Hawkers, journalists protest arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman

PESHAWAR: The hawkers association and media workers of Jang, Geo and The News jointly staged a demonstration to protest the arrest of Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

The protesters carried banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the government for arresting Mir Shakil.

They demanded the restoration of the Geo transmission to its original numbers.

The protesters had gathered outside their offices on Wednesday and chanted slogans to express anger at the arrest.

The protestors chanted slogans “Geo ko jeenay do. Mir Shakil ko riha karo”.

Led by Peshawar Press Club (PPC) President Syed Bukhar Shah and former president of Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ) Arshad Aziz Malik, the protesters demanded the release of Mir Shakil and restoration of Geo transmission to its original number in the list of channels on cable.

Terming the Jang/Geo as one of the major media groups, the hawkers representative. Abdul Haleem, condemned the government for detaining Mir Shakil for highlighting the truth.

He said it was not the first time to pressurize Jang Group as the previous governments too had made similar attempts.

Terming it an attack on the media freedom, he urged the government to release Mir Shakil and save the jobs of thousands of employees in this major media group.

Syed Bukhar Shah demanded the immediate release of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and restoration of the Geo transmission to end the existing unrest among the media workers.

He said the workers had been protesting for the last several days against the detention of Mir Shakil and pushing the Geo transmission down in the list of channels on cable.

The PPC chief said the journalists would never compromise on principles and intensify the protest if their demands were not accepted.

Arshad Aziz Malik condemned the government for arresting Mir Shakil and changing Geo position, saying such illegal actions were not acceptable to them.He said the activists of almost all the political parties would join them in their protest demonstrations from today (Thursday).