Author: Wilson John
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 14, 2002
Wall Street Journal correspondent
Daniel Pearl was abducted by terrorists not because he was an American
but because he was a journalist who was determined to dig out hidden links
between a terrorist named Richard Reid (Shoe Bomber) and Pakistan's religious-terror
network, functioning with the active assistance of the notorious intelligence
agency, the ISI. What Pearl did not realise was Pakistan's intense suspicion
of any journalist trying to probe the establishment's deep involvement
with terror groups, including the Al Qaeda. Try this remark by Musharraf's
Interior Minister Moinuddin Hyder, immediately after Pearl was abducted.
"I am surprised as to why Pearl worked on the Shoe Bomber story, which
was already finished after the arrest of the principle accused who is now
facing trial".
Musharraf is on record asking journalists
not to write against the national interest. But what if the views of the
general public, especially a vigilant media, are at variance with his.
For instance, Dawood Ibrahim, a mafia don living in a palatial house in
Karachi, is a sensitive subject for Musharraf. Dawood tops the list of
20 terrorists wanted by India. So if a journalist tries to find out why
a mafia king is being protected by authorities, he is punished ruthlessly.
That is what happened to a local journalist Ghulam Husnain, a freelancer
for CNN and Time. He was picked up from the Karachi Press Club just a day
before Pearl went missing, only to return home four days later, a broken
man who wouldn't say a word on what had happened to him. His only crime
was a series of stories he did on the connections between organised crime
and the ISI. He focused on the special treatment given to Dawood by the
authorities, despite India's demand to extradite him for masterminding
the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. His story in the Karachi magazine Newsline
was among the evidence India attached with the list of terrorists. Beating
up journalists for telling the truth has become a way of life under Musharraf's
regime. A few months ago, Masood Malik, a journalist with the Urdu newspaper
Nawa-i-Waqt had the temerity to ask an unpleasant question to President
Musharraf during a televised press conference. The same day, his employer
reprimanded and demoted him. Another correspondent, Shakil Sheikh, who
also happened to embarrass the President at the same press conference,
was picked up from his car inside Islamabad, kept in illegal confinement
and kicked around with military boots. He had to be hospitalised.
The most brazen attack on the press
occurred when Musharraf sent a team of military officials to the office
of the respected and widely-read English daily, Dawn. The Army officers
ransacked the entire office, questioned the staff and threatened to return
if the newspaper did not change the tone and tenor of its political coverage.
The ire resulted from an article, 'Free Press: Is Musharraf Having Second
Thoughts?' (September 12, 2000) which said, without mincing words, that
the General had exhibited a "growing impatience with the Pakistani press,
complaining that it was irresponsible, corrupt, unpatriotic at times, and
not pursuing healthy journalism". Less lucky has been owner Rahmat Shah
Afridi of the vocal English language daily The Frontier Post, who languishes
in jail on cooked-up charges of possessing narcotics. A few days before
he was arrested, he had written a story alleging links between drug runners
and some top officials of the Pakistani anti-narcotics task force. Likewise,
Musharraf had the editor of the weekly English-language paper, The Friday
Times, Najam Sethi, arrested on charges of treason after he spoke about
Pakistan's identity crisis at a seminar in India. President Musharraf is
once again in Washington and it is time someone asked him if he's ever
stop beating up and incarcerating mediapersons.
