Media under siege in Pakistan

What happened in Karachi on Saturday is unimaginable, unfathomable and unbearable for everyone who considers himself a patriotic Pakistani. At least 30 people were killed and more than 100 injured in clashes when suspended chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry arrived in Karachi to address a bar council ceremony. After his arrival on Karachi airport at about 1200 hours , there was a heavy bloodshed in the streets . A large number of the vehicles was blazing and smoke clouds through out the day. Chief Justice’s lawyers claimed that security forces tried to forcefully detain him when he landed in Karachi to prevent his address to members of the Bar Association. His defence counsel Aitzaz Ahsan told that "Rangers personnel and police dragged the chief justice to the exit door.

Meanwhile the Police blocked approach roads with containers, tankers and buses, apparently to prevent his supporters from staging a welcome. After spending several hours confined in the airport, he went back to Islamabad. When he was stranded in the lounge of airport at least eight people died in skirmishes outside the airport.

The Citizens of Karachi saw another full day of blood shed and chaos. The dead bodies were lying on the streets and nobody was allowed to pick them up. The injured people shouted for help and there was no one to help them. When camerapersons and reporters, of a private TV channel; lying on ground and taking shelter of the walls, were giving live coverage of the firing on their newsroom, it looked viewers were watching incidents in some remote war torn territory in Afghanistan. But, sadly, it was in Karachi, the city of 16 million people
and the commercial nerve center of Pakistan.

The media went under worst threatening and intimidation. The spectators in other parts of the country were bewildered to watch when the premises of a private TV channel remained under siege continuously for more than six hours facing direct fire on staff and news team. Their reporters and female anchors requesting, crying and sobbing called for security arrangements from government, but nobody paid heed to their requests. They said that they contacted everyone except the president and the prime minister to save their lives but no one came for their rescue for six long hours.

Their ordeal finished when in the evening world media started showing the pathetic events. Then the federal government in Islamabad ordered paramilitary forces to take control of the city. Four bodies were lying outside the studio, its correspondent said, while a mob burned cars and motorbikes belonging to staff. It is said that Aaj TV has given exhaustive coverage to the matters relating to Chief Justice for which the journalists and management of the channel was being threatened since last few days. But what actually outraged the workers of a political party was the footage of gunmen firing at its office in Karachi and of its correspondents diving for cover.

Till night the Chief Justice Chaudhry has abandoned his visit and returned to Islamabad. Meanwhile the Bar Council and lawyers’ bodies in the country have announced to launch a powerful protest throughout the country on Monday. Their representative while talking to the newsmen in Karachi told that political parties achieved what they wanted to achieve, but, they did all this on the price of innocent citizens and the prestige of the lawyers’ community.

But he did not mention the price which media in Pakistan is paying now days to uphold the noble cause of truth. The thrashing of reporters and photographers during the lawyers’ protest in Karachi on April 13 is still alive in the memories of media persons. But what happened today with media in Karachi is unfathomable. When the news anchor of a TV channel was being insisted by the management to continue her commentary on live firing incident leaving dead bodies behind every viewer of the channel was practically weeping with her. Pakistan Broadcasting Association has strongly condemned all these incidents in the city and asked the government to provide security to the media persons.

The journalists covering the recent political and judicial events are continuously being threatened. One of the reporters of a private TV channel who was accompanying the Chief Justice on board was also asked to leave the province along with those lawyers who were accompanying the CJ. The Federal Union of Journalists staged a protest in Islamabad in front of the dais of a political gathering organized by ruling Pakistan Muslim League, to which President Musharraf also addressed. Till late night, the other journalists’ bodies have also announced strong rallies and protests in the country.