Shehbaz writes to NA Speaker, demands formation of committee to probe atrocities against media

ISLAMABAD: PML-N President and former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday wrote to the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, urging him to form a committee to probe the atrocities against media.

In a letter that he penned to Qaiser, the former Punjab chief minister said that authorities were harassing media professionals and were against journalists whom the government did not like. He accused the federal government of having journalists sacked that dared criticise it, saying that the Centre only wanted people to hear the “government’s truth”.

Shehbaz said that lawsuits have been filed against media owners who did not stop from criticising the government, adding that the biggest example of this was Jang Geo Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman.

“The issue is not the ban on Channel 24 but the government’s intolerance for media freedom [in general],” Shahbaz told the NA speaker. He added that the government has reached a point of extremism, alleging that it was using its authority to silence every voice that does not believe in the ‘government’s truth’.

“The Constitution of Pakistan recognises freedom of expression, access to information as a fundamental right,” Shehbaz told Speaker Qaiser. Highlighting the importance of freedom of expression, he stressed that media was the fourth pillar in democracy.

He concluded the letter by hoping that Qaiser would act in his capacity as Speaker of the National Assembly and not as a member of the PTI or fold under pressure from the prime minister.

“I hope that you take a decision keeping democracy in mind and the state’s fourth pillar, [and act] above your party affiliation and pressure from the prime minister,” the former Punjab chief minister wrote in the letter. “The people’s voice should be heard, not silenced.”