Uwazi

Senior journalist and Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) Secretary General Dr Furqan Rao was attacked in his office by a group of people following recent union elections at the Associated Press of Pakistan. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the attack, and urge authorities to ensure the safety of journalists.

Rao, the head of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP)'s China desk, was attacked at approximately 11:00pm on March 29, allegedly by Rana Imran Latif and his colleagues, who forcibly entered the agency’s Islamabad offices. The group proceeded to Dr Rao’s offices, before attempting to assault him. The assailants were met with opposition from APP staff, who defended the senior journalist from the attackers.

A First Information Report has been registered at the Aabparah Police Station in Islamabad on March 29 under rioting, unlawful assembly, destruction of property, and criminal intimidation sections of the Pakistan Penal Code. Authorities have reportedly begun an investigation into the incident, with a Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ataullah Tarar launching an inquiry committee to investigate the incident, and potentially inform a potential case against the outlet's managing director. Results from the inquiry are expected from April 20.

The attack comes following recent elections of APP collective bargaining agent unions, the results of which were opposed by outlet management. The perpetrators, reportedly external actors not employed at the APP may have been employed by outlet management in an intimidatory attack against Dr Rao, a union activist.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) said: “We demand that Prime Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif immediately takes action on this serious incident and punish the people involved, otherwise the PFUJ will be forced to protest against it across the country and hold a march towards Islamabad with hundreds of working journalists. The PFUJ will not tolerate abuse on working journalists at all."

The IFJ said: “Union elections are an opportunity for workers to have their voice heard in the workplace. If reports that management have engaged persons to carry out an attack against workers are true, then this is a flagrant abuse of labour rights, and must be investigated by authorities.”

‘Aurat March Islamabad’ organisers have sought a public apology from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the ill-treatment of participants by the Islamabad administration on Friday.

The participants gathered in front of the National Press Club on March 8 for the annual Aurat March on International Women’s Day but the administration didn’t allow them to take their usual route towards the D-Chowk. The organisers claimed that the police pushed the participants including pregnant women, children and the elderly.

To protest against the administration’s treatment, the Aurat March Islamabad organisers held an emergency press conference on Saturday and called upon Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take action against the police brutality and discrimination faced by the Aurat March supporters.

Those who addressed the gathering were Farzana Bari, Bariya Shah, Uzma Yaqoob and Fatima Atif who criticised denial of their rights to assemble and march towards D-Chowk.

“Despite our several attempts to obtain ‘No Objection Certificate’ from Islamabad District Administration, Aurat March had been denied NOC consequently for last five years, which means that state is now acting on its anti-Aurat March policy,” said a statement issued by the organisers.

Addressing the media, the organisers said that every year Aurat March Islamabad supporters face police brutality and violence in the form of baton charge, unwarranted obstruction and intimidation by the district administration and Islamabad Police.

“This year as well, we were pushed back by the police officers and lives of elderly women, pregnant mothers and women with disability were men-handled by the police itself. The police and administration’s action not only violate our constitutional rights but also undermine the principles of democracy and freedom of expression,” they said.

They said that IWD holds profound significance for women across the globe, serving as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and justice. “By preventing us from exercising our democratic rights to protest peacefully, the authorities have displayed a blatant disregard for the voices and concerns of women in Pakistan. On the other hand, the administration provided full protocol and access to Haya Marchers which is mobilised every year by the state to prevent Aurat March Islamabad from happening,” they blamed.

The organisers demanded accountability for those responsible for threats against women marchers and an inquiry into why Haya Marchers were protected without an NOC while Aurat March was denied entry.

They called on women parliamentarians to investigate what happened and questioned Bilawal Bhutto for not condemning the Islamabad administration’s treatment.

Federal authorities arrested journalist and blogger Asad Ali Toor on February 26 as he responded to a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) summons, three days after he had been interrogated concerning his alleged connection to a “malicious campaign” against senior judicial figures. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), urge authorities to investigate the journalists’ arrest, and ensure his immediate release.

On February 27, Islamabad Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Shabbir granted the FIA a five-day udicial remand of Toor, a partial reduction of the agency’s initial 10-day request. According to Toor’s legal counsel and human rights lawyer Iman Mazari, Toor was arrested on February 26 while reporting to an FIA’s cybercrime investigative body in Islamabad for the second time in three days to “demonstrate his positive intent, answer a summons notice issued to him on Saturday and join the inquiry about the campaign against the judiciary”.

The journalist entered the FIA’s cybercrime facilities just before 5:00 p.m., with officials confirming his arrest after 9:00p.m. that night. In the First Information Report, no specific social media post is listed as justification for the arrest, however Toor’s legal representation have pointed to the journalist’s critical views on social media as a likely cause of his arrest.

Toor was first summoned on February 23, appearing at an FIA cybercrime office in Islamabad concerning his alleged connection to an online campaign targeting senior Pakistani court figures. According to the journalist’s counsel and human rights lawyer, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, Toor was held and interrogated for over eight hours, at least two hours of which was without access to legal representation.

Toor was one of 47 journalists and media workers summoned by the FIA ahead of January 31, for their alleged connection to an online campaign targeting Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa and the Supreme Judiciary. Toor’s interrogation and subsequent arrest occurred despite assurances from the Attorney General for Pakistan assuring the Supreme Court that the FIA’s notices would not be enforced until after Pakistan’s general election, and an Apex Court adjournment of proceedings until the first week of March.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the killing on 16 February 2024 of Hidyat Lohar, the father of women human rights defenders Sasui Lohar and Sorath Lohar. The two women human rights defenders have been campaigning ever since for justice in his case and for the state to conduct an effective and impartial inquiry into his assasination. Hidayat Lohar was killed by unidentified men in his home town of Nasirabad, near Larkana City, Sindh Province of Pakistan. Hidayat Lohar, a teacher and dissident, has faced reprisals due to his political views and also linked to the human rights work of his daughters, Sasui Lohar and Sorath Lohar. The women human rights defenders are the founders of Voice of Missing Persons of Sindh, which campaigns for an end to violations including extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances in Sindh Province. For 16 days following his killing, the police refused to file a First Information Report (FIR), despite repeated requests and campaigns by the family. On 2 March 2024, following an order by the Additional Sessions Judge, Kamber District, the Nasirabad police have registered an FIR in the case but have failed to take any effective steps to trace those responsible. Sasui Lohar and Sorath Lohar are the founders of the Voice of Missing Persons of Sindh, an organization aimed at supporting victims of enforced diappearences and their families to seek justice. Their human rights work is motivated by their own experience when their father Hidayat Lohar was forcibly disappeared in 2017 and continued following his release in 2019. The women human rights defenders have been active since 2014 supporting other victims and families to seek redress and to end the crime of enforced disappearances in Sindh. On 16 February, Hidayat Lohar was assassinated by two unidentified gunmen who shot him while he was traveling to work. The attack happened very close to the police station in Nasirabad and police have confirmed to the family that they heard the sound of gunfire. However, the police and state authorities have so far failed to take any effective measures to respond to the killing or trace those responsible. For over two weeks following the killing, Nasirabad police refused to register a FIR despite the requests of family members. The two women human rights defenders, Sasui Lohar and Sorath Lohar, launched a protest campaign seeking justice and calling on the police to take action and register the FIR into the killing of their father. Three days after the killing, they marched peacefully in Nasirabad town calling for justice. Instead of tracing the perpetators, the police appear to have focused their attention on the women human rights defenders and their campaign intimidating protesters and and the family with a heavy police presence and refusing to ascede to demands for justice and accountability. The FIR bearing number 32/24 was only registered by Nasirabad police 16 days later, on 2 March 2024, following an order by the Additional Sessions Judge, Kamber District directing the police to file an FIR and commence inquiry. However, no further action has been taken to date to identify those responsible. Sasui Lohar and Sorath Lohar have faced repeated reprisals including legal persecution, surveillance, threats and harassment linked to their work. Their father has also been targeted as a result of their work. On 3 April 2023, Hidayat Lohar was taken from his relatives shop in Nasirabad by the Station House Officer (SHO) of Nasirabad police station. When the woman human rights defender Sasui Lohar went to police station inquring about the whereabouts of Hidyat Lohar, police denied having any information about his whereabouts despite witness statements that clearly statethat Hidyat Lohar was taken away by the SHO of Nasirabad Police. Sasui Lohar began a sit-in protest at the police station demanding that her father’s whereabouts be revealed and calling for his release. Around three hours after he was first taken, Hidyat Lohar was returned to his family by the SHO at a location in Larkana city which is around 40 minutes away from Nasirabad town. There was no formal arrest receipt or explanation to the family regarding his abduction or reason for detention by the SHO. Hidyat Lohar informed his daughter that after he was taken away by the SHO, he was blindfolded and handed over to unidentified persons who he believed were intelligence agents who held him at an unknown location and questioned him about his daughters’ human rights work and warned them to stop the campaigns on enforced disapperances. Sasui Lohar and Sorath Lohar have also faced legal persecution and false labeling by the state including the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD). On 17 January 2022, an FIR was filed by the SHO in Shashar against the two women human rights defenders together with several other human rights defenders accusing them of being anti-national and acting against the interest of the state. This case has since been closed due to lack of evidence. The CTD has falsely accused Sorath Lohar of receiving foreign funds for her organization, allegations the woman human rights defender denies. The abuse of anti-terror mechanisms and false labeling and legal cases against human rights defenders reflects a common pattern of reprisals in Pakistan, including restrictions on reciept of funds or resources for legitimate human rights work. Front Line Defenders condemns the killing of Hidayat Lohar which we believe is a reprisal against the human rights work carried out by his daughters, Sasui Lohar and Sorath Lohar. Pakistani human rights defenders work in an extremely hostile context and there is evidence of state authorities or state supported groups targeting not only human rights defenders but also their families as a form of punishment and to silence their voices. We call on the Pakistan police and state authorities to ensure an effective and independent inquiry that results in the prosecution of those responsible for the killing of Hidayat Lohar. Front Line Defenders stands in solidarity with Sasui Lohar and Sorah Lohar and call on the Pakistan state to ensure their safety, protection and an end to reprisals against the women human rights defenders and their family.

On Sunday, January 28, Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) workers along with those from PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf) held separate protests at the Liberty Roundabout when the police cracked down upon both groups and arrested more than 50.

PTM had held a protest against the arrest of their party leader, Manzoor Pashteen. Not too far away the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf workers had also gathered for a demonstration regarding their election campaign. It was then that the city police cracked down and eventually arrested six workers of PTM and around 50 workers of PTI.

The PTI had begun the protest on the instructions of their party chief Imran Khan who had given a call to take a countrywide rally at 2 pm on Sunday, upon which PTI workers, including women, reached Liberty Chowk.

On the other hand, PTM Lahore also called a protest against the arrest of Manzoor Pashteen.

But even before these rallies began, a large number of police officers and the special Dolphin force were deployed around Liberty.

The police said that Section 144 had been enforced to maintain the law and order situation in Punjab and the permission of the administration and the police was necessary before any rally or protest.

Advocate Salman Akram Raja, the candidate supported by PTI from Constituency 128, while talking to Voicepk said that PTI was not being allowed to conduct election campaigns. “Our banners, and flags are being taken down every day, police are arresting our people, and we have to fight a legal battle. This behavior towards PTI should stop, as everyone has the right to campaign in the elections.”

Moin Wazir, a member of the PTM Lahore, said that on December 4, Manzoor Pashteen had left to participate in the Baloch protest in Turbat after addressing a sit-in in Chaman when he was abducted by unknown persons after which their supporters came to know that he had been sent to Adiala Jail according to an FIR filed in Islamabad. “When we came to Liberty Lahore to protest against this, the police arrested six of our colleagues,” he said.

When asked about the release of the workers, he said, “The police kept our colleagues locked up till late in the night and with the help of our team of lawyers, they were all released around 3 am.”

With only nine days left for the elections in the country, and with election campaigns in full swing, the imposition of Article 144 allows limited freedom of campaigning to a limited number of people. in an oppressive move by the government, protests, rallies, and meetings have been made subject to the permission of the administration and the police.As there are only nine days left for the elections in the country, and with election campaigns in full swing, in such a situation, Article 144 which has been implemented across Punjab, prohibits gatherings of four or more people, limiting freedom of campaigning to a limited number of people. in an oppressive move by the government, protests, rallies, and meetings have been made subject to the permission of the administration and the police.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism and Women Press Freedom strongly condemns the harassment and intimidation of a Pakistani female journalist Fatima Razzaq by unknown men for reporting the ongoing Baloch women's protest in the country’s capital city, Islamabad, for her platform Lok Sujag. No journalist should be harassed or threatened for doing their work, particularly in a democratic country where the law and Constitution are to be adhered to, as it not only stifles press freedom but also hinders a reporter’s professional duties. We urge the Pakistani government to ensure the safety and security of journalists in the country who report on marginalized people and communities.

