Author: Kamal Siddiqi
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: September 30,
2000
Pakistan's most respected
newspaper, the Daily Dawn, which has been consistent in its aggressive
criticism of the military regime, got a taste of General Pervez Musharraf's
new medicine for the media.
Army officials barged
their way into the publication's head offices in Karachi and insisted on
an ``immediate inspection and testing of all existing electrical installations,''
under the Electricity Act of 1910.
Accompanied by two officials
of the Karachi Electric Supply Company, theArmy team threatened immediate
disconnection of electrical supply to thepaper if access was not given.
The Army team then barged
its way into the editorial offices, with armedsoldiers conducting the search
and even went into the editor's office onthe pretext of looking at the
installations.
The Army officers threatened
staff with dire consequences if they tookpictures or reported on the incident
stating that this was ``a secretoperation ordered by the higher ups for
which no pictures should be taken.''
The Army then asked the
Dawn management to sign a statement that statedthat the management was
cleared of any charges and that this matterwas settled. The newspaper
management, however, did not do so saying thatit was not signing anything
under duress.
There was no official
reaction to the Army action asInformation Minister Javed Jabbar, who was
ironically addressing a seminaron press freedom, ducked reporters' questions.
In a statement to The Indian Express, a senior Dawn official said the Army
action was ``unprecedented in the history of the paper.'' And that the
``high-handed manner in which the inspection by the army was carried out
left an indelible impression that it was a punitive raid rather than an
electrical inspection.''
Dawn sources say that
of late their staff members have been threatenedand targeted by the military
government after a series of articles haveappeared which are critical of
the government.
A correspondent of the
newspaper was verbally threatened by General Musharraf in New York at a
press conference for his despatches on the ``failure'' of the Musharraf
trip to the UN and the US.
Another sore point was
an article by a former Air Force chief and war hero, Air Marshal Nur Khan,
who wrote that the military should be held accountable for its actions
and misdeeds. Nur Khan called for a national tribunal to unearth
and examine the various mishaps in the history of Pakistan and recommend
action against the military for their role in them. He mentioned
the wars with India, including the Kargil conflict as well as the division
of Pakistan as some issues that have to be examined in detail.
Dawn has criticised the
manner in which military interference incivil affairs have continued.
The paper published a list of the number ofmilitary officers both serving
and retired that have been employed incivilian jobs. It has roundly
criticised the way military officials havemishandled their new appointments.
Even today a story appeared
in the city pages which reported how Naval officials had taken over a school
in a suburb of Karachi after school officials did not allow the children
of Naval officers to be given admissions out of turn.