ISLAMABAD: Editors and journalists in Pakistan strongly condemned the attack on the Lahore offices of the Urdu daily, “Jang” allegedly by activists of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) who went on a rampage setting fire to stacks of newspapers and damaging property.
Agitated reporters in the city, who later took out a procession to the residence of chief minister Nawaz Sharif, were fired upon by the MSF activists as they passed the Muslim League House. However there were no reports of any causality.
The Daily which has been critical of the functioning of Sharif, has repeatedly received warnings from the MSF that has threatened it with dire consequences if it continues publishing reports against the chief minister.
There were also complaints of harassment of the Urdu daily staff by the MSF supporters ‘on several occasions in the recent past.
During 1989 there were nine reported incidents of attacks on newspapers Offices in the country. Four of these assaults were on the Karachi, Rawalpindi, Quetta and Peshawar offices of Jang.
The press in Pakistan, which had been repressed for over a decade under the martial law regime of Gen Zia Ul Haq is now worried over the increasing use of politically inspired violence.
Despite protests with the authorities, guns and hoodlums are being blatantly used by political parties to make newspapers toe their line.
The council of Pakistan newspaper editors, which met in Lahore under the chairmanship of Arif Nizami, has decided to observe a one day token strike as a mark of protest against the violence and coercive tactics resorted to by political groups to pressurize newspaper managements and the staff.
According to Jang’s Lahore editor Shakeel Ur Rehman, the local police and the concerned authorities had been intimated about the possibility of an attack following telephonic threats by the student wing of the Muslim league.
However no action had been taken in this regard, he alleged.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 23, 1990
