PESHAWAR, Nov 20: Journalists took out a procession from the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday to denounce the imposition of emergency rule and curbs on the media.

After marching on the Shershah Suri Road, the journalists staged a demonstration outside the telephone exchange off The Mall. They chanted slogans against what they called a martial law and fresh curbs on private television channels.

Speaking on the occasion, Khyber Union of Journalists president Jan Afzal criticised the forcible stoppage of news and current affairs programmes of private television channels. He also slammed the authorities’ act of stopping the cable operators from disseminating the information provided by news channels.

Mr Afzal pointed out that there had been protests against media curbs ever since the imposition of emergency rule in the country. He said hundreds of people working for cable operators had become victims of the ban on TV channels.

He said if the government could not provide jobs to the unemployed youths, why had it deprived them of opportunities in the private sector. Thousands of people, he said, were affiliated to the print and electronic media.

Mr Afzal accused the government of destroying the socio-political fabric of the country by pushing numerous people below the poverty line. According to him, it was the first government which had closed employment opportunities on its citizens by taking television channels off the air in order to conceal its wrongdoing.

Criticising enforcement of the Pakistan Press and Publications Ordinance and the newly-amended Pemra Ordinance, press club president M. Riaz said the government had banned news and current affairs programmes of private television channels, but it had allowed transmission of what he called substandard Indian channels.

He said the community of journalists would not allow the rulers to play with the pride and independence of the country. He urged the government to withdraw its draconian laws, meant to regulate the print and electronic media.

Rejecting the government’s stance on the role of media, KhUJ general-secretary Nasir Hussain said the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists had been calling for constituting an independent press commission to frame rules for television channels and work as a watchdog, but the government had not met the demand.

He said honest and professional journalists affiliated with the print and electronic media could play an important role in giving a constructive direction to the media industry.

Later, presidents of the Khyber Union of Journalists and the Peshawar Press Club submitted at the Governor’s House a memorandum on the plight of journalists after the imposition of emergency rule.

Rashid Javed adds from Abbottabad: On a call of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, a large number of journalists took out a protest procession in Abbottabad.

The procession started from the local press club and marched through various roads of the city. Office-bearers of the Abbottabad and Mansehra journalists’ associations — including Nisar Ahmed, Masood Shauq, Lala Mohammad Zaman, Sardar Shafeeq and Raja Haroon — spoke on the occasion.

The protesters, holding placards and banners, raised slogans against the government for imposing curbs on the media. They condemned the closure of private channels and the harassment of journalists.