evidence, he said.

He said that if the government didn’t release him immediately,
journalist bodies across the country will devise a new strategy to launch a
protest against the government.

Atiq Ur Rehman, a senior journalist, said that Jang, Geo,
and The News have always written and spoken the truth and because of it, people
across the world trust in their news and reporting. He also demanded to
immediately release Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and end baseless cases against him.

Dara Zafar, general secretary of The News Employees Union,
said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has focused its all energies to suppress
media freedom instead of resolving the issues the people have been facing.

“The government wants to press the media to run only its
narrative and the media organizations, such as the Jang-Geo group, which is
resisting, has been facing governments’ acts of vengeance and threats,” said
Zafar.

Javed Press Union’s Rana Yousuf said that Mir
Shakil-ur-Rahman was being punished for publishing truth but the rulers would
not be able to pressurise him and other journalists. “But they (government)
would not succeed in their mission,” said Yousaf.

Newspaper: The
News