HYDERABAD, July 25: Opposition parliamentarians and journalists’ organizations have condemned the arrest of Rasheed Channa, reporter of The Star, belonging to the Dawn Group of Newspapers. They criticized the government for gagging the press by striking at the very roots of freedom of expression.
MNA Naveed Qamar said the situation had been created in Sindh in order to stifle the voice of dissent and create hurdles in democratic process. He said similar treatment was being meted out to the press and government’s opponents.
MNA Ameer Ali Shah Jamote described the detention of the reporter as an open aggression against the society and said it was terrible that the press was being suppressed. MNA Shagufta Jumani termed the arrest as a vindictive move on the part of government after victimizing the opposition.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MNA Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair said due to such actions by the government, the country was being defamed internationally because journalistic freedom had been acknowledged under the UN charter. MMA MPA Rehman Rajput rejected government’s claim that media was free in the country and said there was martial law in the country and democracy had become a laughing stock.
Hyderabad Union of Journalists president Hamid Sheikh and Hyderabad Press Club secretary Shahid Sheikh also condemned the arrest. Journalists of the city staged a protest march outside the press club to condemn arrest of Mr Channa.
THATTA: Journalists of the district condemned the wrongful detention of the reporter.
At a meeting of the Thatta Press Club, they appealed to the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to take suo motu notice of the incident and hold an impartial inquiry into the matter.
People’s Party Parliamentarians MPAs, Sassui Palijo and Humera Alwani, and former MNAs, Babu Ghulam Hussain and Haji Usman Jalbani, and former MPAs, Dr Wahid Soomro and Ghulam Qadir Palijo, and party district president Syed Masood Mustafa Shah and others also condemned the arrest of Mr Channa by police and called for a judicial inquiry into the matter.
In a joint statement issued here on Monday, the PPP leaders said the action had widely exposed the so-called claims of the ruling alliance about freedom of expression.
MIRPURKHAS: A meeting of the Mirpurkhas Union of Journalists was held on Monday under the chairmanship of Afaq Ahmed, which condemned the detention of the journalist without any cause.
KHAIRPUR: A meeting of journalists of Khairpur was held here on Monday which was presided over by Ghulam Qadir Soomro. The meeting condemned the detention of Daily Star’s reporter Rasheed Channa.
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