Pakistan Anti-corruption body Arrests accurate Media Baron ...

Critics say Imran Khan government the usage of courts to suppress important press

[Islamabad] A Pakistan anti-corruption court docket, investigating a 34-yr-ancient land sale in Lahore, on Friday remanded a media mogul to custody for 12 days.

The country wide Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan's premier anti-graft company, arrested Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, the CEO and editor-in-chief of the Jang Geo Media neighborhood, on Thursday.

The media community owns the nation's greatest group of newspapers, including the biggest circulation English-language every day, The information international, as neatly as the GEO information channel. The group has lengthy been a vocal critic of top Minister Imran Khan and quite a lot of state institutions, together with the Accountability Bureau.

Shakil-ur-Rehman changed into summoned to seem before the NAB inquiry group on Thursday. all over questioning, he "didn't establish his innocence" in connection with land that turned into allegedly illegally allotted to him in 1986.

in line with a exclusive NAB doc (a duplicate of which has reached The Media Line), "The agency has adequate evidence proving that Shakil-ur-Rehman turned into concerned in a land transaction scam."

The document on the businessman's arrest mentioned, "In 1986, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, with the connivance of Nawaz Shareef, the then-chief minister of Punjab, turned into dispensed 6.seventy five acres of useful land in a primary area in a developed housing estate in Lahore city." (Shareef later became top minister.)

The document endured, "Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman changed into disbursed excess land at a throw-away expense. thus, the accused obtained a pecuniary competencies."

Rana Jawad, a Geo news director, told The Media Line that "the pointed out property was bought by way of a non-public birthday party in 1986. Now, all the documents were given to the accountability inquiry team and our chief executive become current within the agency workplace for further clarification, however with none strong proof he was arrested."

He accused the accountability bureau of taking revenge on the media community because it is vital of the government. "PM Imran Khan's government has absolutely failed to give protection to freedom of expression within the nation," Jawad observed.

in the meantime, the Jang Geo group, in an authentic remark, spoke of, "during the last 18 months, NAB has sent our newshounds, producer, and editors over a dozen notices threatening to close down our channels as a result of our reporting and courses concerning the anti-corruption watchdog."

youngsters, NAB strongly rejected the allegations and stated, "The country wide Accountability Bureau vehemently believes in freedom of media and may proceed in its national duties of taking action in opposition t corruption in spite of any propaganda, power, browbeating or threats."

NAB termed the allegations against it concocted, fabricated and baseless. "NAB is adhering to the policy of considering the fact that situations with out caring about the fame of the accused," it spoke of.

The country wide Accountability Bureau asked the media to refrain from hypothesis and to ask its spokesman for comment earlier than broadcasting or publishing any news about NAB, in "light of the judgment of the Honorable Supreme court docket of Pakistan."

There became foreign reaction to the arrest.

Alice G. Wells, the assistant US secretary of state for South and crucial Asian Affairs, stated in her newest tweet, "We noted with concern the arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, the owner of a leading media enterprise in Pakistan.

"Press freedom, due process and the guideline of law are pillars of each democracy," Wells noted.

reporters without borderlines (RSF), a Paris-primarily based journalist rights firm, condemned what it known as the local weather of intimidation within the South Asian nation.

Daniel Bastard, the top of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk, advised The Media Line that "Pakistan is already one of the vital world's deadliest countries for journalists and such incidents simply make stronger the feeling of hazard during which they must work.

"Let's no longer be fooled: Shakil-ur-Rehman's arrest has no prison foundation and is an act of harassment designed to deliver the Jang media neighborhood into line. We call for his immediate free up," Bastard observed.

"Pakistani authorities are exhibiting appalling creativity in their makes an attempt to intimidate journalists who are attempting to work in a completely independent manner. Shakil-ur-Rehman's arrest on spurious grounds is designed to intimidate the neighborhood's journalists," he pointed out.

"Pakistan is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2019 World Press Freedom Index," he continued.

"The quantity of censorship and the govt's drive to impose its narrative on the media appear to have in no way been so high in democratic Pakistan. This tendency alas reminds one of the crucial dire instances of dictatorship, and every little thing must be carried out to preserve pluralism among the many media," Bastard said.

Firdous Ashiq Awan, special assistant to the top minister for tips and broadcasting, strongly rejected the Jang GEO neighborhood's allegation that the executive changed into getting lower back at CEO Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman for his media condominium's criticism of the Khan government.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Awan spoke of that "state institutions are satisfying their independent position."

She referred to the trouble "to link the arrest of a media condominium proprietor with the aid of NAB with the liberty of the press is unethical. We are expecting that Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman and his media group will submit proof to the court about his innocence instead of blaming the govt."

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a former prime minister and a senior opposition chief, advised The Media Line that "the NAB lacks the courage to dangle an open and clear inquiry against Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman."

"The arrest of Mir Shakil is an assault on the liberty of the press," Abbasi spoke of.

Azeem Rana, secretary-generic of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), informed The Media Line, "Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman turned into arrested in somewhat a dubious manner."

Rana vowed that "the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists would no longer leave the journalists and media workers by myself in any disaster."

He additional said that regardless of our "having amazing reservations about [the Jang group's] sackings of staff and non-fee of salaries, PFUJ and its affiliated journalist unions are standing with Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman.

"We don't want to create any hurdles, but all legal processes should still be followed," Rana observed.

Brad Adams, government director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, noted in a press release on Saturday: "The area for dissent in Pakistan is shrinking quickly, and any one who criticizes executive moves can turn into a goal.

"Detaining Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman is only the latest case of harassment towards Pakistan's beleaguered media," Adams referred to.

Iqbal Khattak, a leading journalist rights activist based in Peshawar, told The Media Line that "Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman's arrest comes in the framework of this govt's policy to silence important media. When a person is cooperating with the officers [investigating him, and he is arrested], such an act speaks of unhealthy religion."

Javed Kauser, a lawmaker and a senior member of Khan's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf birthday celebration, advised The Media Line that "our executive strictly believes in freedom of the click and is taking all-out steps to facilitate the [work of the] media neighborhood."

"We welcome tremendous criticism, however when media homes move the boundaries of criticism and begin to play the position of a political rival, then complications arise and such a task negates the ideas of precise journalism," he referred to.

Shakil-ur-Rehman's "arrest has nothing to do with freedom of the click," he introduced. It solely issues a "company transaction through which Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman misused his relations with high-united states of americaand acquired billions of rupees worth of state-owned land at low priced expenditures.

"Our judiciary is free. He [Shakil-ur-Rehman] should prove his innocence in court," Kauser stated.