KARACHI, Jan 9: Member-editors of the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) from the province of Sindh strongly deplored on Wednesday the new tendency on the part of the police to indirectly intimidate and pressurise newspapers and newsmen by registering false cases against them and including their names in the FIRs.

The meeting specially took note of the blatant manner in which the names of responsible senior editors of Kawish daily were included in a FIR by the Qasimabad police in Hyderabad primarily to intimidate them.

The details of the deplorable incident were disclosed by Kazi Aslam in the meeting. He informed that he had been contacted by City Nazim, Hyderabad, Makhdoom Rafiquz Zaman, DIG and SP who had conveyed that the inclusion of the names of editors of Kawish daily in the FIR was a mistake and necessary amends were being made.

He said that the only thing he received in writing was a letter from SHO of Qasimabad police station.

The meeting considered the letter from the SHO and rejected it while expressing regret that no senior administration official had officially issued any statement over the incident.

The meeting, presided over by Vice President of the CPNE Mahmud-ul-Aziz, discussed the overall situation relating to the government-press relations in Sindh and noted with deep regret the rising trend of false and fabricated cases against newsmen and newspapers specially by the police, intimidation of correspondents and even murderous attacks to restrict newsmen from performing their duties.

The meeting called for urgent convening of the standing committee meeting of the CPNE in Karachi. —PPI