KARACHI: Rameeza Majid Nizami, the Nawa-i-Waqt group’s CEO, alleged on Thursday that a Waqt News TV crew was illegally detained and manhandled by the staff at the office of the federal ombudsperson for protection against harassment of women.

Ms Nizami levelled the allegations in a series of tweets and claimed that the team had gone to Ombudsperson Kashmala Tariq’s office to record an interview.

In the interview aired on Thursday night, Kashmala Tariq got agitated when Matiullah Jan put questions to her about her work during Gen Musharraf’s government.

He also questioned her appointment as ombudsperson. She then accused him of interviewing her with “a negative mind”.

In videos and tweets that surfaced throughout the day, it appeared that Ms Tariq was dissatisfied with the interview. Once the recording was complete, she ordered her staff to retrieve and confiscate the footage. When they resisted the move, her staff allegedly detained them on her orders.

Earlier in the day, Matiullah Jan, the reporter leading the team, tweeted: “Waqt News Apna Apna Gareban team was attacked and harassed on the orders of Kashmala Tariq. Our equipment was confiscated and we were illegally kept in detention for an hour or so. Kashmala did not like questions and ordered her staff to detain us and confiscate [the] video.”

The group’s CEO tweeted that Ms Tariq “was invited to even review the interview, and to see if she found any content objectionable. Yet, she ordered that the team ‘will not leave with the footage’. On refusal to hand over the video, she ordered her staff to attack our team and forcefully take the footage”.

While the alleged detention was under way, Ms Nizami tweeted footage of a scuffle showing men physically restraining others from leaving what appears to be an office.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2018