Scars of lashes on journalists’ bodies outshine all awards: Babar

ISLAMABAD: Secretary General Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Farhatullah Babar Sunday said no medal and no award conferred on anyone in the cause of freedom of expression was more glittering than the scars on the bodies of journalists lashed during the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq.

“Freedom of expression continues to be stifled and though no longer lashed, journalists continue to endure violence at the hands of unseen and invisible elements with impunity. In late 60’s and 70s freedom of expression was stifled blatantly by state actors and by both state and non-state actors in the 80’s, and today it is stifled by invisible and mysterious actors and posed new challenges in the form of mysterious disappearances,” he said while addressing a function at the National Press Club (NPC) to honor journalists lashed 40 years ago on May 13, 1978.

“They are symbols of resistance journalism and are the true heroes of this country,” he said while referring to Nasir Zaidi, Iqbal Jafri, Khawar Naeem Hashmi and Masoodullah. Babar also called for publication of reports of Abbottabad Inquiry Commission, Commissions on attacks on journalists Hamid Mir in Karachi and Hayatullah in North Waziristan, attack on APS, Peshawar and the 2010 report of the first Commission on Enforced Disappearances. Journalists Nasir Zaidi, Shakil Anjum, Mubarak Zeb and Riaz Khan also spoke on the occasion.