India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU

Vol. 16 :: No. 05 :: Feb. 27 - Mar. 12, 1999

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WORLD AFFAIRS

Nawaz Sharif vs the press

The struggle for press freedom has gained momentum in Pakistan following the curbs imposed by the Nawaz Sharif Government on the Jang group of publications.

BEENA SARWAR

THE Nawaz Sharif Government's tussle with Pakistan's largest newspaper group, Jang, has given a tremendous impetus to the struggle for press freedom and could prove to be a turning point for the media in Pakistan.

On February 9, Jang requested an adjournment of its case the Supreme Court against the Government after the latter, bowing to country-wide pressure from journalists, civil liberties organisations and politicians, promised to allow the group access to its newsprint stores and some bank accounts.

The case, filed by Jang on January 29, followed several days of accusations and counter-accusations by both parties, initiated by a series of advertisements that appeared in Jang's publications from January 25, exposing what it said were the government's unjustified demands ("sack and replace 16 journalists", "support us in policy matters", "refrain from criticising the first family," and so on). At a press conference on January 28, Jang's Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakilur Rehman played audio tapes that supported these allegations.

The startling revelations kicked off a battle of unprecedented intensity between the Government and the press. Newsprint supply to Jang, which had already been held back illegally by the Government, stopped abruptly and the group's bank accounts were frozen, to the dismay not only of the owner but the 4,000-odd employees whose pay cheques were held up. A sedition case was filed against Mir Shakilur Rehman on January 28.

But instead of backing down, Mir Shakilur Rehman held his ground and blazed away with all he had, as one columnist put it in the English daily Dawn. Tired of constant efforts by the Government to control and coerce the media, many joined him.

B.K. BANGASH/AP
Mir Shakilur Rehman, the proprietor-editor of the Jang group of publications, outside the Supreme Court on February 1.

Spontaneous country-wide protests sprang up, and as they gathered momentum the Government was forced to start a dialogue with Mir Shakilur Rehman on the weekend of February 6-7. The Government, represented among others by Nawaz Sharif's younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, the powerful Chief Minister of Punjab, assured the Jang group unconditional access to its newsprint stores and bank accounts, Mir Shakilur Rehman stressed. Faced with a Supreme Court Bench that seemed disinclined to provide this relief, Mir Shakilur Rehman sought an adjournment of the case, giving rise to speculation that he had compromised on the issue. He has categorically denied this.

Whether or not there has been a compromise, the issue is far from over. It has in fact given a tremendous impetus to the struggle for press freedom.

In this, a Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) petition on press freedom before the Supreme Court could play a pivotal role. Initiated by the PFUJ through its president Abdul Hameed Chapra against the Government of Pakistan and the Ministry of Interior (along with two other respondents), the petition seeks a striking down of the coercive government practices that have hindered and continue to hinder press freedom. The huge support that this cause has gained indicates that "people are desperate to keep and strengthen democratic institutions," says the PFUJ's counsel and the well-known human rights lawyer, Asma Jahangir.

The PFUJ's Constitutional Petition No. 9 of 1999 asks the Supreme Court to "direct the respondents not to interfere with the freedom of the press by mala fide and undue harassment of the members of the press... (and) not to interfere in any professional work of the newspapers of Jang group or any other publication."

Besides harassment, other government controls over the media which have long been the bane of journalists are sought to be removed. These include the abolition of the Ministry of Information itself, which has been described as a "burden on the exchequer and being an instrument of repression and dissemination of misinformation." The petition adds: "In the alternative, direct the said respondents to make clear laws governing the subject of information, press and publications consistent with constitutional rights."

The Government does not need a Supreme Court directive to abolish the Ministry - in fact this was a promise made by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif) in its election manifesto of 1996-97. Ironically, Mushahid Hussain, a respected former editor and ardent supporter of a free press, heads the much-maligned Ministry.

The petition seeks an equitable policy "for a just distribution" of government advertisements to newspapers. The "arbitrary withholding of government advertisements," it pleads, should be declared "violative of Articles 18, 19 & 25 of the Constitution". The petition seeks a Supreme Court directive to the Government and the Interior Ministry "to allow proper access for journalists to all governmental records and the records of subordinate offices and authorities so as to enable them to perform their functions effectively and properly." It also seeks a new law to allow journalists "access to public records" and till such time as this is provided and a well-defined and equitable policy is laid down, it says, "the Supreme Court should lay down principles regarding journalists access to official records."

LACK of access to such records is a major factor in efforts to control the press; journalists are often forced to resort to underhand methods to obtain information which should be a matter of public record. The PFUJ also plans to include a plea against government control over the electronic media, according to Chapra. Several people and organisations are lending support to the journalists' organisation. Among them is the rock band Junoon, which has been banned from Pakistan Television after the group made what the Government considers to be anti-Pakistan remarks during a tour of India. Junoon guitarist Salman Ahmed, who visited journalists on a token hunger strike at the Lahore Press Club, expressed the group's solidarity with journalists in any efforts to end government control over the media.

