June 1, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 31: Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has condemned the alleged blocking of a Washington-based news website — South Asia Tribune — by the military government in Pakistan, “depriving the people of their basic right to know”.

In a statement issued by the party’s media centre here on Saturday, Ms Bhutto said it was shocking that the regime had blocked access to an independent web-based newspaper.

“The blocking of access to the newspaper is a direct attack on the freedom of the press, and the right of the people to know,” she added.

Parliamentary party leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) in the Senate Ishaq Dar has termed the reported blocking of the news website “a direct intervention in the freedom of press.”

In a statement here on Saturday, Mr Dar said the web newspaper had been promoting good professional investigative journalism, providing equal opportunity of rejoinder to those against whom it carried any negative report. The PML-N leader urged the government to take action to unblock the website.