LAHORE: All professional and representative bodies of journalists got together on Tuesday afternoon to protest against attack on a media house in Karachi and pledged to continue performing duties despite threats of violence.

During their protest at the press club, they also threatened to besiege the British Council’s Lahore office to force the UK to extradite MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

The Lahore Press Club, the Punjab Union of Journalists, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the Electronic Media Reporters’ Association got together in condemning the cowardly attack on the ARY channel in Karachi on Monday.

PFUJ President Rana Azeem claimed that the government had failed to protect the media houses and journalists. For this reason, he said, the journalists’ bodies had to do something on their own. He also threatened to lay siege to the British Council to put pressure on the UK government to send Altaf Hussain back to Pakistan so that law takes it course against him.

Holding the MQM chief responsible for attack on the media house, Lahore Press Club Vice-President Abdul Majeed Sajid said the attack was barbaric and the culprits must be arrested at the earliest. Releasing the workers of the MQM without necessary protection to the media house was tantamount to insulting the independence of the media, he said.

PUJ General Secretary Amer Sohail asked the government to press the owners of the media houses to provide protection, insurance and social security to the working journalists.

The journalists covering the Punjab Assembly session also boycotted the house proceedings to register their protest. They promised to stand behind all media houses and reporters.

The Sports Journalists Association of Lahore (SJAL) protested against the attack on the media house. A number of sports journalists took part in the protest held at the Nishtar Sports Complex.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016