Fatima Razzaq, a reporter for the digital platform Lok Sujag, was subjected to harassment and intimidation while she was returning home after covering the ongoing Baloch women's protest in Islamabad. Razzaq was waiting to board a bus at a local bus stand on the evening of December 24, 2023, in Rawalpindi, when she was approached and detained by five unknown individuals, two of whom were reportedly armed. She was encircled and detained for approximately 40 minutes, during which she was asked to surrender her camera and cell phone, which she bravely refused. Razzaq was also subjected to a series of absurd questions and threats warning her against continuing to report on the Baloch women's protest.

Speaking with CFWIJ, Razzaq said when covering the Baloch protests in Islamabad she felt safe and having the camera on her, which she used to film the protest, gave her a sense of confidence, as she knew she won’t be pushed aside while reporting on the ground. But that same camera later on exposed her.

Razzaq emphasized that when the people who intimidate one are unknown, there is no guarantee of what would happen. Subliminal threats, she added, where one is intimidated, harassed, not being told what they’re being targeted for, not quoting any law that one has violated or registering a first information report mentioning any charges are “hard to handle”. Razzaq said something should be devised to tackle the aforementioned tactics and ensure journalists’ protection.

“Speaking truth to power is our job. It is our livelihood and passion, and we will never give it up regardless of whatever you do” — Fatima Razzaq “Speaking truth to power is our job. It is our livelihood and passion, and we will never give it up regardless of whatever you do,” Razzaq tells CFWIJ. “There are many layers of vulnerability that are added here. Being a journalist in Pakistan, but one who covers marginalized groups and issues that the state does not like, and then being a woman covering it and being a young woman journalist.”

Razzaq further maintained that being associated with a digital platform is another layer of vulnerability, as they are not even recognized by press clubs. There is no safeguard for women journalists when they are being subjected to character assassination or harassment of a threatening nature, she said.

“There are a lot of lawyers that could hinder my work as a journalist. That’s something that I would absolutely hate,” she added.

This episode reflects a distressing trend of impeding and threatening journalists as they set out to pursue the truth. The women reporters had been extensively covering the plight of the Baloch women, particularly in the recent days since the community initiated a long march against the enforced disappearances of their people in November.

Last week on December 20, Somiayah Hafeez, a Baloch journalist, was detained by the police late at night while covering the same protest. She was, however, released the next evening after the country’s Supreme Court intervened in the matter of detained women protestors by the federal capital’s police.

The Baloch protests, spearheaded by women against the missing persons of Balochistan, represent a fundamental attempt for the protection of human rights. Like Razzaq, the reporting by Hafeez also highlighted the issues that one of Pakistan’s most marginalized communities are facing. The march against enforced disappearances began from Balochistan’s Turbat city and reached the capital, seeking freedom of the many missing and disappeared Baloch people, who are allegedly “abducted by the state,” which mainly indicates the country’s military.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism and Women Press Freedom stands in solidarity with Fatima Razzaq and all journalists who face threats and intimidation in the line of duty. Fatima Razzaq's ordeal — being encircled and detained by unknown individuals while covering the Baloch women's protest in Islamabad — is not an isolated event but part of a disturbing trend targeting journalists who dare to report on sensitive issues, especially those involving marginalized communities. Her refusal to surrender her reporting equipment in the face of such intimidation is a testament to her bravery and commitment to journalistic integrity. We urge the Pakistani government to take immediate and effective measures to ensure the safety and protection of journalists. It is imperative that a thorough investigation into this incident be conducted and those responsible be held accountable. The failure to do so not only undermines the principles of a free and independent press but also emboldens those who seek to suppress the truth through fear and coercion.

The Government of Pakistan must guarantee the right to peaceful protest across the country, Amnesty International said today as the Baloch Long March protesters were forced to end their month-long sit-in protest in Islamabad following repeated harassment by the authorities.

Hundreds of women in the Baloch Long March journeyed about a thousand miles from Turbat in the southwestern province of Balochistan to the capital city, Islamabad to protest the alleged extrajudicial killing of young Baloch men late last year.

The peaceful protesters, consisting largely of families of victims of enforced disappearances including people as old as 80 and children as young as two years old, had been sleeping in near-freezing temperatures at the sit-in at the National Press Club, Islamabad since 22 December 2023. The Pakistani authorities mounted a campaign of disinformation against them and subjected them to repeated intimidation, arbitrary arrests and detentions.

“The Pakistani authorities should be ashamed of the harassment meted out to the Baloch Long March protestors. This is not the end the Baloch women would have hoped for when undertaking the perilous journey with their children to demand justice for their families. The authorities have been heartlessly indifferent to the plight and demands of the peaceful protestors camped out in the severe cold for the past month,” said Carolyn Horn, Programme Director, Law and Policy at Amnesty International.

The Pakistani authorities should be ashamed of the harassment meted out to the Baloch Long March protestors.

Carolyn Horn, Programme Director, Law and Policy at Amnesty International “The denial of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly have compounded the tremendous social, financial and psychological costs borne by the families of the disappeared. The voices of the people must not be ignored in the run up to the national elections in Pakistan. Human rights must be upheld before, during and after the elections.”

‘Pain and helplessness’ Speaking with Amnesty International, protest organizer Mahrang Baloch said, “The anti-Baloch attitudes of the state, judiciary, media and state-aligned intellectuals have forced us to conclude this phase of our protest. Over the past month, our peaceful protest has been surrounded from all sides by police … (and) we have been subjected to harassment, profiling and threats on a daily basis.”

On 21 January, entry to the ‘International Oppressed Peoples Conference’ organized at the sit-in was denied by police through harassment of attendees and the placement of barbed wire around the area.

Previously, on 2 January, the police had prevented supplies of food, tents and blankets from reaching the sit-in protesters. Electricity to the protest site was also temporarily cut off with protestors complaining of extremely weak mobile signals that prevented them from issuing media updates from the protest site.

The pain of sitting in the cold was better than the pain and helplessness we feel when we go back home.

A protestor “We had to take turns to sleep because blankets were limited. But even then, the pain of sitting in the cold was better than the pain and helplessness we feel when we go back home,” said one of the protestors.

First Information Reports (FIRs) – which initiate criminal proceedings – were filed against protestors from across the country. Amnesty International verified at least 13 such FIRs from Balochistan (Naal, Kohlu, and Hub), Sindh (Karachi, Mirpur Khas and Khairpur), Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Dera Ismail Khan). Protestors have been charged with a wide range of offences, including terrorism, sedition, unlawful assembly, rioting, hate speech, dacoity, unlawful use of loudspeakers and damage to public property.

Detentions and arbitrary arrests On 4 December 2023, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Manzoor Pashteen was attacked by security forces and taken into custody while on his way to the Turbat sit-in. He remains in custody despite having been granted bail three times since then.

At least 20 participants in the march were unlawfully detained on 17 December 2023 in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab. Video evidence reviewed by Amnesty confirmed the use of police batons against peaceful protestors, including women. Similarly, batons were used to disperse protestors as they entered Surab, Balochistan on 10 December 2023, resulting in injuries to several protestors.

On 20 December 2023, when the march reached Islamabad, the police used tear gas, water cannons and batons against protestors entering the city and those at the National Press Club. Amnesty International verified the use of force against peaceful protestors through videos and eyewitness accounts immediately after the incident.

On 21 December 2023, two FIRs were registered against the protestors in Islamabad by police and as a result, more than 300 protestors were indiscriminately arrested including women, children, students, older persons, and a woman journalist. Many of the detainees were not given the opportunity to contact their families or arrange for a lawyer themselves.

‘Abused and traumatized’ Forty-seven women protestors and five children were illegally detained at G-7 Womens’ Police Station, Islamabad for more than 24 hours between 21 and 22 December 2023. During this detention, the police made several attempts to forcibly transport some of these protestors to Quetta. These attempts were thwarted only after interventions from civil society and journalists present at the scene.

Some of the children with us were so traumatized that they could not stop shaking from fear.

A woman detainee Speaking with Amnesty International a woman detainee said, “some of the children with us were so traumatized that they could not stop shaking from fear… Even now when (they see) police, the children are terrified… This fear will stay with them even when they grow up.”

Another woman detainee who had been in custody and subjected to verbal abuse said, “they told us that we were here to get attention and get famous.”

While most of the protestors were subsequently released, the cases filed against them for alleged rioting, unlawful assembly, dacoity, and property damage have not been quashed or withdrawn.

Forced to self-censor

Cases have been registered against journalists, including Masood Ahmed Lehri for covering a rally held on 15 January 2024 in Wadh, Balochistan, in support of the sit-in. Fatima Razzak, a journalist for local media outlet Lok Sujag, was detained and questioned on 24 December 2023. She was asked to turn in her devices to the authorities and threatened with consequences for her reporting of the Baloch protest.

Police conducted a crackdown and detained “at least 20 participants, including women”, who joined the long march against the alleged “extra-judicial killings” by the Counter Terro­rism Depart­ment (CTD) in Turbat, Balochistan, as it entered the city on Sunday.

According to details, the long march of the Baloch Yakjehti Council (BYC), led by Mohammad Asif Laghari and originating from Balochistan, was intercepted by police on Shah Sikander Road in Dera Ghazi Khan city.

The police said that the participants of the march resisted, upon which they detained several men and women and transferred them to the police lines. The women were later released.

ASP City Rehmatullah Durrani told the protesters that Section 144 is in force in the district, prohibiting any procession or rally, a directive the participants refused to obey.

Among the protesters, Shaukat Ali, Asif Leghari, Miraj Leghari, Abdullah Saleh, and ten others have been detained, and legal proceedings have been initiated under Section 144, the police said.

Action will be taken against the violators under Section 144 of the Criminal Code, and this ban will remain in force till Dec 19, said the police.

Earlier, the participants of the long march held a rally in Barkhan, which was attended by a large number of locals to express solidarity with the family of Balaach Mola Bakhsh.

The spokesman for BYC stated that marchers, who had stayed overnight in Kohlu town, departed for Dera Ghazi Khan via Barkhan, the border district of Balochistan with the Punjab province.

The spokesman said that the long march was stopped by a heavy contingent of police in Dera Ghazi Khan. When protestors insisted on entering Dera Ghazi town, where a partial strike was observed, and shops were closed, the police resorted to Baton charge.

He noted that at least 20 participants of the long march, including two women, were taken into custody and shifted to an unknown location.

The BYC leaders condemned the baton charge on the participants of the long march, affirming that they will not abandon their struggle and are determined to reach Islamabad to register their protest against the “extrajudicial killing” of Mr Bakhsh.

Police in Islamabad used force to disperse a protest by Baluchis in the early hours of December 21 after the protesters marched hundreds of kilometers to draw attention to excessive arrests of Baluch men and their mistreatment by police.

The woman who led the march, Mahrang Baloch, said on X, formerly Twitter, that she was taken into custody along with other protesters, while several protesters were reportedly injured by police as the protest was dispersed and people were rounded up and placed into transport vehicles.

The march "is under attack by the Islamabad police," Baloch said on X. "I have been arrested along with several women and men by Islamabad police, but remember fascist state, we will defeat you."

Participants in the march posted videos on X showing people, mainly women, marching and decrying alleged brutal police beatings of their sons.

Before her own arrest, Baloch said many youths had been arrested and many had been injured by tear gas and violence.

"Right now, we are being treated worse than animals. Will the world raise its voice for us against this barbarism?" she said on X.

The protesters reached Islamabad nearly a month after setting off from the Turbat district in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan Province to demand a judicial inquiry into the killing of Balach Maula Bakhsh, who relatives say died in police custody in November.

The killing is just one of the crimes that protesters want authorities to investigate. They also accuse Pakistani security agencies of a string of abductions and extrajudicial killings of Baluch men. The authorities reject the allegations.

The march passed through the provincial capital, Quetta, before heading toward Islamabad.

On 27 November 2023, Pakistan police, accompanied by plainclothes police officers, raided the home of woman human rights defender Hooran Baloch in Quetta, Balochistan. Police forcibly entered the premises where they threatened and filmed Hooran Baloch and her family without consent. At the end of the two hour raid, police arrested Hooran Baloch’s brother-in-law, Ali Nawaz, who was released after being detained for two hours at the Sattellite Town police station in Quetta.

Hooran Baloch is a woman human rights defender and the Research Coordinator of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) based in Balochistan. VBMP, which was established in 2009, is a key organization that supports victims and relatives of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. It documents violations and is a strong advocate for release, redress and accountability. VBMP staff, including Hooran Baloch, have faced reprisals for their work, and are themselves at serious risk of legal and extra-legal violence.