Former Minister for Information Javed Jabbar said: "Radio stations and television channels should have the freedom to originate their own political content such as news and current affairs programmes." Currently with former President Farooq Leghari's Millat Party, which has come out strongly in support of the press, Jabbar had filed a case in 1996 in the Supreme Court to achieve this end. His co-petitioner was Dr. Mubashir Hasan, former Finance Minister and now president of the Punjab unit of Murtaza Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (SB), and a leading exponent of India-Pakistan cooperation and people-to-people dialogue.

Jabbar, who authored Mass Media Laws and Regulations in Pakistan (Asian Media and Communication Information Centre, 1998), is also the convener of the Citizens Media Commission, which was set up in 1997 as "an independent forum for the analysis of media-related laws, policies, issues and media content from a public interest perspective."

Last year, the CMC declared February 14 of each year as Electronic Media Freedom Day to mark the anniversary of the day the Caretaker Government of President Farooq Leghari promulgated the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 1997, which lapsed in June that year. "Several organisations in other South Asian countries have expressed an interest in taking this day up too," Jabbar says.

B.K. BANGASH/ AP
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Another important law promulgated by the Caretaker Government was the Freedom of Information Ordinance, 1997. Although both ordinances have their drawbacks, they were important first steps in the direction of making media in Pakistan free, and could have been the basis for improved legislation in this area.

"Every secretary was hostile to the idea," recalled Najam Sethi, Editor of The Friday Times, who was interviewed for the weekly The News on Sunday for a Special Report on freedom of information ("Who Needs to Know", May 11, 1997). Sethi, who was adviser on Political Affairs and Accountability to the Caretaker Prime Minister, and a member of the Cabinet Committee which drafted the ordinance, stated: "All bureaucrats hate the press. All sorts of roadblocks were set up on one pretext or another. Every Ministry wanted to shield its records from the press... I'm not exactly sanguine about the feelings harboured by the PML Government towards the press, notwithstanding the presence of a former journalist in the Cabinet. I think we are in for a long haul."

His misgivings, like those of many others, have unfortunately proved correct. The long haul continues, but the cause of a free press has only been boosted by the Government's high-handedness and hostility - for instance, its foot-dragging over the release of newsprint to Jang in defiance of the Supreme Court's order of February 1 and the manhandling of journalists who protested against this.

In Lahore, the newly formed Committee for a Free Press (CFP), comprising senior journalists from various publications, has vowed to pursue the issues of press freedom in Pakistan. On February 3, responding to a call by the CFP, some 5,000 journalists (the numbers were duly played down by some rival newspapers), political and human rights activists, trade unionists, lawyers, artists and members of non-governmental organisations staged a protest march.

"This show of strength was unprecedented," commented veteran journalist Aziz Mazhar, convener of the CFP. On February 12, the CFP announced the end of the token hunger strikes, which were launched on February 4 at the Lahore Press Club and which were later taken up by press clubs in cities all over the country including Multan, Hyderabad, Rawalpindi-Islamabad and Peshawar. Making the announcement, the CFP demanded the withdrawal of various controls over the press (including government control over newsprint imports), the abolition of the Ministry of Information, the removal of state control over the electronic media, and the setting up of a committee to ensure equitable distribution of government advertisements.

The cause has been openly and vocally taken up by the All Parties Conference, one of whose rallies in Islamabad on February 13, led by PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, was viciously attacked by the police, causing injuries to several senior Opposition politicians.

All political parties except the ruling PML(N) have come together on the issue of press freedom as many parties did for the first time, last year when opposing Nawaz Sharif's Constitutional Amendment 15, the Shariat Bill), and this is evident from the mammoth 'Press Freedom Marches', organised by the All Parties Press Freedom Committee in Karachi and Islamabad-Rawalpindi on February 8. Using the occasion to pull herself further out of the political isolation she has been in danger of slipping into, Benazir Bhutto demanded that government controls on the electronic media be lifted. "The unilateral propaganda (on the electronic media) against the elected representatives and the political parties should be stopped forthwith," a resolution passed at the rally stated.

However, as has been noted by more than one observer, the Opposition parties which are champions of press freedom now, and become its enemies once they are in power - a shameless shift of position that the two Governments of Benazir Bhutto were also guilty of.

That the state will stop at nothing to teach its adversaries a lesson is reflected in the sedition cases registered in Karachi on January 28 against Mir Shakilur Rehman and the editors of the newspapers dailies Aman and Parcham for printing advertisements (on January 1) by the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) seeking donations to fund for the families of victims of police excesses. But this is nothing new. People still remember the sedition case that was instituted in 1992 by the first Nawaz Sharif Government against The News of Rawalpindi, for publishing a poem against the cooperatives scandal. The Government had to retract, egg on its face, after having over-reacted as it has once again, and as it doubtless will yet again - unless journalists and other citizens unite on a common platform to ensure that this can never happen.