LAHORE, Nov 20: Police action against journalists protesting imposition of emergency rule outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday followed by 150 arrests has been widely condemned by people belonging to various cross sections of society.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal President and Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the government was making all possible efforts to gag the media and had launched an offensive against the print media after imposing restrictions on the electronic media.

Karachi Press Club incident had proved that all powers were in the hands of military regime, which had lost all sense of proportion after assuming unlimited powers in the wake of imposition of emergency.

He supported the demands of journalists and expressed sympathies with those who were either injured or arrested during the Tuesday’s police violence outside the Karachi Press Club. He said sacrifices being offered by journalists for freedom of the press would bear fruit shortly.

Condemning the incident, Labour Party secretary-general Farooq Tariq and leaders Moin Nawaz Punnu and Yousaf Baloch said treatment meted out to journalists had exposed the regime which wanted to choke the media to ensure that it did not depict its ‘true image’. They said their party would continue supporting the just struggle of lawyers, journalists and civil society organisations to bring an end to the military dictatorship.

Addressing a meeting of Taraqi Pasand Lakhari Mahaz held to express solidarity with journalists, secretary-general Rana Faiz Ahmad Faiz said the brutal treatment being meted out to media men, lawyers and human rights activists had exposed the military dictator’s claims of liberalism.

He said progressive writers of Punjab condemned the inhuman and uncivilised manner in which the government was trying to suppress the voice of dissent and would soon join their struggle against emergency.