Despite these risks, Hooran Baloch has continued to work in an extremely hostile and militarized context to support victims and their families. The woman human rights defender has supported and encouraged families to file complaints and legal cases for victims of enforced disappearance. Her work is vital in a context where many victims and families are afraid to file complaints and are likely to be unaware of their rights or know or do not know how to seek redress. Hooran Baloch’s support is critical in advocating for the release of prisoners and she has personally intervened to assist families in this process. The state reprisals against Hooran Baloch seek to prevent her from continuing her work, branding her as a terrorist. This amounts to a clear attempt to shut down any advocacy and information flow from Balochistan regarding ongoing violations.

On 27 November 2023, at around 2 pm, a contingent of police officers from the Satellite town Police station, Quetta, together with intelligence officers in plain clothes, forcibly entered the residence of Hooran Baloch in Quetta, Balochistan, where she lives with her family. Police searched the woman human rights defender’s house for around 2 hours at the end of which they arrested Ali Nawaz, the brother-in-law of Hooran Baloch. No reason was provided for the raid or for Ali Nawaz’s detention at the Sattelite police station. During the raid, security forces threatened, harrassed and filmed the woman human rights defender and her family without their consent. Ali Nawaz was released after being detained for two hours the same day.

Hooran Baloch has been threatened in the past in relation to her work. This has included online attacks – hate speech and defamation – as well as intimidation and harassment by police and other security forces. As a result of the raid, Hooran Baloch is deeply concerned for her safety and fears the possibility of further reprisals.

The leader of an ethnic Pashtun rights movement has been detained after addressing a sit-in at Pakistan’s frontier city of Chaman to demand free cross-border movement with Afghanistan, officials said today.

Manzoor Pashteen, chief of the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), was travelling from the border town of Chaman to Turbat in Balochistan province when he was picked up by police yesterday evening.

Pashtuns are a distinct ethnic group with their own language, living mostly in Pakistan and Afghanistan but divided by the colonial-drawn Durand Line that splits the two countries.

“He was detained for making inflammatory speeches and threatening public law and order,” Balochistan’s minister of information Jan Achakzai told AFP.

Achakzai said Pashteen would likely be released later today and was expected to be “expelled from the province”.

Thousands of Pakistani protesters have camped near the Afghan border to demonstrate against new regulations that require cross-border travellers to have passports and visas.

Previously, people crossing by land could pass using only national identification cards.

The new regulations were introduced after Islamabad in October announced plans to expel all Afghans living illegally in Pakistan. So far nearly 400,000 have left voluntarily or have been deported.

Athar Abbas, the deputy commissioner of Chaman, confirmed Pashteen’s arrest, adding authorities had banned all PTM leaders from the province.

Pashteen, a former veterinary student, has rattled the military since 2018 with calls to end alleged abuses by security forces targeting ethnic Pashtuns in the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

His PTM also organises rallies in Balochistan province, where both ethnic Pashtuns and Balochs have long accused the military of abuses.

Pakistan’s Pashtun heartlands were once plagued by violence and militancy, but army operations have dramatically improved security in recent years.

The military maintains a heavy presence there, however, and the PTM has tapped into festering anger over alleged abuses against Pashtuns – including enforced disappearances and targeted killings.

Authorities have repeatedly denied the claims and cracked down on the rights group.

Former MNA and Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement leader Ali Wazir was arrested in Dera Ismail Khan, sources said here on Tuesday.

He was picked when he was coming to Dera from Quetta in a private car.

According to the sources, PTM leader Ali Wazir was arrested near the Darazinda tribal subdivision. He was arrested by the Daraban police.

When contacted, Daraban SHO denied having arrested Mr Wazir.

However, the sources said the former MNA was currently in the custody of Daraban police.

It should be noted that several cases have been registered against Mr Wazir in different police stations, pertaining to making speeches against state institutions and incendiary statements.

Meanwhile, responding to the arrest, PTM chairman Maznoor Ahmad Pashteen said Mr Wazir was in the custody by DI Khan police, but they were denying his arrest.

“There is no FIR registered against Ali Wazir in Dera, and he has also obtained protective bail from the Peshawar High Court in rest of the FIRs registered against him,” he added.

On the evening of September 16, a group of four unidentified individuals arrived at Chaudhry’s Lahore home approaching his son and asking about the journalist’s whereabouts. Learning the journalist was not home, the intruders allegedly assaulted Chaudhry’s son and attempted to break into the residence.

Their preparations were interrupted when a crowd began to assemble in the area, causing the assailants to flee the scene.

Chaudhary, who was previously affiliated with the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) before his dismissal in July 2023, has since reportedly filed a police report concerning the incident. According to reports, Chaudhary suspects the attack was in relation to articles he had published exposing the alleged criminal seizure of land.

In response to the alleged assault, PFUJ members, journalists and media workers held national protests on September 18, calling for authorities to take action against those responsible, and claiming the attack represented an affront to Pakistan’s media community.

In July, Chaudhry was fired from the state-owned PTV hours after asking then-Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb about press freedom concerns at a media conference. Aurangzeb, working under the Shehbaz Sharif government, claimed Chaudhry was never hired on a permanent basis, and was instead informed of an earlier firing coincidentally.

Pakistan authorities must cease harassing journalists Fayaz Zafar and Amjad Ali Sahaab and immediately and impartially investigate Zafar’s detention and allegations that he was abused by police, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On August 30, police arrested Zafar, a reporter for the U.S.-Congress-funded Pashto-language broadcaster Voice of America Deewa and Daily Mashriq newspaper, in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Swat District, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.

Earlier that day, magistrate Irfan Ullah Khan ordered Zafar to be held in preventive detention for 30 days under the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960. The order, which CPJ reviewed, accused him of using social media to spread “fake, offensive and hatred contents to defame and incite the public” against the government and law enforcement agencies.

Zafar said he was taken to Swat police chief Shafiullah Gandapur’s home, where six officers beat him for about 15 minutes with their guns and fists despite his telling them he had a heart condition. The journalist also said police brought his car to Gandapur’s home, damaged its doors and hood with their rifle butts, and held the vehicle until September 5. Zafar said Gandapur pressured him to sign an affidavit that he would stop his critical reporting about the police, but he refused and was taken to jail.

On August 31, Khan issued an order for Zafar to be released from jail, following requests from the District Bar Association and a local tribal assembly, and withdrew the previous day’s detention order. Interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi told CPJ that he asked local authorities to release the journalist and ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to investigate the incident.

In the case of Sahaab, editor of the local Urdu newspaper Daily Azadi Swat and the online blog Lafzuna, police in Swat District’s Mingora city opened an investigation on August 31, accusing the journalist of inciting violence against state institutions via social media and posting criticism of the district administration, according to a report by Radio Mashaal and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.

Sahaab told CPJ that a dozen police officers came to raid his home on August 31 but did not enter because his brother said the journalist was not there and women were inside. Sahaab said he approached a local court on September 1 and secured pre-arrest bail to protect himself from detention in relation to the case until the next hearing on September 9.

The police report, reviewed by CPJ, accused Sahaab of defamation and intentional insult with intent to breach the peace in violation of the penal code, and causing annoyance or intimidation in violation of the The Telegraph Act, 1885.

“Pakistani authorities must swiftly and transparently investigate the arrest of Fayaz Zafar and the abuse he allegedly endured at the hands of the police, and hold the perpetrators to account,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Police must also drop their investigation into Amjad Ali Sahaab and allow both journalists to report on matters of public interest in Swat District without interference.”

Zafar told CPJ that he feared for his life after the detention and beatings and received medical treatment for the injuries caused to his head, back, shoulders, legs, and right hand.

The journalist said he believed that he was targeted for his recent reporting and commentary on social media, including a video, which he said showed a student being abducted near a police station, and photographs, which he said were of militants patrolling in Swat after attacking a police post.

Sahaab also told CPJ that he believed he was being investigated because of his critical work that he posts to social media, including Lafzuna’s YouTube discussions about the alleged failure of local authorities to stop rising militancy and arrests of activists, as well as blogs on insecurity.

Police chief Gandapur told CPJ via messaging app on September 1 that Zafar’s allegations of abuse were “fake” and that the journalist was directly taken to jail following his arrest.

Gandapur did not respond to CPJ’s follow up queries about the investigation into Sahaab. CPJ’s calls and messages to magistrate Khan requesting comment did not receive any replies.

Pakistan authorities must cease harassing journalists Fayaz Zafar and Amjad Ali Sahaab and immediately and impartially investigate Zafar’s detention and allegations that he was abused by police, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On August 30, police arrested Zafar, a reporter for the U.S.-Congress-funded Pashto-language broadcaster Voice of America Deewa and Daily Mashriq newspaper, in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Swat District, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.

Earlier that day, magistrate Irfan Ullah Khan ordered Zafar to be held in preventive detention for 30 days under the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960. The order, which CPJ reviewed, accused him of using social media to spread “fake, offensive and hatred contents to defame and incite the public” against the government and law enforcement agencies.

Zafar said he was taken to Swat police chief Shafiullah Gandapur’s home, where six officers beat him for about 15 minutes with their guns and fists despite his telling them he had a heart condition. The journalist also said police brought his car to Gandapur’s home, damaged its doors and hood with their rifle butts, and held the vehicle until September 5. Zafar said Gandapur pressured him to sign an affidavit that he would stop his critical reporting about the police, but he refused and was taken to jail.

On August 31, Khan issued an order for Zafar to be released from jail, following requests from the District Bar Association and a local tribal assembly, and withdrew the previous day’s detention order. Interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi told CPJ that he asked local authorities to release the journalist and ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to investigate the incident.

In the case of Sahaab, editor of the local Urdu newspaper Daily Azadi Swat and the online blog Lafzuna, police in Swat District’s Mingora city opened an investigation on August 31, accusing the journalist of inciting violence against state institutions via social media and posting criticism of the district administration, according to a report by Radio Mashaal and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.

Sahaab told CPJ that a dozen police officers came to raid his home on August 31 but did not enter because his brother said the journalist was not there and women were inside. Sahaab said he approached a local court on September 1 and secured pre-arrest bail to protect himself from detention in relation to the case until the next hearing on September 9.

The police report, reviewed by CPJ, accused Sahaab of defamation and intentional insult with intent to breach the peace in violation of the penal code, and causing annoyance or intimidation in violation of the The Telegraph Act, 1885.

“Pakistani authorities must swiftly and transparently investigate the arrest of Fayaz Zafar and the abuse he allegedly endured at the hands of the police, and hold the perpetrators to account,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Police must also drop their investigation into Amjad Ali Sahaab and allow both journalists to report on matters of public interest in Swat District without interference.”

Zafar told CPJ that he feared for his life after the detention and beatings and received medical treatment for the injuries caused to his head, back, shoulders, legs, and right hand.

The journalist said he believed that he was targeted for his recent reporting and commentary on social media, including a video, which he said showed a student being abducted near a police station, and photographs, which he said were of militants patrolling in Swat after attacking a police post.

Sahaab also told CPJ that he believed he was being investigated because of his critical work that he posts to social media, including Lafzuna’s YouTube discussions about the alleged failure of local authorities to stop rising militancy and arrests of activists, as well as blogs on insecurity.

Police chief Gandapur told CPJ via messaging app on September 1 that Zafar’s allegations of abuse were “fake” and that the journalist was directly taken to jail following his arrest.

Gandapur did not respond to CPJ’s follow up queries about the investigation into Sahaab. CPJ’s calls and messages to magistrate Khan requesting comment did not receive any replies.

The Islamabad Capital Police on Sunday said that human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and former lawmaker Ali Wazir were arrested “for investigation” hours after the activist posted on social media platform X that unidentified people were breaking into her home.

“Islamabad Capital Police has arrested Ali Wazir and Imaan Mazari,” the police said on X (formerly Twitter). “Both suspects were wanted by the Islamabad Police for investigation. All action will be taken in accordance with law.”

The police did not specify what case they were investigating the human rights lawyer and the lawmaker from South Waziristan in.

It added that the news issued by the public relations department of the Islamabad Capital Police should be accepted as correct. “No one is authorised to give a statement from a police station.”

The development comes after Imaan posted on X in the early hours of Sunday that “unknown persons breaking down my home cameras banging gate jumped over”.

About an hour later, her mother, former PTI leader Shireen Mazari, posted that “policewomen, plainclothes people and r ager (sic) types took my daughter away after breaking down our front door”.

“We asked who they had come for and they just dragged Imaan out. They marched all over the house,” Shireen said. The former human rights minister said her daughter was in her sleeping clothes and asked to change but “they dragged her away”.

“Of course no warrants or any legal procedure. State fascism. Remember we are only two women living in the house. This is an abduction,” she said.

Speaking to the media outside a district and sessions court, Shireen said that officials scaled the gate of her home, beat up her guard and locked him inside his cabin. She said that officials also seized the guard’s phone and his gun, and then broke down their front door.

