ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed on Sunday welcomed the release of Faizullah Khan, a broadcast journalist, from a jail in Afghanistan.

The minister in a statement said, "The government believes in freedom of expression and will continue to facilitate media so that they could perform their professional obligations in accordance with their professional ethos."

Rasheed also thanked the Afghanistan government and appreciated the role of the foreign office and media organisations for the release of Faizullah Khan.

Early in July, media persons and politicians had expressed their resolve to use all influence with the Afghan authorities to ensure the release of Khan.

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Akhtar Munir, an official with the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, had said its consulate in Jalalabad had been assisting Faizullah Khan in jail.

Khan, a Karachi based reporter associated with ARY news channel, was convicted by a Jalalabad court in Afghanistan to serve a four year jail on charges of spying as he entered the country without legal permission.

"We have found photos of him showing him with a gun among terrorists," Wafiullah Usmani, the head of the national security court of Nangarhar, Afghanistan, had said.

Ahmad Zai Abdulzai, a spokesman for the provincial governor, had said that the journalist had been arrested for "threatening national security".