President Alvi wants justice for Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has said that there should be justice in the case against Jang-Geo Media Group’s Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

He expressed these views while talking to the Geo News Programme, ‘Geo Parliament’ on Thursday. “I’ve been making appearances in private media since the year 2000. The media has made sure that people know what is happening,” he said. “The case is going on in the court so I cannot make a comment on it. There’s no doubt that there should be transparency in the case,” Alvi said.

Meanwhile, the countrywide protests by the workers of Geo and Jang Group declared Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman as a symbol of resistance and torchbearer of the freedom of media and pledged to continue the protest till his honourable release. The protesters were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans to protest over the curbs against independence and freedom of thought by the government.

In Peshawar, the protesting workers of Jang, Geo and The News renewed the demand for the release of the Editor-in-Chief who has now completed 114 days in unlawful detention. He was taken into custody on March 12, this year, by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a 34-year-old private property case in the investigation stage.

They sought the release of Mir Shakil and withdrawal of the cases instituted against him. A senior journalist and Daily Jang Resident Editor Arshad Aziz Malik was leading the protesters.

In Rawalpindi, the Joint Action Committee of workers of Geo and Jang Group were joined at their protest camp by a large cross section of journalist organizations, representatives of the civil society and political workers near the Jang Building.

Addressing the protesters, Secretary General Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist Nasir Zaidi said their movement launched for the release of Editor-in-Chief has turned into the movement of masses. “The protest camps are being staged all over the country for his release,” he said. The Chairman Editorial Committee of Jang Rawalpindi, Hanif Khalid, said the demand for the release of Editor-in-Chief was not only being raised in Pakistan but it has now become an international call by the international journalists and human rights organisations who were also demanding his release.

In Karachi, condemning the detention of Editor-in-Chief, Supreme Court Bar Association’s vice president Adnan Ahmed said that the Article 18 of the Constitution safeguards freedom of speech to each and every citizen of the country. He said that if the government wanted to control the voice of the people it should first abolish this article otherwise there is no legal and constitutional justification to keep Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in custody.

In Multan also, also the workers of Jang, Geo and The News staged a demonstration to protest the continued government’s persecution campaign against the Jang-Geo Group boiling down to the prolonged arbitrary detention of their Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and demanded his immediate release.