PESHAWAR: Pakistan Journalists Safety Coalition (PJSC)-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter here on Friday called upon the provincial government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to take serious note of the crimes committed against media and its practitioners.

The PJSC-KP chapter issued a press release after a meeting chaired by former president of Peshawar Press Club, Saiful Islam Saifi. The meeting unanimously decided to set a road map for ensuring that the provincial government of Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur rose to the occasion bringing his province at par with Sindh, where a legal framework had been put in place in 2022 to combat impunity for crimes against journalists.

We are concerned that the security situation was getting bad and threats to journalists had increased, the meeting said. In absence of a legal framework, independent journalism would become a life-threatening profession. The province had already lost many good journalists and we could no longer afford losing more fellow journalists, it added.

President of Khyber Union of Journalists Kashifuddin told the meeting that the provincial government would be engaged to seek latest update on the status of draft law the PJSC had submitted twice -- one when Asad Qaiser was the speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and second when Mushtaq Ghani was holding the office of speakership.

The PJSC is a civil society-led alliance of media rights watchdogs, working journalists, trade unionists, policy-makers, lawyers and human rights defenders. It promotes the UN Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists and Issues of Impunity and conducts advocacy for the protection of journalists in Pakistan through a legal and policy framework to create a free and safe environment for journalists and media practitioners in the country.

Executive Director of Freedom Network Iqbal Khattak told the meeting the provincial government was under obligation to extend the journalist community a legal framework for protection of journalists.

“The PTI leadership, both at national and provincial level, committed themselves to meeting this long due demand of the journalist community. The commitment needs to be transformed into reality by taking a step to introduce a bill on the floor of provincial assembly,” Mr Khattak told the meeting.

The meeting decided to hold a meeting with parliamentary party leaders in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly once the status of the submitted draft law was ascertained through PJSC platform.

It also unanimously approved further steps to be taken. However, these steps would be made public at a right time, the press release said.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2025