Imran’s statement on media freedom flies in face of reality: PFUJ

ISLAMABAD:The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has described the statement of former Prime Minister Imran Khan claiming that he did not have any hand in stifling the media as against facts and reality.

In a statement, PFUJ President Shahzada Zulfiqar and Secretary General Nasir Zaidi said Khan’s tenure would go down in the history of Pakistani media as one of the darkest chapters.The two leaders said that under Khan’s rule, journalists were beaten up, assassination attempts were made on critical journalists and several anchors lost their jobs for merely criticising the regime, which financially strangulated the media industry by stopping their ads and withholding ad dues.

Zulfiqar and Zaidi observed that media persons were also implicated in fake cases and the editor in chief of Jang Group, Mir Shakilur Rahman, was imprisoned for several months on trumped-up charges.

“If the memory of the former prime minister is not strong enough to remember the incidents that happened during his tenure, we would like to remind him that Matiullah Jan was abducted in broad daylight, senior journalist Absar Alam was shot at by unknown attackers, armed men entered the residence of Asad Toor beating him up brutally besides hurling threats at him and character assassination campaigns of anchor Asma Shirazi, Gharida Farouqi and other female media persons were also a routine during his tenure,” they said.