KARACHI, July 24: The Leader of Opposition in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, has condemned what he called the kidnapping of a journalist in Karachi on Sunday and termed it a step taken by the government to browbeat the press.

In a statement here, he said that this was an attack on freedom of the press and a “crude attempt” by the government to stop the press from exposing the misdeeds of the government.

He said that the timing of the actions indicated that the government wanted to send a signal to independent press that it would be taken to task of it exposed the pre-poll riggings in the local government election.

—PPI

Our Staff Reporter adds: Leaders of Jammat-i-Islami condemned the arrest of journalist Rashid Channa and demanded his immediate release.

The Naib Amir of JI Pakistan, Mr Asadullah Bhutto, who is also president of the Sindh chapter of the Muttahida Majlis Amal and Dr Mumtaz Ali Memon, Amir JI Sindh, condemned the arrest of Mr Channa and his detention at an undisclosed place. They criticized the government for its actions armed at gagging the press and violating human rights.

MMA leaders Mohammad Hussain Mehanti, Abdul Sattar Afghani and Laiq Khan said in a statement also condemned the recent government action against Mr Channa and other journalists and newspaper hawkers. They said action against the Dawn group of Newspaper indicated that the government wanted to curb the freedom of expression. They said they wondered why such actions were being taken against newspapers only in Karachi.

Calling for the immediate release of Rashid Channa, Abdul Latif Abu Shamil and Mohammad Tahir, they said that directives issued by Islamabad were being misused to achieve party objectives.