Public, lawyers beat Gullu Butt at Model Town Katcheri

LAHORE: Gullu Butt, the man caught on camera damaging a number of vehicles outside the Minhaj-ul-Quran International (MQI) Secretariat in Model Town, was tortured by an angry crowd and lawyers at the Model Town Katcheri on Thursday.
Gullu Butt was handcuffed and his face was covered when an angry mob encircled him and tortured him. Only two policemen were escorting him at the time. Lawyers were demanding the authorities to try Gullu Butt under the anti-terrorism act.

Two police officers, who were escorting Butt, failed to protect him from the wrath of the angry mob and lawyers.Ironically, the policemen asked him “to lie down” to save his skin amid continuous pounding by kicks and fists. After being savagely assaulted by the public, the police personnel present on the occasion tried to take control of the situation. The scuffle left Gullu Butt unconscious. He was immediately shifted to hospital by the police in a rickshaw.

Later, a heavy contingent of police was deployed on the court premises and the police again produced Gullu before a judicial magistrate and sought his physical remand. However, a senior police officer told the court that the club he used to damage vehicles had already been recovered, so there was no need of a physical remand.

As this, the judge sent Gullu to jail on 14-day judicial remand.Police on Tuesday carried out an anti-encroachment drive to remove the barriers outside the MQI Secretariat and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri’s Lahore residence during which nine persons lost their lives.

Gullu Butt was arrested for vandalism after TV news cameras caught him damaging a number of vehicles outside the MQI Secretariat in Model Town in the presence of police on Tuesday.Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif issued orders for his arrest after watching the vandalism done by Butt captured in the news footage. The man was later identified as Gullu Butt alias Sher-i-Lahore, known to be a police tout in Model Town.

Politicians, lawyers condemn Geo channel shutdown

KARACHI/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: Media watchdog Pemra’s decision to suspend the Geo TV licence for 15 days on Friday drew strong criticism from political leaders and lawyers.

PPP Sindh General Secretary Taj Haider on Friday said it was very unfortunate that private TV channels were being shut down. He said the government should have stepped in much earlier to save the situation but it played no conciliatory role.

He said it was again very unfortunate that an intense war was going on between the media houses. He said the working journalists must maintain complete unity in their movement and struggle and they should secure concrete promises and commitments from their respective owners that they would fight for their (owners’) cause but in return conditions of their services should be improved.

“In the past, we fought for our English colonial masters but only on the promise that afterwards we would be given freedom,” he said in support of his argument. Waqar Mehdi, Information Secretary of the Pakistan People’s Party, Sindh, said that due action against the Geo News television should be taken fully in accordance with the Constitution, the law of the land and the Pemra rules and there should be no violation of the law and the rules.

He said an independent, transparent, and proper inquiry should be conducted and the Geo News TV issue should be resolved as per the law. He said if the suspension of Geo News TV license for 15 days was in line with the rules and laws of Pemra, then there was no harm in it.

Syed Najmi Alam, General Secretary, PPP Karachi Division, said that suspension of the license and transmission of Geo News merely for 15 days was beyond his comprehension given the seriousness of the allegation pending against the Geo News. Given the allegation being probed against it, in case the Geo News had committed such a grave mistake, then the TV news channel should have been shut down forever. It seems to be a compromise between the parties and stakeholders concerned, said the local PPP leader.

The PML-F Media Coordinator, Kamran Tessori, said his party believes in press freedom and whenever and wherever the press voice was gagged, they will condemn it.Senator Saeed Ghani of the PPP opined that all the parties should have attended the Pemra meeting. He said during the Friday’s meeting, there were no private members and in the previous meeting there were private members. Ghani said though the Jang Group had always been against the PPP, they still say an injustice had been done.

The PML-Q and PML-N leaders and adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Sharmila Farooqi refused to offer any comments.MQM Rabita Committee member Engineer Nasir Jamal at first offered no comments; however, when insisted, he said: “Allah Taala Geo Kee Mushkil Asaan Karay.”