Shireen said that they then began to bang on her bedroom door. “As soon as we opened the door, they dragged Imaan and took her away. Policewomen were also trying to drag me outside,” she said.

The ex-minister said she then asked the officials whether they were here to arrest both her and Imaan, to which a man in plainclothes gestured to the other to let Shireen go.

Shireen said that officials asked her to point out Imaan’s bedroom as they needed her laptop and phone. “Twenty men went upstairs. They found the room, turned it upside down and seized her laptop and cellphone.”

She said that a policewoman also told her to surrender her own phone which she did. She said that Imaan was willing to go with the police officials but asked to change her clothes. “They said there is no need and dragged her away.”

She said that 20 people entered their home while more officials were standing outside. “There were six female officers that I saw but there was no male wearing the blue uniform of Islamabad Police,” she said.

Imaan, Wazir remanded in two cases Imaan and Wazir were later presented in a district and sessions court on the count of two cases which were heard by Judicial Magistrate Ihtasham Alam Khan.

According to the detailed court order, the investigating officer (IO) requested 10-day physical remand for the two in a terrorism case but the judge ordered that the two be presented before an anti-terrorism court for the request with Imaan kept in a women police station till tomorrow.

In the second case, the detailed court order said the IO requested five-day physical remand for the two but the judge said the court could not grant Imaan’s physical remand.

She was instead sent on 14-day judicial remand with orders to be produced on September 2 while Wazir’s two-day physical remand was granted subject to pre and post-medical examination. The IO was ordered to show concrete progress in the investigation.

FIRs registered under terrorism charges Two first information reports (FIR) were registered against the two on Saturday at the Tarnol police station and Counter-Terrorism Department police station.

The first FIR was registered on the complaint of Tarnol Station House Officer (SHO) Miam Mohammad Imran under Sections 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 395 (punishment for dacoity), 440 (mischief committed after preparation made for causing death or hurt) and 506ii (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The FIR said that the complainant on Friday at 5pm was present with other police officers at Tarnol Phatak chowk to maintain peace and calm during a rally of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). It said that the rally led by PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen, including Wazir and Imaan, began moving from the spot allocated to it in violation of its no-objection certificate.

The SHO said when the police officers attempted to stop the rally from moving towards Islamabad then the rally’s 700-800 participants armed with sticks confronted the officials. He said that upon being stopped after attempting to move towards Islamabad again, the crowd blocked both lanes of GT road by placing containers and staged a demonstration while traffic was completely blocked.

SHO Imran said when the PTM leadership and supporters were asked to open GT road for traffic, the rally participants attacked the police while issuing threats of dire consequences, broke mirrors of official vehicles, forcefully shut down shops and a petrol pump and snatched anti-riot kits from the police.

The second FIR was registered on the complaint of Inspector Mohammad Ashraf under PPC Sections 124A (sedition), 148, 149, 153 (inciting to riot), 153A (promotion of enmity between groups) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and Sections 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) and 11 (power to order forfeiture) of the Anti-Terrorism Act read with Section 21i as well.

The inclusion of 124A (sedition) in the FIR remains a source of confusion as the Lahore High Court (LHC) had in March invalidated the section, which pertains to the crime of sedition or inciting “disaffection” against the government, terming it inconsistent with the Constitution.

The inspector said he was present at Tarnol when a PTM rally of around 900-950 people blocked GT road. He said Pashteen, Imaan and others had spoken against state institutions and their heads in their speeches, attempted to incite rebellion, weaken the army, compel officers to abandon their duties, promote terrorism warned of dire consequences for the judiciary and called on people to engage in civil war and strife.

The FIR specifically pointed out Pashteen and Imaan for attempting to create distance between Pakhtuns and the army and spreading fear in the public by threatening of marching towards Islamabad.

On Friday, up to 3,000 people had attended the protest in Islamabad, where both Imaan and Wazir gave speeches condemning harassment against Pakhtuns and called for missing people to be returned.

“You are being stopped as if you are the terrorists, while the [Pakistani] Taliban have taken over your homes again,” Imaan had told the crowds in a video posted on social media.

A PTM spokesman told AFP that dozens more members were also detained since the protest held in the capital.

The head of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) says several members of the Pakistani human rights group have been detained as they attempted to reach the Supreme Court in Islamabad to demand that the state protects their rights and ensure their security.

PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen said police detained PTM members en route to a protest at Islamabad's Supreme Court on August 18, using road closures and obstacles to try and stop large conveys of protesters headed to the capital.

Despite challenges created by authorities, Pashteen said the PTM activists are continuing their journey and still plan to protest outside of the Supreme Court in Islamabad.

"Road closures, roadblocks, police violence, and attempted arrests. In the midst of all this, PTM youths are resisting and moving forward," Pashteen said noting that some protesters have reached Tarnool, about 18 kilometers from Islamabad.

Pakistan's Pashtun population, the second-largest ethnic group in the country of some 231 million people, has been bolstered by an influx of refugees from neighboring Afghanistan.

The PTM campaigns for the rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million Pashtuns, many of whom live along the border with Afghanistan where the military has conducted campaigns against the Pakistani Taliban..

The PTM has accused Pakistani authorities of systematic discrimination against Pashtuns and say that the ethnic group is discriminated against under the country's constitution.

The PTM has been calling for the removal of military checkpoints in tribal areas and an end to "enforced disappearances," in which suspects are detained by Pakistani security forces without due process.

Thousands of Pakistani Pashtuns have been killed and millions displaced by the Pakistani Army's campaigns since 2003.

Mass protests erupted in 2020 after Sardar Arif Wazir, one of the leaders of the PTM, was assassinated when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his car. Many claimed he was killed by state-backed militants in the South Waziristan tribal district.

In a rising trend of violent attacks against Pakistani media workers, Bannu-based journalist Gohar Wazir was abducted and allegedly electrocuted, while two senior journalists, Irfan Kalhoro and Paryal Dayo, were kidnapped, tortured and sexually assaulted in the Sindh province. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the kidnapping of the three journalists and urge the Pakistani government to apprehend the perpetrators and protect the country’s working journalists.

On April 20, Gohar Wazir, president of Bannu’s National Press Club and a journalist for a privately owned Pashto television channel, was abducted and held in an unknown location for over 30 hours by unidentified assailants. Wazir reported suffering electric shocks during his illegal confinement, with the journalist suspecting that pro-government militants in the area were involved in his kidnapping.

Wazir claimed that his abductors forced him to record a video pledging to cease his criticism of the government and pro-government militants. When he initially refused to comply, he was subject to repeated electric shocks. The journalist attained medical treatment at a local hospital following his release, with police yet to register a First Information Report (FIR) against Wazir’s assailants.

In a separate incident, journalists Irfan Kalhoro, a local news reporter for Dharti, and Paryal Dayo, president of Pano Aqil Press Club, were abducted, tortured, and arrested in the Pano Aqil district of Pakistan’s Sindh province.

On the evening of April 28, Abdullah Chachar, a government employee, along with approximately 15 to 20 armed men, forcefully entered and ransacked Kalhoro’s house, torturing and detaining him. On his release, instead of acting against the perpetrators, police officers at Pano Aqil police station lodged an FIR against Kalhoro and arrested him.

Several journalists, including Paryal Dayo, protested the reporter’s arrest, after which Abdullah Chachar and armed accomplices reportedly abducted Paryal Dayo and his son torturing, robbing and sexually assaulting them.

Local police have since filed two FIRs in connection with the incident, but no arrest has been made. Rasheed a Rizvi, chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Journalists and Other Media Practitioners (CJMP), noted the abduction and torture of the two journalists and called for an expedited probe from the Sindh Home Secretary.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President GM Jamali and Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem strongly condemned the abduction and torture of journalists across Pakistan and demanded law enforcement agencies arrest the culprits, reiterating the importance of providing security to working journalists.

According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2022-2023, 101 media rights violations were recorded over the last year in Pakistan, with 5 journalists killed. The report notes the continued deterioration of media freedom in the country, with the government in 2022 failing to provide any respite.

Pakistan authorities and the leadership and supporters of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party must respect the rights of journalists covering the country’s political unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

Amid protests following the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday, May 9, authorities and supporters of Khan’s PTI party have repeatedly attacked and harassed members of the press, according to a statement by the local press freedom group Pakistan Press Foundation and local journalists who spoke to CPJ. On Thursday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court declared Khan’s arrest illegal and ordered his immediate release.

As of the evening of Friday, May 12, at least one journalist, Imran Riaz Khan, was being held in an unidentified location, his lawyer Mian Ali Ashfaq told CPJ by phone.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has also suspended mobile internet services and restricted access to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter in various areas throughout the country since Tuesday.

“Pakistan authorities must unconditionally release journalist Imran Riaz Khan, investigate all attacks on the media, and restore unrestricted access to internet services and social media platforms throughout the country,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “The Pakistani people have a right to be informed about the ongoing upheaval in their country. The authorities and the opposition political party must respect that right.”

Authorities arrested Imran Riaz Khan, an anchor with the privately owned broadcaster BOL News, in the early hours of Thursday, May 11, at Punjab’s Sialkot Airport, where he was scheduled to travel to Oman, according to news reports and Ashfaq.

In a detention order reviewed by CPJ, the Sialkot police accused the journalist of repeatedly delivering “provocative speech” and requested that he be detained for 30 days due to the “likelihood that he will create unrest [among] the general public and create [a] law & order situation.”

Prior to his arrest, the journalist had published videos on his personal YouTube channel, where he has about 4 million subscribers, demonstrating support for PTI protesters and sharing reports alleging that the former prime minister had been tortured in custody.

Attacks by police

At about 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, police officers attacked Feezan Ashraf, a producer for the privately owned broadcaster Suno TV, and Syed Mustajab Hassan, a producer for the privately owned broadcaster Express News, while they were attempting to cover a raid on the home of a PTI leader in Rawalpindi, according to a statement by the National Press Club in Islamabad, which CPJ reviewed, and the two journalists, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Six police officers confronted Ashraf and Hassan, who introduced themselves as journalists and showed the officers their press identification cards. However, the officers proceeded to kick, slap, and beat the journalists with wooden rods for about 15 minutes, they said, adding that officers also broke their mobile phones and forced Hassan to delete a video he captured of the raid.

Ashraf and Hassan sustained significant lesions throughout their bodies and painful injuries, including to their heads, according to the journalists and photos of their injuries reviewed by CPJ. They received treatment at a local hospital and were prescribed painkillers.

Separately, at around 3 a.m. on Thursday, five police officers detained Aftab Iqbal, an anchor with the privately owned broadcaster Samaa TV, at his farmhouse in Lahore, according to a video by the journalist’s wife, Nasreen Iqbal, and Ashfaq, who is also representing Iqbal.

While entering the home’s premises, officers pushed a security guard to the ground, slapped Iqbal’s assistant, and threatened others at the scene to lie down or be shot, Nasreen Iqbal said in that video, adding that her husband did not resist his arrest.

Iqbal had also published videos on YouTube, where he has 1.6 million followers, that showed his support for PTI protesters and Imran Khan. Iqbal was released on Friday following an order by the Lahore High Court, Ashfaq said.

CPJ called and messaged Lahore Capital City Police Officer Bilal Kamyana and emailed the Punjab police for comment but did not immediately receive any replies.

In the wake of the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9, freedom of expression in Pakistan has suffered significant setbacks as internet shutdowns, attacks and detainment of journalists and media workers have swept the country. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the attacks on media workers and urge the Pakistani government to apprehend the perpetrators to protect working journalists.

In the days following the arrest of Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, authorities have restricted access across the country to social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, with total internet shutdowns experienced in Islamabad and other cities.

On May 9, during ongoing protests against Khan's arrest, Nisar Ali Khan, the chief executive of Chhachh News Network, was pelted with stones by PTI workers in Lahore. Khan suffered injuries across his body, including a gash on his forehead and severe bleeding. Despite further threats from protestors, intervention by journalist Malik Asif stopped any further attacks on the journalist. Khan was taken to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital to receive medical attention with assistance from his colleagues.

In Peshawar, PTI employees attacked a Dawn News team on May 9, targeting and injuring reporter Arfi Hayat and network media workers. The assailants damaged the crew’s cameras and vehicle, breaking one window, and a side mirror, and creating a large crack in the windscreen. The PTI workers similarly vandalised equipment and vehicles from Express News and Khyber News.

The Peshawar offices of national broadcaster Radio Pakistan, the country’s oldest radio station, were vandalised and partially set alight on May 10, with furniture, equipment and vehicles damaged and looted.

Journalist Gohar Wazir was shopping for groceries at a market in northwestern Pakistan when five men forced him into a vehicle at gunpoint.

