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June 3, 1999
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes yesterday's unconditional
release of Najam Sethi, the founding editor of the English-language weekly The
Friday Times. The government's decision to drop all charges against him is a
very encouraging development. However, CPJ remains concerned over the legal
propriety of his arrest and weeks-long detention without charge.
Sethi was arrested at his home in Lahore on May 8, beaten and gagged by
government agents, secretly transferred from Lahore to a detention center in
Islamabad, and held incommunicado for more than a week. The government
eventually revealed that Sethi was in the custody of Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) agency, an army intelligence unit, on suspicions that he had
conspired with Indian intelligence operatives. CPJ believes Sethi's arrest
stemmed from his work with a BBC team investigating allegations of high-level
government corruption, coupled with the editorial independence of The Friday
Times.
On June 1, the ISI transferred Sethi to police custody, after an official First
Information Report (FIR) was filed against him under sections 123-A
("Condemnation of the Creation of the State and Advocacy of Abolition of its
Sovereignty"), 124-A (sedition), and 153-A ("Promoting Enmity Between Different
Groups") of Pakistan's penal code, and Section 13 of the Prevention of
Anti-National Activities Act of 1974. But on June 2, after failing to produce
convincing evidence before the Supreme Court to justify Sethi's prolonged
detention, the Attorney General announced that the government was dropping all
charges against Sethi.
As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of our colleagues
around the world, CPJ is dismayed that Pakistan's constitutional guarantees did
not protect Sethi from mistreatment.
Article 9 of the constitution states that "No person who is arrested shall be
detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds
for such arrest," and that "Every person who is arrested and detained in custody
shall be produced before a magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of
such arrest." And Article 19 expressly guarantees that "Every citizen shall have
the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the
press."
The constitutional safeguards for a free press are further undermined by the
existence of provisions in Pakistan's penal code that criminalize journalistic
activity, such as the aforementioned sections 123-A, 124-A, and 153-A. These
statutes all provide for imprisonment on the basis of "words, either spoken or
written."
CPJ is also deeply concerned by reports that your administration is creating a
special "media cell" under the Ehtesab (Accountability) Bureau, with the express
purpose of targeting journalists for harassment.
We urge your administration to cease its persecution of independent journalists
in Pakistan. Your public support of efforts to reform the penal code to remove
provisions used to punish journalists for their work would help reassure the
international community of Your Excellency's commitment to preserving Pakistan's
free press.
Sincerely Yours,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Join CPJ in Protesting Attacks on
the Press in Pakistan
Send a letter to:
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
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