Despite repeated calls, Sindh Minister for Information Sharjeel Inaam Memon was not available for comments.KUJ President G M Jamali strongly condemned the decision of Pemra and said the authority should have heard both the sides. He said it was totally unjustified and unwarranted not to listen to Geo TV.

The KUJ and PFUJ strongly condemned the decision. The religious parties refused to make any comments over this issue.Legal experts and senior lawyers have condemned the one-sided Pemra’s decision of suspending the Geo News licence for 15 days and said it was a clear violation of the Article 10(A) of the Constitution.

Former judge of the Sindh High Court and renowned lawyer Rasheed A Razvi said the due process of law was not followed in the case, which was a clear violation of Article 10 (A) of the Constitution. He said the decision was politically-motivated.

Former assistant advocate general, Sindh, Syed Jalil Ahmed Hashmi, said it was an unlawful decision and could be challenged in the Sindh High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution. Hashmi said the decision was taken in haste and without providing an opportunity to Geo TV to defend it. He said the Pemra decision will definitely be set aside by the appellate court.

Renowned law expert and special public prosecutor Abdul Maroof said: “To me, the decision itself has committed many violations of law dealing with the right to know, right to speech and right to expression and it was a matter to be dealt with under Article 199 and Article 184 (3) as it not only involves the question of public interest, but also a matter of violation of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Maroof said such decisions hold no water in the eye of law and were finally reversed and certainly this wrong decision would meet the same fate in the near future. Advocate Noor Naz Agha observed: “I am deadly against a decision that does not take into account necessary legal aspects of the matter and are drawn unheard of the stakeholders concerned.”

She said it was not an occasion of happiness and instead it was the tragedy of the day because such negative decisions could also affect other media houses. She said Pemra must honour the due course of law and due process of law while dealing with the matters of media and journalism, which were bound to do investigative reporting of the events.

According to the Pemra notification, the licence will remain suspended from June 06 till June 20. In Kasur, lawyers, journalists, traders, political workers and members of the civil society condemned the suspension of the Geo News.

In three emergency meetings held at kutchery and Lal Havely, the Unity Group of Lawyers, Insaf Group of Lawyers, HR activists and other organisations passed resolutions against the Pemra. Kasur BR VP Saleem Farrukh, Yaseen Farrukh advocate, Unity Group President Rana Naveed Ahmad Joya, Insaf Group President Saleemur Rahman, Sardar Sharif Sohdal advocate, Sh Ateeq Ahmad advocate, Naveed A Malik, Shazia Ajmal advocate, MM Tariq Advocate, Zohaib Baloch and others condemned Pemra and termed its decision a conspiracy against Geo, the media and democracy.

In Lahore, protesters rejected the Friday’s decision of Pemra saying the decision reflected the government’s intentions on the independence of the media and value of freedom of expression in the country.Carrying banners and placards inscribed with anti-Pemra, anti-Rathore and anti-government slogans, the protesters in hundreds gathered outside the Jang/Geo offices on the Davis Road and condemned the Pemra decision.

The Muttahidda Christian Rabita Committee on Friday denounced the suspension of Geo News licence by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and asked the authorities concerned to review the decision.

In a press statement, provincial president of the committee, Tanveer Sherazi, said the ban on Geo News was biased and an injustice. “About 10,000 employees of Geo, Jang Group would be affected by the decision,” he said.

Lawyers, civil society, labourers join protest against Geo closure

LAHORE: The Protest against the ban/suspension of Geo TV is gaining strength with every passing day as more people from all walks of life, including members of civil society, lawyers, the journalist community, labourers and workers of the Geo/Jang Group, thronged outside the Jang, Geo offices to hold a protest demonstration here on Saturday.

The protesters, carrying banners, placards in favour the Geo/Jang Group, and terming the ban on Geo against fundamental rights, said that any such action would be tantamount to economic murder of around 50,000 workers of the largest media house.

