LAHORE: Sadaf Naeem, a journalist covering Imran Khan’s long march for a private media outlet, was “run over” by the container of the PTI chairman after she reportedly fell off the vehicle trying to get an “exclusive interview” with the former prime minister.

Ms Naeem, 35, left her husband and two younger daughters behind. According to her employer Channel 5, the reporter was run over by the PTI chief’s container. The media outlet said Ms Naeem fell from the container after which she was crushed by the vehicle, Dawn.com reported.

As they expressed sorrow over the tragic death of the journalist, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi separately announced Rs5 million each in financial assistance for the late journalist’s family.

‘State of shock’

Her death prompted the PTI chief to come off the container in a “state of shock”. He was told that Ms Sadaf slipped when she was looking up requesting the PTI leaders to allow her entry into the container. In a tweet, Imran Khan stated that he had “no words to express” sorrow over the death of the reporter and announced cancelling the march for the day.

A colleague reporter alleged that she was pushed down by one of the guards on the container when she caught the handle of the container’s door.

Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors President (CPNE) Kazim Khan, while speaking to Dawn, said he would speak to the “sister organisations” to ensure proper training of reporters.

Asserting that reporters’ safety must remain a priority, the CPNE president agreed that media outlets do not provide training to their reporters. “Live reporting, war reporting, event reporting … we don’t train them,” he lamented.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2022