The abductors blindfolded Wazir and whisked him away to a hideout some 40 minutes away from the city of Bannu. For the next 30 hours, Wazir was kept in a dark bathroom, where he says he was tortured.

“I was whipped incessantly by one person while another filmed the beating,” Wazir told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal. "When they got tired from beating me, they began giving me electric shocks. I was losing consciousness.”

The 40-year-old said the torture only stopped when he agreed to record a video pledging to stop criticizing the powerful Pakistani military and the pro-government militants that are allegedly on its payroll.

Wazir blamed the state-backed militants, locally known as the “good Taliban,” for his April 19 abduction. These militants are mostly former members of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) extremist group, which have been dubbed the “bad Taliban” by the authorities. The TTP has waged a deadly insurgency against Islamabad for years.

Tasked with combating the TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, the state-backed militants have been accused of extortion, kidnappings, and the harassment of activists and journalists in northwestern Pakistan, according to observers.

"They can kill me at any time," said Wazir, adding that the pro-government militants often act with impunity.

'Stop Covering Protests'

Wazir’s abduction and alleged torture have cast a spotlight on the rising number of attacks on journalists in Pakistan, one of the deadliest countries in the world for reporters and media workers.

It is not the first time that Wazir, known for his criticism of the authorities and the various militant groups present in the region, has been targeted for his work.

In 2019, when he worked for the private Khyber News television station, Wazir was briefly detained after covering a meeting of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). The civil organization campaigns for the rights of Pakistan’s estimated 35 million Pashtuns, many of whom live along the border with Afghanistan.Since its emergence in 2018, the PTM has earned the wrath of the authorities by accusing the military of employing state-backed militants to fight the TTP and silence government critics. Locals, who have staged numerous protests over the years, have also accused the army of committing human rights abuses during its military campaigns.

During his 15-year journalism career, Wazir has covered PTM rallies, the military’s deadly offensives in the region, and the activities of state-backed militants.

"I was repeatedly told to stop covering protests where the issue of dismantling pro-government militant groups is always a major demand," said Wazir, referring to one of the key demands of his abductors.

'Dangerous Pattern Of Impunity'

Police in Bannu said they have launched an investigation into Wazir’s abduction and alleged torture.

Global media watchdogs, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ), have called on Pakistan to conduct a swift and impartial investigation.

In the May 2 statement, CPJ's Asia program coordinator, Beh Lih Yi, called on Islamabad to "take serious steps to end a dangerous pattern of impunity related to violence against journalists."

Wazir is the latest journalist in Pakistan to be targeted amid mounting censorship and crackdowns against dissent.

The Freedom Network, an Islamabad-based independent media watchdog, said attacks on journalists in Pakistan rose by more than 60 percent in the past year.

In its annual report released on May 1, the watchdog said that it documented 140 cases of threats and attacks against journalists. At least five journalists were killed, the group said.

"The escalation in violence against journalists is disturbing and demands urgent attention," said Iqbal Khattak, the executive director of Freedom Network.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Syed Fawad Ali Shah, a Pakistani journalist also known as Fawad Shah, who was deported from Malaysia last August despite having refugee status there, and who is now being held in a prison in Peshawar, in northern Pakistan, on unsubstantiated charges.

Shah disappeared after being sent back to Pakistan but the “Where is Syed Fawad Ali Shah?” appeal issued by RSF in January3 bore fruit when he was officially transferred on 8 February to Adiala Jail, the main prison in Rawalpindi, the twin city of the capital, Islamabad. He was moved from there to Peshawar ten days later.

It has emerged that, before his transfer to Adiala Jail, Shah spent five and a half months held incommunicado in one of the cells of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), a counter-espionage agency attached to the interior ministry.

No evidence- RSF has seen a copy of the January 2020 police report, known as a First Information Report (FIR), that accuses Shah of posting “false, frivolous and fake information” online in violation of sections 20 and 24 of the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). Filed by an interior ministry official in Peshawar, the city where Shah is now being held, the FIR also cites sections 186, 500 and 506 of the penal code regarding “defamation” and “intimidation” of officials.

“The First Information Report accusations against Syed Fawad Ali Shah are supported by absolutely no legally valid evidence, which means this journalist should not be in a prison. Furthermore, according to the latest information available to us, his state of health is quite alarming after six months in prison cells. To respect the rule of law and on humanitarian grounds, we urge interior minister Rana Sanaullah Khan to order his immediate and unconditional release and to allow him to leave Pakistan." Daniel Bastard (Head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk)

Shah’s wife, who prefers not to be named, was allowed to visit him in the Peshawar prison on 21 February. “He has become very weak and his whole body was shaking,” she said. “Seeing his condition, he has been tortured a lot. His mental state is very bad.”

Warning to Pakistani journalists based abroad- RSF received no response when it asked the interior minister’s office to provide more information about the First Information Report accusations against Shah and about the conditions in which he is being held.

Shah fled Pakistan in 2011 after being abducted and tortured by members of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan most feared intelligence agency. Pakistan’s counter-espionage agencies had been trying to have him repatriated ever since the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) granted him refugee status in Malaysia in 2014.

RSF has seen a disturbing surge in incidents targeting Pakistani journalists based abroad in recent years. A year ago, a court in London confirmed that Ahmad Waqas Goraya, a Pakistani journalist and blogger based in the Netherlands, had been a target when it convicted Muhammad Gohir Khan, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, of conspiring to murder him.

Abducted and tortured- The body of Balochistan Times editor Sajid Hussain was retrieved from the River Fyris in central Sweden in April 2020. In July 2020, RSF revealed the existence of an internal memo to Pakistan’s intelligence agencies providing a list of journalists based abroad to be kept under surveillance and, if necessary, “approached through proper channels” to get them to refrain from further anti-Pakistan “rhetoric.”

The many cases of journalists being subjected to intimidation, abduction and torture is one of the main reasons why Pakistan is now ranked 157th out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index.

Abid Mir, a human rights activist and journalist from Balochistan, has gone missing from Islamabad.

According to his family, he disappeared after going to an ATM on Wednesday evening. Mir, who is known for his social media activism and his work on human rights in Balochistan, was last seen at the Baloch Aurat March, which took place on Wednesday.

Mir's brother Khalid Mir released a video on Twitter in which he stated that the family is in contact with the police to register a missing-persons FIR. He further stated that Mir had not been involved in any controversial issues lately, and he did not have any specific threat from anybody.

Islamabad police however announced later on Thursday night that Mir had returned home.

In a tweet, the capital police said that the impression of Abid going missing was false and had been created after the journalist lost contact with his family.

The Islamabad police thanked all the citizens and journalists who contacted the force regarding Abid Mir's disappearance.

The disappearance of the Baloch activist has raised grave concerns on social media. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also expressed concern and urged the Islamabad Police to investigate the matter immediately.

Many journalists and social media activists have voiced their concern over Mir’s missing, including journalist Hamid Mir.

Mir worked as a regional editor for Lok Sujag – a multimedia investigative journalism platform that focuses on issues and communities marginalised in the mainstream media and policy discourse.

The disappearance of Abid Mir has brought attention to the increasing number of missing persons cases in Pakistan. Former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has claimed that the number of cases has increased during the tenure of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The disappearance of Abid Mir is a matter of great concern, and it is essential that the authorities take immediate action to ensure his safe return. The media community and human rights organisations are closely monitoring the situation and urging the authorities to act swiftly.

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and seven of its member organisations condemn police violence against peaceful Aurat March protesters in Pakistan on International Women’s Day.

Since 2018, the Aurat March has been organized annually by feminist organisations to bring to attention the socio-political problems and violence faced by women and gender minorities as a result of the country’s patriarchal practices. The Aurat March has continuously faced significant backlash from both State and non-State actors.

“Over the years, Aurat March has become a vital platform for gender rights activism in Pakistan. It has brought attention to the systemic patriarchal discrimination and violence that women and gender minorities in Pakistan continue to face daily. It is a powerful call for equality and justice. We unequivocally support Aurat March’s commitment towards a gender-just Pakistan. We condemn the use of force against peaceful protesters,” said the rights groups.

This year, the Aurat March faced immense challenges. In Lahore, the district administration did not permit organisers to hold the event citing Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 144 is a colonial-era law used to crush dissent that prohibits all sorts of assemblies, including sit-ins, rallies, processions, demonstrations, and protests.

Meanwhile, in Islamabad, the police baton-charged participants. Protesters were also confronted with barbed wires and containers on their march route, alongside a heavy police deployment. Triggered by the ongoing transphobia in the country, as evident in the efforts to undo the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018, police and media personnel questioned transgender people joining the protest. Subsequently, the police also resorted to using lathi (baton), injuring several organisers and participants. Staffers from FORUM-ASIA’s member organization, Forum for Dignity Initiatives, were also injured during the lathi charge.

The Aurat March has been at the receiving end of violence and intense opposition from conservative political parties since its inception. In 2020, petitions to ban the Aurat March were filed before the Lahore High Court. Although the courts ruled such a ban to be unconstitutional, many political groups called the March ‘vulgar’ and threatened protesters. In 2021, protesters from Peshawar were charged with blasphemy for allegedly carrying ‘un-Islamic and obscene’ placards. They also received threats from the extremist group Tehreek-e-Taliban. In 2022, amidst calls to ban the Aurat March, protesters encouraged Pakistan to reimagine legal, economic, and environmental justice, advocating for its alignment with the vision of a feminist future.

We remind the government of Pakistan of its obligations—under Article 16 of the Constitution of Pakistan and as a state party to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights—to uphold people’s right to peaceful protest and assembly. The ability to protest freely intersects with the right to be free from discrimination, including gender discrimination. Pakistan must work towards providing a conducive environment for its citizenry, especially women and gender minorities, for exercising their fundamental freedoms.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rafia Haider has rejected permission to organise the Aurat March on the grounds of security concerns, ‘controversial’ cards and banners supporting women’s rights, and the likelihood of clashes with members of Jamaat-i-Islami’s ‘Haya March’.

Civil society, political parties, and rights organisations condemned the deputy commissioner for rejecting the plea to organise Aurat March on International Women’s Day on March 8.

The Aurat March organizing committee had requested a no objection certificate (NOC) from the district administration to hold a rally on March 8 at Nasser Bagh, Lahore, followed by a march around the perimeter of the park.

However, DC Haider rejected the plea in the wake of threat alerts from security agencies.

“Following the current security scenario, threat alerts, and law and order situation, and in light of activities like controversial cards and banners for awareness of women’s rights and the strong reservation of the general public and religious organizations, especially JI’s women’s and student wings, who had also announced a program against the Aurat March,” said a statement issued by the DC. There is fear of conflict between the two groups, therefore, the NOC may not be issued for the holding of the Aurat March and Convention at Alhamra Hall, The Mall, and Aiwan-i-Iqbal, and a rally from the Lahore Press Club to Charing Cross, and also at a rally at Nasser Bagh, on March 8 to avoid any law and order situation or mishap.

The Aurat March organising committee strongly condemned the DC for rejecting their application to hold the event. “Women, khawaja sara community, transgender persons, gender non-conforming people, and allies of the Aurat March have the right to the assembly under Article 16 of the Constitution of Pakistan,” they said.

They said that the DC denied the NOC under the pressure of the JI’s “Haya March.”

They said the denial to hold Aurat March was against their constitutional right, and the DC did not take action against the group for inciting violence against them.

They said they were denied permission to gather at Nasser Bagh and other avenues, such as the Lahore Press Club, Alhamra, and The Mall. “We do not require an NOC to exercise our constitutional right to march. There is no legitimate “public order” rationale to prevent us from assembling, marching and making our voices heard,” reads the statement.

They added the administration has forgotten that the courts have already upheld their right to hold Aurat March in 2020. “Lahore and Islamabad high courts upheld the march’s constitutional right to speech and assembly and directed the government to grant permission to carry out the march,” the committee said.

They said they would hold the march on March 8 and would not allow anyone to snatch their constitutional right.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also strongly condemned the Lahore district administration for rejecting Aurat March organisers permission to hold a public rally marking International Women’s Day on March 8.

“It is regrettable that their right to peaceful assembly is routinely challenged by the district administration because ‘controversial’ placards and ‘strong reservations’ from the public and religious organisations ostensibly create law-and-order risks. This is a poor defence.”

The HRCP demanded that the caretaker Punjab government uphold the Aurat March’s right to freedom of peaceful assembly and provide the marchers with full security.

One of the committee members, Hiba, told Dawn that the DC allowed the JI to hold a rally to celebrate their “Haya Day” but refused to permit to hold Aurat March.

She said the administration was rejecting their plea discriminatory. “We’ll approach the court to get permission as the march organizers got permission to hold a march in the past too,” she said.

