Victimisation of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman slammed

PESHAWAR: The members of the journalist community on Thursday flayed the government for victimizing the Jang/Geo Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman as they continued the protest against his arrest.

The protesters had banners and placards when they gathered outside the offices of the Daily Jang, The News and Geo TV to voice anger at the arrest. They chanted slogans against the arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and in favour of press freedom. Those who spoke on the occasion included Farmanullah Jan, Ehtesham Toru, Shakeel Farman Ali, Sabz Ali Shah, Ansar Abbas, Gohar Ali and others. They were critical of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government for victimizing the Jang Media Group and its chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

The speakers lamented that Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman had been under detention for the last 232 days on cooked-up charges and even denied a bail which was, otherwise, his right. They slammed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for pressuring the opposition political parties and the free media and looking the other way when it comes to the ruling party members.

The protesters questioned the NAB partiality and said the so-called anti-graft watchdog had taken no action over the huge corruption scams such as wheat flour, sugar, Malam Jabba land, Billion Tree Tsunami and Bus Rapid Transit Project and was instead busy going after the opposition politicians and independent media houses.

They requested the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of the case and provide justice to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman who had been behind bars since March 12 of this year.