Punjab PA’s resolution against attack on Noorani

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution condemning the attack on The News International reporter Ahmad Noorani and demanding that the attackers be caught and punished.

The resolution reads, “The Punjab Assembly, unanimously expresses deep sense of concern over recent attacks by unidentified persons on Ahmed Noorani and others and considers it an assault on the freedom of press. The House condemns this attack in the strongest ways and demands that those responsible for these heinous crimes should be caught and brought to justice”.

The resolution was proposed by Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and PTI MPA Mian Aslam Iqbal and was signed by the Opposition Leader Mahmud-ur-Rashid. Earlier, almost the same motion was submitted earlier in the day by PML-N MPA Hina Pervez Butt, calling for the immediate arrest of the attackers and deeming this attack on Ahmed Noorani as an attack on democracy and freedom of expression. The resolution submitted by Hina Butt called for thorough legislation by the government to guard the journalists against such life endangering attacks.

However, that resolution was not taken upfront in the assembly proceedings as the session started over one 1:45 hour late. The press gallery staged a token strike and stopped covering the assembly proceedings.

President PUJ Gohar Butt and former President of Lahore Press Club Arshad Ansari, addressing the protesting journalists outside the assembly, said the government has failed to provide an environment where journalists can report the truth without fearing for their lives. They said this is a failure of the Safe City Project. They demanded that legislation for the safety, safeguard and security of the journalists.

Chief Whip Rana Arshad and PTI MPA Mian Muhammad Aslam Iqbal also present at the protest, condemned the attack on Noorani and said that the attackers should be caught as soon as possible.

The assembly session on Monday was about the Local Governments which could only last till the question answer session before being prorogued for an indefinite period of time after the quorum was found short. Most answers given by the Parliamentary Secretary Local Government were deemed unsatisfactory by those who raised the questions.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Union of Journalists (Dastoor) organised a protest and gave a three-day deadline for arresting the culprits responsible for attacking Noorani, while calling for making public the initial report on the incident.

The protest led senior journalists Mazhar Abbas, Afzaal Mohsin, Sohail Afzal and others. Similarly, a meeting, held at the daily Jang office in Sialkot, condemned the attack and called for exposing those behind the barbaric act. Malik Iftikhar, SM Shahid, Khalid Farrukh and others were present on the occasion. On the other hand, Nadeem Gilani, Abdul Aziz Gondal, Ijaz Mirza and others at a meeting in Kharian condemned the attack and said journalists could not silenced by using such tactics.