ISLAMABAD: Four PPP rebels in the National Assembly today [June 5] made an unsuccessful attempt to raise a discussion through an adjournment motion on “persistent application” of Defence of Pakistan Rules against journalists and the recent arrests of the editor, printer and publisher of daily Jasarat under the DPR. The adjournment motion … had been tabled by Ahmad Raza Kasuri, Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri, Rao Khurshid Ali and Abdul Hameed Jatoi.

Moving the motion, Rao Khurshid Ali claimed that … laws, which negated the Constitutional protections, were being used against journalists. He said he would not object to the arrest of journalists for anything wrong done by them, provided they were proceeded against under the ordinary laws of the land. In the case of Jasarat … the charge was that it had criticised the Armed Forces of Pakistan. But the fact was that the paper had criticised not the Armed Forces but those who had been trying to get rid of the Armed forces in order to strengthen their own position. Opposing the motion, the Home Minister, Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, said the action against … Jasarat had been taken under the orders of the Provincial Government. — Special Representative

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2023