By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan media came under severe attack Saturday as more than 15 journalists were injured as policemen beat them with sticks and almost all private television news channels were forced off air following government orders.
The journalists were injured when policemen chased media personnel with sticks as they were protesting about an accident in which a journalist was run down by Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi’s vehicle.
Altaf Bhatti of daily Khabrain was severely hurt when his leg was crushed under the wheels Elahi’s limo outside the election commission building.
While the media personnel were protesting, “some of the senior journalists were tracked by the police and beaten up,” Ali said.
“There are at least 10 journalists in this hospital who received serious injuries,” Shehryar, a journalist told IANS from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Shehryar said that about seven journalists had been discharged after first aid while others were being treated for their wounds.
Before the police attack on journalists, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), a media watchdog, issued orders not to air independent news channels till further orders, According to cable operators here.
“This is a black day… we never thought that the government can go to this extent,” said Huma Ali, president of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). He said that the military regime had proved they had no tolerance.
The ban on private TV channels came after clashes erupted outside the Election Commission building here.
Riot police used tear gas to chase away hundreds of lawyers and political activists who had gathered near the Election Commission (EC) office to protest the Supreme Court’s decision allowing Pervez Musharraf to contest for presidency while heading the army. The EC was then scrutinising nomination papers of presidential candidates.
According to the PEMRA order, state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) would be the only news channel available on air.
“We have been asked to immediately close down all other news channels including ARY, AAJ, GEO, DAWN and others,” a leading cable operator in Islamabad told IANS.
“We have to obey the orders, otherwise they will do what they did in the past,” said Akhtar, who identified himself only by his first name.
He said that during Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s judicial trial they disobeyed a similar order and all their equipment was confiscated and damaged.
“This is nothing new…we have been seeing this since March when we started giving independent news to our viewers,” said Syed Talat Hussain, director news of AAJ television.
He said that this was a grave situation and “we regret but it won’t stop us from airing the facts”.
“First they asked to hook off ARY, soon after orders were given for AAJ and GEO and later for all the private news channels,” said another cable operator requesting anonymity.
Ali announced a boycott of the Iftar — the meal that breaks the fast at the end of the day during Ramadan – being hosted for journalists Saturday by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
He said that journalists would also announce a protest campaign in the evening.
In the earlier clash between the police and lawyers, leading lawyer Ali Ahmed Kurd was beaten up and arrested while over 100 political workers were taken into custody from Constitution Avenue, where important buildings including the parliament, Supreme Court, prime minister’s secretariat and EC are located.
“The administration has turned Constitution Avenue into a battleground…Kurd has been badly beaten, he is injured and has been taken to an unknown place,” Munir A. Malik, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told reporters.
The lawyers’ collective had urged its members across the country to reach Islamabad Saturday to protest the scrutiny of nomination papers. The presidential elections are scheduled on Oct 6. Musharraf and 42 other candidates, including a lawyers’ nominee, have filed nomination papers.
The agitating lawyers threw stones and glass bottles at the police, who retaliated by firing teargas shells. Then the lawyers took refuge in the nearby Supreme Court building.
Some of the injured lawyers were admitted to hospitals.
Malik said that hundreds of lawyers had been arrested but “this will only strengthen our resolve against the military dictator…we are not going to stop”.
He said: “all ministers and members of the ruling party are being allowed into the EC building whereas we have been stopped. This is the ‘independent’ Election Commission.”
A nine-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas, dismissed all petitions filed against Musharraf’s candidature and his simultaneously holding two offices of the president and the army chief by a 6-3 majority decision Friday.
Malik, who spearheads the anti-Musharraf campaign, said that lawyers have filed objections to Musharraf’s candidature for the presidential poll.
He claimed that Musharraf had not submitted his Bachelor’s degree with the nomination papers. According to the 2002 presidential order only graduates can contest for parliament.
“The same conditions apply for the presidential candidates,” Malik said.
The lawyers have also alleged that Musharraf was a “liar” and hence stood disqualified for the president’s office. Malik said that Musharraf in a televised addressed had committed that he would doff the army uniform in December 2004 but he later refused and continued to hold two offices.