PESHAWAR, Sept 11: The Action Committee of the Peshawar Press Club has announced that newsmen will hold a demonstration in front of the Speaker’s house on Friday to denounce Wednesday’s ugly incident in which his staff manhandled reporters.

The committee, through a message, urged Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed to replace the JI’s nominee Bakht Jehan Khan with a balanced and rational person as NWFP assembly speaker immediately.

“The journalists community does not deem him (speaker) fit for running a house which demands a fair approach and good conduct in public affairs.”

The action committee has sent the copies of this message to the other five leaders of the six-party alliance, and urged them to denounce the attack.

The parliamentary leaders of the six opposition groups flayed the hooliganism and expressed their solidarity with the newsmen. Talking to reporters at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, Abdul Akbar Khan (PPP), Anwar Kamal Khan (PML-N), Bashir Ahmed Bilour (ANP), Mureed Kazim (PPP-S), Mushtaq Ghani (PML-Q) and Shahzada Gistasip (Independent Group) condemned the incident.

In a statement, a spokesman for the assembly speaker denied the involvement of the NWFP speaker, secretary assembly, private secretary to the speaker and a security officer in Wednesday’s attack on journalists.