Marvia Malik, Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor for Kohenoor TV, has survived an ambush by two gunmen on return to her Lahore home and previously receiving death threats from unknown individuals. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the attack on Marvia Malik and urge the Pakistani government to expedite investigations into the incident to protect working journalists.

On February 25, a case was registered against unknown assailants for their attack on Marvia Malik, Pakistan's first transgender news anchor. According to a First Information Report launched by the anchor, she was fired upon by two suspects on return to her home from a nearby pharmacy. Malik has since left Lahore to ensure her safety, returning recently for a surgery.

According to her police statement, the television presenter said that she had received threatening phone calls and texts from unknown numbers for her advocacy for the transgender community. She also asserted that her activism was a “major factor” in the attempted killing,

Since 2013, journalists in Pakistan have faced increasing threats, violence and legal repression, with investigations often failing to identify perpetrators. In 2022, 80% of IFJ-documented deaths in Pakistan resulted from gun violence.

In 2018, Malik became Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor at the age of 21, after funding her way through journalism school by working as a make-up artist in the fashion sector. She previously made history by being the first transgender model to walk the runway at the Pakistan Fashion Design Council's annual fashion show.

The PFUJ said: “The PFUJ strongly condemns the armed assault on Marvia Malik and requests the IG Punjab Police arrest and imprison the perpetrators. Violence in this manner is unacceptable, and the offenders should be apprehended and jailed.”

The IFJ said: “Pakistan's government must take appropriate measures to ensure media workers' safety and security, as required by law. Threats of assault, violence and death limit the capacity for journalists to operate without fear. The IFJ condemns the threats and attack against Marvia Malik and urges Pakistani authorities to investigate the incident swiftly and transparently.”

Pakistan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Imran Riaz Khan and cease targeting journalists in retaliation for their commentary on the military, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

In the early hours of Thursday, February 2, officers with Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency arrested Khan, an anchor with the privately owned broadcaster BOL News and host of a YouTube channel with about 3.8 million subscribers, according to news reports.

FIA officers arrested Khan at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport, where he was leaving for the United Arab Emirates, in response to an investigation into alleged hate speech, according to those sources.

The first information report in Khan’s case, a document opening an investigation, was shared on Twitter and shows that the FIA’s cybercrime wing is investigating Khan under the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and the penal code. CPJ has repeatedly documented how the PECA has been used to detain, investigate, and harass journalists in retaliation for their work.

“Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency must immediately release journalist Imran Riaz Khan and drop any investigation in retaliation for his work,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must allow journalists to freely comment on state institutions, including the military. Arresting journalists for their commentary or reporting smacks of a desperate attempt to silence criticism.”

The first information report alleges that Khan engaged in “hate speech” aimed at creating a “rift between the general public and the state institutions” during his speech at a January 30 seminar on violence against journalists in Pakistan, clips of which were shared on social media. In that speech, Khan questioned Qamar Javed Bajwa, a former army general, who said in his final speech before his retirement in November 2022 that the army would remain apolitical in Pakistan.

Authorities accuse Khan of violating sections of the PECA pertaining to electronic forgery, malicious code, and committing an offense in relation to an information system, according to the first information report, which says he is also accused under the penal code of abetment of mutiny, defamation, and public mischief. Abetment of mutiny can carry a punishment of life imprisonment, according to the law.

On January 13, FIA officers arrested journalist Shahid Aslam, alleging he was involved in coverage of the assets of Bajwa and his family. He was released on bail on January 18, news reports said.

CPJ was unable to locate contact details for Bajwa. CPJ emailed the FIA for comment but did not receive any response.

In May 2022, the Islamabad High Court ordered the director of the FIA cybercrime wing to coordinate with the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and other representative bodies prior to initiating punitive action against journalists, according to news reports. The union plans to file a petition in court challenging Khan’s arrest on Friday, BOL News reported.

Police previously detained Khan from July 5 to 9, 2022, after a slew of cases were registered against him, according to CPJ reporting and news reports. On July 14, 2022, authorities ordered Khan off a Dubai-bound flight from the Lahore airport, according to a tweet by the journalist and his lawyer, Mian Ali Ashfaq, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app at the time.

CPJ called Ashfaq and contacted him via messaging app for comment on Khan’s latest arrest but did not immediately receive any replies.

Pakistan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Shahid Aslam and allow the media to freely and independently report on military officials, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On January 13, Federal Investigation Agency officers in Lahore arrested Aslam, a special correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster BOL News, according to news reports and a statement by the Pakistan Press Foundation, a local press freedom group.

Authorities accused Aslam of involvement in a November 19, 2022, article in the independent news website FactFocus that used leaked tax data to report on the assets of former Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and his family, those sources said. FactFocus correspondent Ahmad Noorani told CPJ via messaging app Aslam was not involved in that article.

On Monday, an Islamabad court ordered Aslam to be transferred to jail while he awaits trial, according to Pakistani journalist Umar Cheema, who is familiar with the case and spoke with CPJ via messaging app. CPJ was unable to determine what charges have been filed against Aslam.

“The arrest of reporter Shahid Aslam underscores the dangerous environment for journalists in Pakistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Aslam and respect his right to privacy and the confidentiality of his sources as guaranteed under the country’s journalist safety law.”

During his detention, FIA officers pressured Aslam to disclose the password to his laptop, which he refused, according to those news reports and the Pakistan Press Foundation’s statement.

The country’s Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill, 2021, includes provisions that protect journalists’ right to privacy and the confidentiality of their sources.

CPJ emailed the Federal Investigation Agency for comment, but did not receive any response. CPJ was unable to immediately find contact information for Bajwa.

CPJ has repeatedly documented attacks on Pakistani journalists who have critically covered the country’s military.

The respected lawyer and human rights defender Abdul Latif Afridi was shot and killed inside the Peshawar High Court on Monday. Affectionately known as Lala (meaning elder brother in Pashto), Afridi, 79, was one of Pakistan’s most courageous and outspoken voices for rule of law, democracy, and human rights over several decades.

The alleged gunman, a junior lawyer, was arrested at the scene.

Afridi’s activist career began as a student leader in the 1960s when he was expelled from Peshawar University for denouncing sham elections under the military dictatorship of Gen. Ayub Khan. After becoming an attorney, he represented many victims of enforced disappearances and their families. He was a vocal critic of religious militancy and extremism. He was never intimidated into silence, despite numerous threats to his life and several times suffering imprisonment and torture.

In 2007, he led a lawyers’ protest against then-president Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, and was struck by a police armored personnel carrier, fracturing his leg.

Afridi was a passionate opponent of the Frontiers Crime Regulation, a draconian British colonial-era law governing the former tribal areas of Pakistan that permitted collective punishments and denied defendants basic due process rights, including the right to legal counsel. Thanks in part to his advocacy, the law was repealed in 2018.

He was a former member of the Pakistan’s National Assembly and a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

My introduction to Afridi was through Asma Jahangir and I.A. Rehman, late icons of the human rights movement in Pakistan. What struck me most about Lala was that despite working under great stress, he retained his wit and charm and always found time for the younger generation of human rights activists and lawyers. His loss is a devastating blow for the human rights movement in Pakistan and for all Pakistanis who stand for rule of law, equality, and democracy.

The most fitting tribute to Lala Latif Afridi is to continue his struggle for a tolerant, rights-respecting Pakistan.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a Pakistani businessman’s “unacceptable” threats against a newspaper editor in response to a story implicating him in a prominent corruption scandal, and calls on Pakistan’s government to guarantee the journalist’s safety.

The threats were made in a phone call that Hamza Azhar Salam - the editor of The Pakistan Daily newspaper - received on 9 December, the day after he ran a story implying that, in 2019, property tycoon Malik Riaz helped then Prime Minister Imran Khan cheat the state of millions of dollars. If the story and a tweet about the story were not deleted, “routes, alternate to legal routes” would be used,” Salam was told by a man working for Riaz.

“This type of threat is absolutely unacceptable,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “Regardless of their power and the brutality of the methods they otherwise employ, the business community cannot use threats to block the revelation of matters that are of major interest to the citizens of Pakistan. We call on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government to do whatever is necessary to ensure that Hamza Azhar Salam is protected and to guarantee respect for the rule of law.”

The story published by Salam under his own by-line provided evidence that Farah Gogi, a close friend of then Prime Minister Imran Khan’s wife, flew to Dubai on 29 April 2019 aboard a plane owned by Bahria Town, Riaz’s construction company.

Corruption scandal

The timing of the trip is important because it coincided with the sale in Dubai of a diamond jewellery set that Khan had received from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Khan is said to have sold the jewellery for two million dollars in violation of regulations stipulating that gifts received by government representatives from foreign leaders belong to the state.

The alleged violation has been used by the Election Commission of Pakistan as grounds for banning Khan from running for public office for five years.

“The implication of my story” was that Bahria Town CEO Malik Riaz “actively facilitated an act of corruption by Farah Gogi that ultimately benefited then Prime Minister Imran Khan and his family,” Salam told RSF.

Extensive influence

As well as being threatened, Salam is also being summoned by Riaz to pay 10 billion rupees (more than 40 million euros) in damages. He has tried to resist by legal means but says the property tycoon’s influence extends to many areas of Pakistani society including the judicial system.

“Malik Riaz's family has a history of using armed goons to intimidate people,” he said. “I have been advised to change residence frequently and to limit my contact with the outside world. I’m still trying to lead a normal life, but I live in fear because of the threats from Bahria Town.”

Salam’s fears should be taken seriously as almost all of the murders of journalists in Pakistan in the past 20 years have gone unpunished. Pakistan is ranked 157th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2022 World Press Freedom Index.

After Fact Focus, a Pakistani investigative website was rendered totally or partially inaccessible on 21 November when it reported that the army chief’s family had become extremely rich in recent years, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Pakistan’s civilian authorities to ensure respect for its citizens' right to journalism that serves the public interest.

“This site can't be reached.” That’s the message that Pakistanis have repeatedly encountered when trying to access the Fact Focus site, which was completely blocked on 21 November after it posted its “Bajwa Leaks” story about the extraordinary wealth accumulated by Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa’s family since he became Chief of Army Staff, as the army’s top general is known.

“It is unacceptable in a mature democracy that a perfectly sourced and careful investigative report about an issue of considerable public interest for Pakistanis should be brutally censored in this way,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “We call on information and broadcasting minister Marriyum Aurangzeb to ensure that Fact Focus remains fully accessible to Pakistani citizens and is able to continue publishing its reports with complete freedom. The credibility of the civilian government and the rule of law are at stake.”

The Fact Focus site remained completely inaccessible for more that 20 hours on 21 November. After RSF and other civil society representatives reported the ongoing censorship, it finally became partially accessible again.

“More loyal to the king than the king himself”

Fact Focus editors told RSF that the site’s blocking was carried out by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, a governmental agency, on the orders of the prime minister and the minister of information and broadcasting.

“This is what we were told by our contacts in these offices,” said a senior editor, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is not clear if this was done under pressure from the military or if the government decided to be more loyal to the king than the king himself.”

In this case, the “king” is Gen. Bajwa, whose family has acquired assets worth 12.7 billion rupees (55 million euros), according to the Fact Focus investigation. Since he took over as army chief six years ago, the worth of his wife’s assets alone have gone from zero to 2.2 billion rupees (9.5 million euros), the website said.

Deep state

With this investigation, Fact Focus has put precise and sourced numbers to a reality that many Pakistanis have sensed without knowing it, namely the military establishment’s stranglehold on a commercial empire worth billions of rupees.

A sort of “state within the state,” Pakistan’s armed forces rarely tolerate any form of scrutiny by the media. In an analysis published in July, RSF showed how – beneath the surface of a change in the civilian government in April – the Pakistani military had stepped up its intimidation of journalists who dare to criticise it.

Pakistan is ranked 157th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2022 World Press Freedom Index.

Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen has been booked on charges of treason and terrorism by the Punjab police following his anti-military speech at the Asma Jahangir Conference on Sunday.

A first information report (FIR) registered on the complaint of citizen Naeeem Mirza on Monday stated that Pashteen hurled baseless allegations at the security agencies while his supporters chanted slogans against the institutions during the event held in Lahore at a private hotel.

Denouncing the FIR, the PTM chief said in a tweet, “The voices against oppression cannot be suppressed through FIRs, prisons or propaganda, but the only solution is to give justice”.

‘Ridiculous FIR’

Reacting to the FIR registered against Pashteen, Mohsin Dawar – a member of the National Assembly – wrote on his official Twitter handle: “The FIR filed against Manzoor Pashteen for his speech at the Asma Jahangir Conference is beyond shameful.”

Many others have said far more in recent protests than what Manzoor said in his speech, he added. “The ridiculous FIR should be withdrawn.”

