SKARDU, April 4: A local court has indicted the editor and publisher of a Skardu-based monthly magazine in a sedition case. Sessions Judge Yar Mohammad observed that by publishing an article in the March 2004 issue of the monthly magazine Kargil International criticising President Musharraf’s policies with regard to US-led war on terror, Kashmir and government’s misrule in Northern Areas, the editor and publisher have committed an offence under sections 124-A (sedition), 501-PPC (defamation) and 505-PPC (conducing public mischief).

The article may cause fear “among the public and incite them to commit offence against state or public tranquillity,” the judge said in his verdict on March 30.

The editor of the magazine, Engineer Manzoor Hussain Parwana and publisher Ghulam Shehzad Agha rejected the charges and said: “Instead of ensuring basic rights to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, the government is humiliating and harassing them.”

They contended that section 124-A of the Constitution did not apply to them as Gilgit-Baltistan was not part of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, journalists urged the international community, human rights organisations and journalist forums to raise their voice against subjugation of the free media and democratic rights of the 1.5 million people of the area.

The Northern Areas administration had banned the magazine on November 4, 2004 and registered cases against its editor and publisher.