November 17, 2008	Monday	Ziqa'ad 18, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 16: Employees of a banned newspaper, Islam, sitting in a protest camp set up outside the Press Club here talked to Sindh Information Minister Shazia Marri about the government’s action against their publication and maintained that it might cost them their jobs.

Ms Marri listened to their grievances and said that the ban had not been imposed by the provincial government and, as such, the issue had nothing to do with her department.

She sympathised with the newspaper employees and said that the government never liked to see people getting jobless nor did it like restriction on press freedom.

She said the provincial government was in touch with the federal authorities to find a solution to the issue of ban on some publications.

Meanwhile, Information Secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal visited the camp after addressing a press conference at the club.

Expressing his concern over the imposition of the ban, he said the action might have been understandable had it been the Musharraf era.

He said such an action by a democratically elected government was condemnable.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who was on a visit to the city on Sunday, also criticised the government’s action against the religious publication.

Naib Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami Prof Ghafoor Ahmad and other party colleagues, including Mohammad Hussain Mehanti and Sarfaraz Ahmad, in a joint statement, condemned the ban and demanded its immediate removal.