May 5, 2005	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, May 4: Tensions between the government and journalists continued for the second day on Wednesday after Tuesday’s police assaults on press freedom marches but there were some words of hope from the ruling party. Journalists boycotted coverage of National Assembly proceedings for the second day in the absence of any concrete move by the government to settle the row before Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s departure for a Southeast Asian tour.

However, Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain assured the protesting journalists that his party’s government would redress their grievances about police attacks on World Press Freedom Day marches in Islamabad and Lahore and implementation of the Seventh Wage Board Award for journalists.

On the other hand, the journalists union decided to continue the boycott of the National Assembly reporting on Thursday as a part of a countrywide ‘black day’.

The Islamabad administration allowed the journalists to stage a protest sit-in outside Parliament House in a small concession after Tuesday’s action in which about 40 journalists were roughed up by police commandos and detained for over two hours.

FRAYED TEMPERS: While there was no official word about when a special committee mandated by the National Assembly to inquire into Tuesday’s violence would be named by the speaker, some incidents happened, indicating frayed tempers on both sides.

Some journalists walked out of a news conference addressed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao after an exchange of angry remarks with him while Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed cancelled his press conference at the eleventh hour, provoking a protest demonstration outside the Press Information Department offices.

A senior Information Ministry official said the minister could not come to the news conference because of being called for a meeting with the prime minister, who was due to leave later at night for Kuala Lumpur for an eight-day trip to Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Singapore.

The Islamabad administration, apparently fearing a protest by journalists, blocked their entry into the Jinnah Convention Centre where the prime minister was to address an international Ulema conference. However, the journalists were later allowed in after some hassle.

Parliamentarians came to the journalists’ sit-in, which continued for several hours outside parliament house, with assurances of justice from the ruling party and of support from the opposition parties.

Chaudhry Shujaat, accompanied by PML Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain Syed, met the protesters for the second time in as many days and assured them action would be taken against officials found responsible for Tuesday’s incident and a case the local administration had threatened to register against the journalists would not be registered.

He also assured them about implementation of assurances on the wage award he had given as prime minister last year.

Before that several opposition parliamentarians, including those from the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, and lawyers from the nearby Supreme Court came to the journalists’ camp to express solidarity with them.