'Unjustified sloganeering'

Earlier today, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the “unjustified sloganeering” against the Pakistan army at the Asma Jahangir Conference held in Lahore, saying it was unfortunate that such forums were being used to target the institutions.

The premier's condemnation has come after some people in the audience started shouting slogans against the army in the presence of key ministers, legal eagles and journalists on Sunday.

The prime minister said that the coalition government and his party are firmly committed to ensuring the freedom of expression of every citizen as per the Constitution but regretted that the conference was used for partisan political interests.

“It is unfortunate that such forums are being used to target state institutions, especially the armed forces, for partisan political interests,” PM Shehbaz said in a statement issued hours before he departed for Saudi Arabia to attend Saudi Future Investment Initiative Summit.

The premier said that the government itself provides the citizens with forums where they can freely express their differing views and opinions on matters of public importance but using a forum like Asma Jahangir Conference for unjustified sloganeering against the army was unfortunate when the “officers and men of armed forces are sacrificing their lives to save the country from internal and external threats”.

Pakistan Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem was hit by an unlicensed vehicle in a targeted attack amid ongoing persecution of journalists in Pakistan. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the PFUJ condemn the attack and urge authorities to hold those responsible to account.

On the night of September 19, Azeem was travelling home from work when a vehicle ran into his car before quickly fleeing the scene. Though Azeem was unharmed, his car was significantly damaged as a result of the crash.

The PFUJ has concluded that the incident was a deliberate attack intended to silence Azeem who has been critical of the government on his live TV talk show. A first information report was filed at the local police station, however, the individuals responsible for the incident remain unknown.

Harassment and attack on Azeem have already been reported in the past. On February 28, 2021, a criminal accusation notice was published against him. Similarly, unknown assailants fired shots at his home on September 16, 2014. The PFUJ believes that these tactics against Azeem are in a bid to silence his critical voice.

PFUJ President, GM Jamali, said: “The PFUJ strongly condemns this targeted accident and warns the government to look into evergrowing incidents threatening journalists which are not only attempts to curtail the right of free speech and expression, but criminal acts”.

IFJ General secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “We strongly condemn the attack against our colleague and well respected journalist Rana Muhammad Azeem. We urge authorities to conduct a due investigation into this attack and hold those responsible accountable.”

Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) calls for the immediate release of Ilyas Samoo, district reporter of daily Awami Awaz, who is also the president of Bandar Press Club.

On August 19, Samo was arrested by the Keti Bandar Police Station in Thatta, ostensibly in charges of carrying an illegal weapon.

However, speaking to PPF, Ilyas Samoo’s brother Latafullah Samoo said that due to Ilyas’s reporting on rain affected areas, the police filed a first information report (FIR) against him.

Latafullah added that when they went to the police station, the police told them that Ilyas had been transferred to another police station. They did not however provide a name of the station.

Awami Awaz Editor Iqbal Mallah told PPF that police arrested him due to his reporting on rain affected areas in Thatta and Keti Bandar, Mallah said. He added that five days ago Samoo received a threatening call from an unknown number and received a text that said: “Stop reporting”.

The text also included some details like: “Due to your reporting, my political career is in danger if you will not stop the reporting you will be arrested’.

Thatta Press Club President Iqbal Jhakro told PPF that Ilyas is paying for reporting about the local issues. “Feudals of the area were not happy with his reporting. He is patriotic and a dedicated journalist,” Jhakro added.

Journalists held a protest on August 21 for the release of Ilyas. A committee of Thatta Press Club also met with SSP Thatta and shared the details.

SSP Thatta Adeel Ahmed Chandio has suspended the responsible Station House Officer (SHO) Aftab Memon who registered the “fake FIR against Ilyas alleging Ilyas to have kept illegal weapons”, Iqbal added.

Ilyas was to be presented in the additional judge court Thatta on August 22.

Mudassir Ghafoor, a member of Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ)’s executive committee told PPF that Samoo was reporting on the flood disaster from his area. Police filed an FIR in reaction to his reporting. He is currently in police remand.

Karachi Union of Journalists issued a condemnation statement and demanded immediate release of Ilyas.

The Council of Pakistani Newspaper Editors (CPNE) has also condemned the incident and called for the immediate release of Samoo.

A Karachi district and sessions court on Monday granted the Islamabad police three-day transitory remand of anchorperson and popular YouTuber Jameel Farooqi after he was arrested for “falsely accusing” the law enforcement agency of physically and sexually assaulting PTI leader Shahbaz Gill.

A first information report (FIR) was registered against the journalist at the Ramna police station.

Farooqui was presented before Judicial Magistrate Ali Sher Chandio by investigation officer (IO) Mian Muhammad Shehbaz today. The official requested the court to grant permission to shift the journalist to Islamabad.

During the hearing, the magistrate examined the case record, including the transit permission from the Sindh home department. He inquired if the suspect had been subjected to torture in custody but Farooqui did not complain of any maltreatment.

Instead, the suspect said that his family had not been informed about his arrest. Subsequently, the court instructed the police to inform Farooqui’s family about the case.

The magistrate also noted that the police record showed that the matter pertained to the Ramna police station where the FIR was lodged but the accused could not be traced and was later apprehended near the Cantonment General Hospital in Karachi.

“In the given situation, the police office’s request seems justified to the extent of granting Farooqui to transit police custody remand; and hence, the accused is remanded to such police custody for three days,” he ruled.

Furthermore, the magistrate directed the IO to produce the journalist before the magistrate concerned according to the law under the intimation to the incumbent court.

But, if the three-day period of the suspect’s remand expires in the meantime before reaching the Islamabad court for whatever justifiable reasons, the police shall seek a fresh remand from the nearest magistrate in surroundings for further proceedings, the court added. Farooqui accuses Islamabad police of torture

Meanwhile, a video shared on PTI’s official Twitter showed the visibly distressed journalist handcuffed, accompanied by an Islamabad police official, at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport.

In the clip, Farooqui alleged that his clothes had been stripped off after which he was beaten up.

“On orders of the home ministry […] just because I am speaking the truth […] they tortured me, removed my clothes and beat me.

“The Islamabad police has obtained my transit remand at the moment to take me from Karachi to Islamabad,” the journalist said, adding that his family and channel were still unaware of his whereabouts. The FIR

Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for Islamabad police in a statement said that a case had been registered against Farooqui at the Ramna police station.

“In his vlog, the suspect falsely accused Islamabad police of sexually and physically assaulting Gill,” the statement said, which was also carried by Radio Pakistan.

The anchorperson’s allegations are a reiteration of the PTI’s claims of Gill being “sexually abused” and “tortured both mentally and physically” by investigators during the ongoing probe against him in a sedition case.

The first information report (FIR) against Farooqui, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was registered on Sunday under Sections 499 (defamation), 500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The complainant, a magistrate, said that he had seen a video circulating in different groups on his phone where Farooqui, in a vlog on his YouTube channel, shared graphic details of the Islamabad police’s alleged torture of the PTI leader.

The complaint said the journalist attempted to discredit the police with false allegations, which was tantamount to obstructing the investigation.

It added that the journalist tried to distract police, create anarchy and provoke the public against officials. Karachi police denies arrest

Zaman Town SHO Zahid Lodhi, however, told Dawn.com that local police had not arrested the YouTuber.

He said an employee of Bol TV, who identified himself as Kamran Minhas, had phoned the police station and said that Farooqui had left the channel’s office in Korangi on Saturday night but had been missing since.

The officer said he told Minhas that Farooqui had not been taken into custody by local police or any team falling under his jurisdiction.

Separately, Bol TV President and Editor-in-chief Nazir Leghari told Dawn.com that Farooqui was associated with the channel and hosted a programme on a regular basis.

“Someone may have had a difference of opinion regarding his views but he has not committed any crime,” Leghari insisted.

He was of the view that the government adopted such “high-handed tactics when their days in power are numbered”.

He asked the media fraternity to raise their voice against this “tyranny”, saying media freedom would be “minimised” if timely action was not taken.

Commenting on Farooqui’s arrest, senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said the government was using coercive tactics to “control” a few media groups. “But the days of cruelty are numbered,” he added.

Bol TV’s Sami Ibrahim said the journalist was arrested “for producing a vlog which was nothing but a political satire”. He said police had arrested Farooqui but his whereabouts were not known. KUJ condemns Farooqui’s ‘disappearance’

Separately, the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) condemned Farooqui’s “arrest and subsequent disappearance” and urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to take notice of the “violation of human rights and vindictive policy against the media persons”.

The KUJ also demanded that Farooqui be presented before the court concerned.

In the statement, KUJ President Shahid Iqbal and General Secretary Fahim Siddiqi said that Islamabad police registered a case against Farooqi at 10:55pm on Sunday, noting that he had been registered in Karachi within a few hours.

“He was arrested when he left his Bol TV office after conducting a programme there at night. He was traveling in a car and was on his way home when unknown persons took him away along with his car and since then his whereabouts [are] not known,” the statement said.

The KUJ believes Farooqi’s vlog is objectionable and contrary to journalistic and moral values but his detention from the way was against the basic human rights and against his right to defend himself, the statement said.

Karachi police on Tuesday briefly detained 18 people, including academic Nida Kirmani, for staging a protest against enforced disappearances of members from the Baloch community in the metropolis.

South Senior Superintendent of Police Asad Raza (Raza) told Dawn.com that the activists had announced that they would take out a rally from Karachi Press Club to Sindh Chief Minister House. He added that female police officers had asked the protesters to disperse as there was a ban on such gatherings on the orders of the home department.

SSP Raza said the police was forced to take action also because of the presence of international cricketers in the vicinity.

It is pertinent to mention that Sri Lanka's women's cricket team is currently in Karachi for a three-match Twenty20 series.

SSP Raza said the 18 individuals ⁠— 10 men and eight females, including Kirmani ⁠— were detained and brought to the Artillery Maidan police station after they tried to advance further. He added that they were later released.

Kirmani also said that she and others were released as there were no charges against them and their cellphones were also returned. However, she said that "information was recorded about everyone, and photos were taken of the Baloch men who were with us."

arachi police on Monday manhandled and detained 28 protesters, including females, who were demonstrating near the main gate of the Sindh Assembly against the alleged abduction of two Baloch students of the University of Karachi (KU) by law enforcement agencies.

The two students of KU’s Philosophy Department — Doda Baloch and Ghamshad Baloch — were allegedly taken away from their home near Maskan Chowrangi in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on June 7 and their whereabouts are unknown since then.

Their relatives and members of civil society organisations had set up a camp outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) for the last four days. On Sunday night, they managed to reach the Sindh Assembly's main gate where they staged a sit-in for the release of the missing students. Police and district administration held talks with them, persuading them to vacate the place as the provincial legislature’s budget session was scheduled to be held on Monday (today).

South-SSP Asad Raza told Dawn that the police detained 19 men and nine women as they tried to enter the assembly building on Monday. The officer denied that protesters were treated roughly. He added that woman police officers had detained female protesters.

The SSP said that all detained protesters were later released.

Meanwhile, the protest organisers accused the police of manhandling women and children. They said the Sindh police had retracted from their promise of arranging a meeting of the missing students’ relatives with Counter Terrorism Department officials on Monday. Therefore, they said, they again staged a sit-in near the Sindh Assembly building where the police manhandled and arrested protesters.

Earlier, around 120-130 relatives and members of different organisations, including activists Seemi Din Baloch, Abdul Wahab Baloch, Aamna Baloch, Naghma Sheikh and others, had resumed their march around 4:50pm from the KPC towards the assembly building where the budget session was ongoing. Passing through Sarwar Shaheed Road, they had staged a sit-in at the assembly's gate.

Speaking to the protesters there, Seemi said that taking away students was equal to the "character assassination" of the educational institutes. She said Doda and Ghamshad were students but they were taken away because "being Baloch was a crime". If they had not been Baloch, they would not have been taken away, she said.

Seemi urged Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab to recover the two students. She announced that the protesters would continue their demonstration outside the assembly till the release of the missing students.

Sheikh alleged that people from the Baloch community were being taken away from Quetta, Panjgur and Karachi. She said if two missing Baloch are released, then in return, "10 others are whisked away".

Meanwhile, footage shared on social media showed the police treating the protesters in a rough manner and dispersing them. 'Barbarism at its peak'

PPP Secretary General Farhatullah Babar criticised the "use of disproportionate force and arrest of women", adding that such treatment was "highly disturbing".

Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari termed the situation as "barbarism at its peak".

MPA Sanaullah Baloch strongly condemned the Sindh police's "heavy-handedness and inhuman act of violence against innocent and peaceful Baloch women and students".

He said the Sindh government should investigate the incident.

Qaumi Awami Tehreek president Ayaz Latif Palijo said that Sindh's land should not be used for violence against the Baloch community.