Among the prominent persons who attended the protest were senior journalists Nasrullah Malik, Khawar Naeem Hashmi, Maqsood Butt, Bedar Bakht Butt, Sadia Sharif, Ameen Hafiz, Jang Workers Union President Rukhsana Nazli, General Secretary Waseem Babar, Fakhira Tehreem, Shahzada Irfan, Jamaat-e-Islami general secretary Ameerul Azeem, Sadia Jabeen of the PPP, Shahid Aslam, Imdad Qureshi, Zahid Rafique Bhatti, Sabir Awan, Zahid Ali Khan, Ijaz Manzoor, Ijaz Mirza, Farooq Chohan, Naseer Baig, Azhar Maqbool, Sadia Aziz, Huma Mir Hassan, Naveed Aslam, President Civil Society Pakistan Abdullah Malik, Sohail Butt, Muneer Khokhar, Adeel Khokhar, Shafqat Imran, Asim Naseer and Waheed Butt.

Nasrullah Malik said he had come to join the protest as defending freedom of press was the duty of every journalist. He said our (media) victory lies in defending our freedom against all dictatorial acts. Which Constitution allows to forcibly snatch copies of newspapers and to threaten the cable operators to shut a channel (Geo), Malik asked, adding that some black sheep exist in our community which need to be thrown out now.

Allama Siddique Azhar said it was a matter of grave concern that Geo TV is off air as employment of thousands of workers is attached with this largest media house. He said nefarious designs with the help of some other channels have been made to discredit the most reliable source (Jang/Geo) of information for the public only to serve some vested interests.

Bedar Bakht Butt said the attack on senior anchorperson Hamid Mir was not an attack on him alone, rather the whole community came under attack from some powerful quarters who do not want free speech and freedom of the media. He said a planned conspiracy has been put in place after the attack on Hamid Mir to cause unbearable loss to the Geo/Jang Group to oust democracy from the country. He said the time has come to join hands to fight with the ‘angels’ and dictatorial mindset if we want to continue telling the truth to the general public.

Maqsood Butt said by attacking Hamid Mir it seemed that a serious campaign has been launched to eliminate all those journalists who speak the truth and stand in front of all wrongs.

Yousaf Shah and Khursheed Shah while condemning the ban on Geo said all labourers and worker’s unions of the country are with the workers of the Geo/Jang Group at this crucial time, adding that Geo is being targeted only for raising a voice for the poor and the needy.

In his speech, Ameerul Azeem demanded all illegal actions initiated against the Geo/Jang Group be stopped immediately, saying that the media house is the pride of Pakistan. He said Geo and Jang are the voice of millions of Pakistanis and efforts were underway to malign their favourite channel and newspapers which is highly condemnable.

Shahida Jabeen said by discrediting the Geo/Jang Group through such malicious campaigns, some forces want to again impose martial law in the country by throwing out hard-earned democracy. She also asked her leadership to throw persons like Israr Abbassi and Mian Shams out of the PPP as they were dancing to someone else’s tune while sitting in the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).

Nisar Safdar Advocate and Iftikhar Shahid Advocate said religious elements are being used by some quarters to settle scores with Geo and Jang as this media house always stood against the high and mighty of the country. He said the media along with the lawyers’ community fought for the independence of the judiciary and now the lawyers will support the media in their fight for freedom and justice.

A representative of the Baloch Ittehad said that it was Geo and Jang alone which highlighted and raised the issues of Balochistan. He said the Baloch nation stands with the workers of the Geo/Jang Group in their fight for truth and freedom.

Abdullah Malik said Geo and Jang always promoted truth, harmony, equality, rule of law in the country. He said damaging this largest media organisation of the country means damaging democracy as every one knows that the independent media would not allow any unconstitutional act in the country again. He said all other channels and media houses should learn some lessons from the management of Geo/Jang Group as they accepted suffering a huge loss in the past one month or so but they never surrendered their freedom to the ‘angels’. He demanded that the government should intervene by finding a solution to the whole mess, otherwise things may go from bad to worse.

Meanwhile, the governing body of the Lahore Press Club on Saturday held its meeting with the chair of LPC President Arshad Ansari and expressed their serious concerns over the ban/suspension of Geo TV across the country.

