KARACHI: A journalist was on Saturday beaten up by guards of a politician belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional for raising objections over rash driving, said SSP-South Saqib Ismail Memon. The police officer told Dawn that he visited the JPMC hospital where the reporter of The Express Tribune, Zubair Ashraf, was sent for a medical examination.

SSP Memon said that the medical examination of the journalist had been carried out and the police would register an FIR when he filed an application.

Narrating the incident, the SSP-South said as per the reporter’s statement he was on his way to his office along with the paper’s photographer, Ather Khan, on a motorbike. When they reached near National Medical Centre on main Korangi Road, a fast-moving convoy of the Karachi PML-F president was passing through the area. According to the journalist, they narrowly escaped an accident. When the journalist raised objections over rash driving, the politicians guards hit him with sticks, leaving him injured.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2017