The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes a promise by Pakistan’s Government to establish a judicial commission headed by a Supreme Court judge, as demanded by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in response to the murder of Syed Saleem Shahzad last week.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed PFUJ president Pervaiz Shaukat that the Government would ask Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to nominate a judge to head the commission. It is the first time such a body has been established in Pakistan.
The commission, which IFJ affiliate the PFUJ had demanded be set up by June 10, will also comprise the Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Police (Operations) in Islamabad, an inspector general from Punjab province, and a PFUJ representative, according to the PFUJ.
“The IFJ commends the commitment of Pakistan’s leadership to fully investigate the murder of Syed Saleem Shahzad, and looks forward to seeing the Government present a schedule setting prompt deadlines for the commission to reports its findings to the public,” IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.
“We expect the commission to provide concrete recommendations to bring to justice the killers of Shahzad and also the many other brave journalists murdered in Pakistan, and to send a loud message to the criminals who shelter under gross impunity that they will no longer get away with enacting violence against journalists.”
Journalists across Pakistan have expressed their outrage since Shahzad’s beaten body was found about 150km southeast of Islamabad on May 31. Shahzad disappeared in Islamabad on May 29, two days after he published on Asia Times Online an investigative report into alleged links between Al-Qaeda and Pakistani naval officials.
The PFUJ’s demands for the commission were backed by nation-wide protests on June 3, and followed appeals from the IFJ and other organisations around the world for the Government to act promptly to investigate the murder of Shahzad and other Pakistani journalists.
Information Minister Firdaus Ashiq Awan told protesters outside the Parliament in Islamabad that the Government was committed to protecting media personnel and striving for press freedom.
Protests also held in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar were led by leaders of the PFUJ and district unions, and joined by members of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and I.A. Rehman, the secretary-general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
In Peshawar, the Khyber Union of Journalists also demanded a full inquiry into the murder of Nasrullah Khan Afridi, who was killed in a targeted car-bomb blast in Peshawar on May 10.
In a separate incident, the IFJ joined the PFUJ in raising concerns about the unexplained detention on June 2 of Saleem Rehman Afridi, a journalist with PACT Radio, which covers issues in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas.
Afridi, who is not closely related to Nasrullah Khan Afridi and has worked for PACT Radio in the Bara area of Khyber Agency for two years, continues to be detained by police at the Sarband police station in Peshawar after a police raid on a house in Shalober area.
Afridi is being held without an FIR being registered against him, according to the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ).
For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +61 2 9333 0919
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