The recent harassment of journalist Cyril Almeida by the Pakistan government brought back memories of all those journalists who have been threatened sometimes by the state, and often by the political and armed outfits. Some in the process lost their lives while doing their job. Data compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reveals 59 journalists have been killed in Pakistan from 1992 to 2015.
Media laws were first introduced by military ruler President Ayub Khan under the Press and Publication Ordinance (PPO) in 1962. The law empowered the authorities to confiscate newspapers, close down news providers and arrest journalists. Victimising through these laws, Khan nationalised major parts of the press and took over one of the two largest news agencies.
More severe additions were made to the PPO during the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq in the 80s. According to the new amendments, “The publisher would be liable and prosecuted if a story was not to the liking of the administration even if it was factual and of national interest.” He aptly used these to promote his Islamisation. The later governments amended the draconian media laws through a revision to PPO.
Pakistan has a rich history of violence against journalists, and the hostile climate has only been fanned due to harassment, threats and violence from both the state and militant groups over the years.
Najam Sethi, Editor of The Friday Times, was a political prisoner from 1975 to 1977 during the regime of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for protesting the military action in Balochistan. In 1984, Zia-ul-Haq put him in prison for one month for publishing From Jinnah to Zia, a book authored by former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Mohammad Munir. The book was an acknowledgment by the former judge saying it was his biggest mistake to legitimise the first martial law in Pakistan in 1958, which paved the way for Zia-ul-Haq in 1977.
In 1999, Sethi was again imprisoned by the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on trumped-up charges of treason. The reason was ruthless exposure of corruption by the Sharif family in The Friday Times. While in detention, he was tortured and the Sharif government later harassed him with income tax cases.
Saleem Shahzad, who wrote extensively about the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the intelligence networks, was found dead in a canal in May 2011. His last article drew links between the 2011 PNS Mehran naval base attacks and jihadist elements harbouring within the Pakistan Navy. The report of the official inquiry commission into the May 2011 murder of Shahzad concluded: “The failure of this probe to identify the culprits does, in all seriousness, raise a big question about our justice system’s ability to resolve such ‘mysterious’ incidents even in the future.”
Wali Khan Babar, a 28-year-old reporter with Geo TV, was shotshortly after his story on gang violence in Karachi was aired. Local journalists believe the killing was prompted by Babar’s aggressive reporting on violent political turf wars, extortion, targeted killings, electricity theft and land-grabbing.
Prominent Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who survived two attempts on his life in 2012 and 2014 and has been threatened numerous times, told CPJ that threats against the media are constant and that he takes any warning from the Pakistani Taliban “very seriously”.