ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Opposition members of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on Friday submitted an adjournment motion to the National Assembly Secretariat seeking a discussion on a report that a foreign woman journalist was “physically assaulted by Pakistani intelligence officials and kept in custody for five hours” in Quetta.

According to ARD parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi, the motion was moved by six members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

Quoting an International Herald Tribune report, the opposition members in their motion stated that Carlotta Gall of New York Times had gone to Quetta on her professional duty to observe “the resurgent Taliban fighting with American and Nato troops in Afghanistan and on the frontier region of both sides of Pakistan and Afghanistan border and she was physically assaulted by Pakistani intelligence officials and kept in custody for five hours with her photographer.”

Missing Journalist: The All Teachers Association and All Pakistan Clerks Association have demanded safe and early recovery of Sohail Qalandar, resident editor of the daily Express, kidnapped from Hayatabad a month back, reports our Peshawar Bureau.

The two organisations, along with local journalists staged a protest demonstration outside the Peshawar Press Club on Saturday for immediate recovery of the missing editor.

The present regime has destroyed three state pillars to extend its rule and is now trying to wipe out the fourth by removing genuine and bold journalists from the scene, said Almas Khan Apca leader, adding the clerks are behind newsmen in their struggle against the kidnappers.

The journalist fraternity, he said, always stood with the oppressed class by fighting for their rights and mobilising public opinion against social evils.