ISLAMABAD: The district administration in Dera Ghazi Khan last week forced an early end to a meeting of journalists discussing threats to their lives and the state of media freedom in Punjab’s Seraiki belt, according to a press release of the Freedom Network.

A local official said the district administration did not allow the event to go ahead because the organisers had not obtained permission, a requirement under the law.

The press release said Iqbal Khattak, the representative in Pakistan of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and a team of Freedom Network was expelled from Dera Ghazi Khan.

“Stop the meeting and leave the district,” an official who introduced himself as “Tehsildar [sub-district officer] Chaudhry Haneef” told Mr Khattak.

District police officer says organisers didn’t seek prior permission

The official was accompanied by Younas, the SHO of D.G. Khan’s Saddar police station. The incident took place on Thursday (Nov 21), according to the press statement.

Mr Khattak is also a member of the Punjab Journalists Protection Coordination Committee, set up by the provincial government last year to investigate crimes of impunity against journalists. A Punjab police DIG heads the committee.

Journalists from Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur and Layyah attended the meeting.

Chaudhry Haneef or Younas did not show any order in writing, nor did they cite any legal provision allowing them to force an early end to the meeting, the statement said.

“Instead, they gruffly asked the RSF Pakistan representative, Freedom Network team members and local journalists, including a woman media practitioner, to “wind up the meeting and leave the venue at once.

“Ironically, the local journalists had been lamenting about widespread intimidation, enforced censorship, self-censorship and threats and violence they face from intelligence agencies’ personnel and district officials before the raid took place.”

Neither was any charge sheet framed nor any citation of violation of law given by the raiding team, according to the statement.

Tehsildar Haneef’s terse reply to the journalists’ protest was: “The AC [assistant commissioner] has ordered us.” When the two officials were pressed to produce any written order from the assistant commissioner, the tehsildar said: “We have verbal orders. You know how the system works.”

The tehsildar continued taking “instructions on the phone from unknown sources”. The officials also kept pressing the hotel administration to compel the participants to leave by turning the lights off.

“We met Additional Inspector General Muhammad Kamran Khan in Multan on Nov 19 to discuss how the Punjab Journalists Protection Coordination Committee could play its role to protect journalists in the Seraiki belt,” Iqbal Khattak said.

“We also met former Punjab governor Malik Rafiq Rajwana to seek support of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N in Lahore and he was obliging. We also met senior lawyers and civil society leaders in the region to discuss measures that can help stakeholders combat impunity for crimes against journalists in the region,” he added.

The authorities had shut the D.G. Khan Press Club in June after opposition leaders held a press conference and sent the club’s president, Sher Afghan Buzdar, and Ghulam Mustafa Lashari, president of the local journalist union, to jail under the Maintenance of Public Order. Both alleged they were severely tortured in custody.

“The closure of Dera Ghazi Khan Press Club is a grave violation of the government’s commitment to freedom of expression, and we hope Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz will look into the issue and help reopen the club at the earliest,” Iqbal Khattak said.

DPO denies claim

Syed Ali, the D.G. Khan DPO, told Dawn that the event was stopped since the organisers didn’t have permission from the local administration.

Any international organisation holding an event in D.G. Khan was bound to seek prior permission, the DPO explained.

He said officials of the local administration and police visited the hotel after receiving information about the organisers to show the permission letter granted by the authorities, which they failed to produce.

“The officials requested them [journalists] to end the meeting and the representatives of the organisation agreed to disperse peacefully,” the DPO said.

In reply to a question, he denied the allegation that the participants were not allowed to have lunch at the hotel.

“We allowed the NGO members and others to have the pre-arranged lunch,” the DPO said.

Asif Chaudhry in Lahore also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2024