In a statement issued here, the members of the governing body, while terming the ban on Geo as the economic murder of thousands of employees of the largest media house, said that such action against the Geo/Jang Group on any pretext would not be acceptable to the journalists’ community. “We will not let anyone ban/suspend any channel or media house of the country. If such actions were initiated against any group, the whole community would resist the move with full force,” they said.

The participants of the meeting asked the cable operators to restore Geo TV’s transmission throughout the country otherwise protest rallies would be taken out in all parts of the country.

Besides Arshad Ansari, LPC Secretary Shahbaz Mian, Afzal Talib, Farzana Ch, Asif Ch, Zahid Rafique Bhatti, Qamar Zaman Bhatti, Rizwan Khalid, Khwaja Naseer, Mehboob Ahmed, Imran Sheikh and Bilal Ghauri participated in the meeting.

Lawyers, bar association condemn attack on Geo, Jang

KARACHI: Renowned lawyers and office bearers of different bar associations in Sindh, while expressing solidarity with the freedom of the press and the Jang Group, have termed the act of cable operators to shut down the Geo TV or putting it on last numbers ‘illegal and unethical’.

Prominent lawyer, constitutional expert and former judge of the Sindh High Court Justice (retd) Rasheed A Razvi condemned the act of cable operators of shutting down forcibly the country’s number one and most popular news channel Geo News and other channels of the group.

Razvi, while talking to this correspondent, was of the view that cable operators should not be allowed to decide about the closure, ranking and numbers of any TV channel. “They are just service providers, their role is just like the hawkers of newspapers and how can a hawker refuse to deliver a newspaper of our choice by saying that he does not agree with the policy of the paper?” he argued.

Rasheed Razvi urged the federal government to assert its authority and take action against the cable operators.

According to him, Geo and Jang Group had not crossed any legal or ethical limit. Razvi said the media was the fourth pillar of any state and in Pakistan the media had always remained at the forefront for the restoration of democracy and independence of the judiciary.He added the legal fraternity should also stand with the media as they stood with the lawyers community during the struggle for the independence of the judiciary.

President Sindh High Court Bar Association, Hyderabad, Nisar Ahmed Durrani, also termed the cable operators’ decision to put Geo on the last numbers and impose a self-appointed ban “against the law and principle”.

According to the Pemra rules, he said, cable operators are not allowed to push down or ban any TV channel.Durrani said that freedom of speech was guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan and all the institutions of the country, whether they liked it or not, came under the Constitution. “No institution is above the law. If anyone illegally or by force tries to curb press freedom by banning the Jang Group, the legal fraternity of Sindh will stand with the media and the Jang Group.”

Durrani said the legal fraternity could launch a protest move like it did for the restoration of the judiciary in 2007. At that crucial time when illegal and unconstitutional actions were taken, the media remained firm and stood by the lawyers and this time the lawyers will be with the media.

President Karachi Bar Association (KBA) Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed said that freedom of the press was essential in a democratic society and no institution was above the law.He termed the cable operators’ act to push the Geo TV channel to the last numbers or ban it on their own unlawful and said the Jang Group should move a contempt of court application against these operators.

“No cable operator has the right to decide the ranking or closure of any TV channel,” he said. “Pemra should also take action against this illegal act.”Ahmed said that nobody had the right to put the stamp of being a traitor on anyone. “As far as I believe, all staff members of the Jang Group are patriotic.”

Salahuddin also criticised other media institutions for continuing to spew venom against Geo and Jang Group. “They should remember that this will not stop only at the Jang Group, as the undemocratic forces and anti-media forces, which are against the independence of the media and freedom of expression, will also ban their institutions someday. The journalist community should strengthen their own ranks.”

Lawyers of the Larkana Division pledged to launch a protest campaign if Geo TV was banned.President High Court Bar Association Asif Soomro said that journalists had dedicated their lives to a noble cause and many journalists had sacrificed their lives.

He said that Geo and Jang Group are the voice of the whole country and no restriction in this regard will be accepted.He said the attack on Hamid Mir was an attack on the freedom of expression.