Jang-Geo workers protest: Protesters call for abandoning vengeful campaign against Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman

KARACHI/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: The fourth-month long protests by the workers of the Jang-Geo Group continued against the draconian curbs on freedom of media, the crackdown against the Group and the prolonged detention of its Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. Held across the country, the protesters including lawyers, journalist and media organisations joined hands with the Group's workers to protest against the government. They held placards and raised slogans criticising the government's policies to muzzle the press.

In Karachi, the Supreme Court Bar Association's former president Yasin Azad on Saturday said that prime minister Imran Khan should focus his energies to bring Pakistan out of economic crisis rather than to wage a vengeful campaign against the independent media.

Speaking at the protest, he said that the editor-in-Chief is paying the price to refuse to buckle under government's incessant pressure to dictate its editorial line. He said that the government flouted law and constitution by keeping Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in detention in a bogus case and attacked the Jang-Geo Group as a message to the entire media industry that they will next if they did not toe its line.

The All Pakistan Newspapers Employees Confederation's secretary secretary general Shakil Yamin Kanga said that the National Accountability Bureau should be disbanded after the Supreme Court verdict on Khawaja brothers case. He demanded immediate release of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman from prison and asked the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of this injustice and vengeful campaign against the Jang-Geo Group.

In Lahore, the workers of Jang, The News and Geo protested against the forces that have illegally detained the Group editor-in-chief. The Group Editor Jang Shaheen Qureshi, said Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman will not bow down before the tyrants. If he were to submit to coercion it would have happened long ago. Mir Shakil never wavered from the position he took. Daily Jang, The News and the Geo News have always endured the tyranny of dictators but Group persevered. Among others who spoke on the occasion were Khizer Hayat Gondal, Sher Ali Khalti, Nasim Qureshi and Awais Qarni, Muhammad Shafiq, Ishaq Shakir, Munawwar, Afsar Khan, Aziz Sheikh, Javed, Muhammad Farooq, Khalid Qureshi, Muhammad Wajid, Wahab Khanzada, Shahid.

Likewise in Peshawar, the workers of Jang Group continued their protest against the detention of Editor-in-Chief. They held the rulers accountable for the existing crises, saying the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has left behind the dictatorial governments in its anti-press policies. They criticised the PTI government and NAB for illegally detaining Mir Shakil for over 135 days to suppress the voice of the independent media.The protesters demanded immediate release of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and withdrawal of cases against him. The speakers, including senior journalists Arshad Aziz Malik, Shakeel Farman Ali said they would expand their protest movement if their just demands were not accepted.