ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) here on Wednesday launched the book about its history, titled: “From Layoffs to Lashes: PFUJ’s 70-year Fight for Media Freedom” highlighting the seven decade struggle for free voice and democracy.

The author of the book Mazhar Abbas highlighted the contents of the book and narrated that the idea to establish union of journalists was floated in 1948 few months after independence.

“The meeting was called in the SM Law College, Karachi, but those who reached there were informed by the principal of the college that premises cannot be given to journalists by the authorities as they were not reliable people like communists,” Mazhar Abbas said.

“But the worst part is that even after 70 years the mindset remains the same,” he added.

It was highlighted that unlike any other association of professionals in the country, PFUJ was the only body to challenge the threats to democracy since its inception in 1950, especially during the three military rules of Gen Ayub Khan, GenYahya Khan, Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The book has been compiled and formulated by senior journalist Mazhar Abbas, and the English chapters have been edited by Nizamuddin Siddiqui and Urdu chapters by Waris Raza. It was informed that a documentary on PFUJ will be released in coming months too.

PFUJ Secretary General Nasir Zaidi also spoke on the occasion. The speakers included politicians belonging to the PPP, PML-N and other parties.

Senator Shibli Faraz said he had never been informed about any organised move to curb freedom of media in the country.

“The government wants to further its relations with media as media was an integral part of our policy making,” Senator Faraz said.

He however added that media has to be rational and fair by lauding the good deeds of the government and criticise the flaws in its policy and implementation.

“We are worried about security as well as financial security of journalists,” he said adding, “But the Bill we introduced in Senate regarding financial security of journalists has been turned down by the opposition.”

The minister for science and technology Fawad Chaudhary said that press freedom in Pakistan was the highest compared to the Muslim world and the Third World countries and it should not be compared with the developed countries.

“At the same time I always say that the world is changing at very fast pace and advertising revenues of digital media would be higher than that of newspapers and electronic media in five years,” Fawad Chaudhary said.

He also acknowledged that the regulatory mechanism in Pakistan related to media was weak and the incumbent government was striving to strengthen it.

Farhatullah Babar and Ahsan Iqbal spoke against weak democratic institutions in the country, whereas anchorpersons Hamid Mir, Munizeh Jehangir, Mohammad Malick also criticised the repressive actions taken by the PPP and the PML-N during their tenures. Syed Talat Hussain boycotted the proceedings against the presence of government ministers at the launch of the book.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2021