KARACHI, Feb 19: Journalists covering Monday’s session of the Sindh Assembly staged a token walkout against the government’s failure to recover Sohail Qalander, Resident Editor of the Daily Express, Peshawar.
Soon after the house was called to order by Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, journalists in the Press Gallery walked out to lodge a protest.
Earlier, they journalists held a meeting in the press chamber at the Assembly Building with KUJ President Shamim-ur-Rehman in the chair.
Through a resolution, they condemned Sohail Qalander’s ‘kidnapping’, and demanded his early recovery.
Through another resolution, the meeting deplored registration of an FIR to implicate a cameraman of the Kawish TV channel, Hadi Sangi, in a false case.
The meeting regretted increasing incidents of harassment of journalists, and expressed concern over the government’s failure in providing protection to them.
They appealed to the provincial government to take up the issue of Sohail Qalander with the federal government to ensure his early recovery.
Responding to the journalists’ walkout, Leader of the Opposition Nisar Khuhro raised the issue of Sohail Qalander’s disappearance on the floor of the house through a point of order. Provincial Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat, on behalf of the Sindh government, made a statement assuring the house that the matter would be taken up with the NWFP governor and the chief minister.