Pakistan authorities must immediately cease harassing journalist Peer Muhammad Khan Kakar, drop any investigations into his work, and allow him to report freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

On July 7, police in the Loralai district of the southwest Balochistan province arrested Kakar, a correspondent for the privately owned broadcaster Dunya News, according to the journalist’s son Amirullah Kakar, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a statement by the Pakistan Press Foundation, a local press freedom group.

His son said the arrest was in response to an application filed to a local court regarding Kakar’s writing about alleged local government corruption on his personal Facebook page, where he has about 33,000 followers and frequently posts political commentary.

On July 14, the journalist was released on bail on the condition that he appear before a local court if summoned in relation to the case, his son told CPJ.

“The arrest of Pakistani journalist Peer Muhammad Khan Kakar over his social media posts on alleged government corruption is an unacceptable abuse of power,” said CPJ Executive Director Robert Mahoney. “Authorities must immediately cease harassing Kakar, drop any pending investigations brought in retaliation for his commentary, and allow him to pursue his journalistic work without interference.”

In late June, Kakar published multiple Facebook posts alleging that Loralai Deputy Commissioner Ateeq Ur Rehman, a government administrator, had engaged in corruption by using public money for personal gain.

In a defamation notice dated June 28, 2022, which CPJ reviewed, Rehman demanded that Kakar provide proof of his allegations within three days or face criminal action.

Amirullah Kakar told CPJ that the journalist never received the notice, and the family was not aware of it until after Kakar’s arrest. When reached via phone for comment, Rehman said that he sent the notice to the journalist on June 28, and that he stood by the allegations in it.

On July 7, a Loralai court issued an arrest warrant for Kakar after a member of Rehman’s staff filed an application demanding that the journalist be detained under a section of Pakistan’s penal code pertaining to defamation, according to a copy of the application, which CPJ reviewed, and the journalist’s son. That section of the penal code carries prison terms of up to two years an unspecified fine for those convicted of violations.

Amirullah Kakar told CPJ that police have not filed a first information report, a document which opens an official investigation, in the journalist’s case. Those reports are typically required for such cases, the journalist’s son said, adding that he believed Rehman’s involvement made this an exceptional situation.

CPJ contacted Kareem Mandokhel, station house officer of the Loralai police station, for comment via messaging app, but did not receive any reply.

On Friday, veteran journalist and political analyst Ayaz Amir was physically assaulted by masked men in the eastern city of Lahore. He was being driven home after his prime-time program on the mainstream Dunya news channel when his car was intercepted.

The 72-year-old nationally known journalist told reporters that the attackers “unleashed blows to my face and dragged me out of the vehicle” on a busy road near his workplace.

Amir alleged the masked assailants also "tore his clothes” before taking away his and his driver’s cellphones.

There were no claims of responsibility for any of the attacks.

Amir was assaulted a day after he delivered a speech at a crowded seminar in the capital, Islamabad, in which he severely criticized Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and the powerful military’s role in national politics.

A Pakistani court on Monday dismissed a case filed by the Pakistan Army against a prominent human rights activist and lawyer after she allegedly used abusive words against Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, the daughter of former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, had allegedly hurled abusive words against General Bajwa after her mother was arrested from outside her house in a land ownership case last month.

A first information report (FIR) was filed against Mazari-Hazir on May 26 in Islamabad on a complaint filed by Lt Colonel Syed Humayun Iftikhtar, who was representing the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of the General Headquarters (GHQ).

She was booked under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code for inciting people against the armed forces and abetment of the act of insubordination by a soldier by making a "derogatory and hateful" statement on May 21.

Mazari-Hazir challenged the case in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), stating that the "FIR is ill-founded and allegations are absurd".

During the hearing, Mazari-Hazir's lawyer, Advocate Zainab Janjua, said her client had appeared for every interrogation on the court's order. Janjua said she had submitted a detailed reply to police the same day, the Dawn reported.

The counsel further said her client had expressed "regret" over her words and accepted that "what happened should not have happened".

The High Court, after hearing the argument, accepted the petition to dismiss the case against Mazari-Hazir.

During the hearing, the Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that Mazari-Hazir was a respectable officer of the court and should not have uttered the words even under "normal circumstances".

"If the petitioner asks for forgiveness, what is left in the case?" he questioned.

However, the counsel for the JAG branch argued that the word forgiveness was not mentioned even once in the reply submitted by Mazari-Hazir. "If she has to apologise, she should do so in front of the media," he added.

Responding to the crackdown and violent dispersal by police on Tuesday morning against protestors demonstrating against 14-hour long power cuts in Lyari in the city of Karachi, Rimmel Mohydin, Pakistan campaigner at Amnesty International said,

“The authorities in Pakistan must not use unnecessary or excessive force to disperse protesters who take to the streets to voice legitimate grievances against the power shortage crisis as they continue to suffer the consequences of climate change. People need to be protected from the searing temperatures, not baton-charged and tear-gassed by the authorities for exercising their right to protest.”

“Blocking traffic and causing disruption is no justification to disperse a protest or to otherwise suppress the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. The authorities have an obligation to facilitate this right and ensure people are able to express their grievances safely and without fear of reprisals.”

“At a time when Pakistan’s most at risk communities are facing the brunt of heatwaves and unmitigated climate change, authorities must genuinely listen to their demands and take human rights-consistent measures to help them adapt. Their response today is not only deplorable but marks the latest episode in a concerning escalation in the suppression of dissent.”

Background

Pakistan has been facing an acute power shortage during some of the hottest months that the country faces. The people residing in Lyari area of Karachi city have reported 14-hour power cuts, with some semi-urban areas like Jacobabad receiving electricity for only six hours in the day. A water shortage has also been afoot, demonstrating the impact of climate change.

People in Karachi began protests against the lack of water and electricity supplies early evening on 27 June 2022, but according to media reports, the police violently dispersed the protest with the use of batons and teargas when they refused to unblock an arterial road to the port.

Amnesty International has recently published a new briefing setting out how and when batons can be deployed to disperse protestors in accordance with international human rights law, highlighting the guiding principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and accountability.

Pakistan ranks as one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. To learn more about how climate change has impacted one city, please read our report Unliveable for Humans: A Visual Documentation of Life in One of the World’s Hottest Cities.

A Karachi-based social media activist, Arsalan Khan, has reportedly gone missing from the city's Clifton area. His friends claim he was picked up by law enforcement agencies.

However, Senior Superintendent of Police South, Asad Raza, refused any connection with the alleged abduction. He told Dawn.com that the police had not detained the activist. His family has not approached the police yet to lodge any complaint, the officer added.

Later, the activist's wife Ayesha told Dawn.com that she had visited the Clifton police station to register a first information report but officials had refused to do so.

Khan's residence is located in Clifton, which falls in the District South jurisdiction.

Arsalan — known as AK-47 on Twitter — has worked as a journalist for different broadcasters in the past, including Geo News. He has also been active on Twitter and is currently associated with a civil society organisation called Karachi Bachao Tehreek (KBT).

Amnesty International South Asia also issued a statement, expressing concern about his alleged disappearance.

"We are deeply concerned about the abduction of journalist Arsalan Khan from his home in Karachi today at 4am. Pakistan must end this abhorrent practice of punishing dissent by wrenching people away from their loved ones," the statement said.

It noted that the newly formed Inter-Ministerial Committee on Missing Persons must take note of the "jarring disconnect between what they are saying and what is actually happening on the ground."

PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said he saw a video message of Arsalan's wife, adding she was told that her husband "speaks and writes a lot on social media".

"Speaking and writing is not a crime but forcibly abducting and disappearing a citizen is," the senator said.

Senior journalist Hamid Mir also condemned the alleged disappearance of the social media activist, asking whether Arsalan had initiated a trend against any state institution.

Activist Ammar Ali Jan was of the view that countrywide unity was needed to "fight against [the] odious policy of enforced disappearances".

Meanwhile, KBT — an alliance of several political and civil society organisations — also expressed concern about what they called the "abduction" of its activist and announced a protest against his disappearance on Friday evening.

KBT Convener Khurram Nayar told Dawn.com that Arsalan was a volunteer. He claimed that some law enforcement personnel allegedly took the activist away from his apartment in Clifton during the wee hours of Friday.

Nayar alleged that the activist's family also experienced an "unpleasant attitude", claiming the wife was told by men picking up Arsalan that her husband "speaks a lot".

According to the KBT representatives, the whereabouts of the activist were still not known. He said the men who took away Arsalan also allegedly confiscated his laptop and cell phone. KUJ demands immediate recovery of activist

The Karachi Union of Journalists condemned the "arrest" of the social media activist and termed it a serious attack on freedom of expression.

In a statement, KUJ General Secretary Fahim Siddiqi and President Shahid Iqbal also alleged that Arsalan was "detained" by law enforcement agencies. They said law enforcers conducted a raid on his residence in Clifton and took him away.

Quoting a statement from Arsalan’s wife, the KUJ representatives said Arsalan was "arrested" for being a social media activist.

They urged the army chief, the chief justice of Pakistan, the prime minister and the interior minister to take immediate notice of Arsalan’s "illegal detention" and ensure his immediate release.

Multiple media workers were attacked during protests by members of political party Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) on May 25 and 26 in several cities across Pakistan. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the attack on journalists, media workers and media houses and urge the newly formed Pakistani government to apprehend the perpetrators and further protect journalists.

In Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and other cities, numerous journalists, cameramen, and photographers were assaulted during the PTI demonstrations.

In Karachi's Numaish Chowrangi area, Asif Hassan, a 45-year-old photographer for Agence France Presse (AFP), was hit in the head by a stone intended for police officers. He was taken to Aga Khan University Hospital where he received five stitches to treat the wound. Hassan is said to be in a stable condition.

Reporters for Samaa TV were also attacked and harassed while covering the demonstrations in the Numaish Chowrangi area. Protestors abused female journalist, Zamzam Saeed, Yasir Hussain, and cameraperson Imran Khan while they were filming for Samaa TV.

The Samaa TV transmission van was also pelted with stones as the reporting team returned from interviewing PTI Sindh President Ali Zaidi.

In the capital city of Islamabad, several media vans were damaged. Protesters attacked an Aaj News and a Peshawar Neo News DSNG van with sticks and smashed the glass of a Hum News DSNG van. The Geo News office in Islamabad was also attacked with rocks.

A similar incident occurred in Lahore's Liberty Chowk, when the Aaj News DSNG van‘s windows were shattered and the assistant DSNG operator was physically assaulted.

Renowned photojournalist Amjad Hussain was also attacked during the protests.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has strongly condemned the violence against journalists during the PTI protests and the attack on the Geo News office. President GM Jamali and General Secretary Rana Muhammad Azeem have criticised the political party’s leaders and supporters for attacking media houses and staff.

According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2021-2022(SAPFR), Pakistani media practitioners faced several safety related challenges over the last year. These included a continuing spate of physical attacks that resulted in the murder of five journalists, including a citizen journalist; assault on and injuries sustained by at least six journalists; arrest or abduction of at least seven journalists; legal cases or notices faced by at least 15 journalists; attacks or intimidation of at least five media establishments; specific threats against journalists in at least four instances; and several instances of coordinated or violent online harassment and intimidation of journalists and other digital information practitioners, including women.

Pakistan’s first transgender lawyer Nisha Rao sustained injuries after being attacked in Saddar, Karachi by four men.

Trans Pride Society, an NGO founded by Nisha Rao, narrated the incident calling it a ‘heinous crime.’ It said Nisha was attacked during a visit to members of the transgender community in Saddar by four men on two motorbikes as she got off a rickshaw to walk towards her friend’s apartment.

It said the aggressors beat and stole her belongings. One man used a ring to pierce Nisha’s scalp while his accomplices stole her handbag and mobile phone.

Nisha is a strong advocate for the transgender community and spends her time working as a lawyer in the City Court of Karachi where she fights for the rights of transgenders, in addition to attending Karachi University where she is receiving her Masters of Law degree.

“Serving and empowering the transgender community is Nisha’s biggest determination in life and it is crimes like these that make her fear the fragmented society we live in,” the statement said. It cannot be known whether it was a targeted attack and the identity of the perpetrators remains unknown.

The trans community and lawyers have demanded police take immediate action and arrest the culprits. In April 2021, five transgender persons were killed and eight sustained injuries in separate attacks.

Nisha Rao is Pakistan’s first trangender lawyer to be accepted into an MPhil programme to study law at Karachi University.

Attacks against Pakistani media workers continue to escalate, with senior journalist, Zia-Ur-Rehman Farooqi fatally attacked by ‘land-grabbers’ in the Punjab province, and veteran journalist Khawar Mughal tortured by members of the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) political party at a public meeting in Lahore. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the attacks and urge the newly formed Pakistani government to apprehend the perpetrators and implement security mechanisms to better protect journalists in Pakistan.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) filed on March 24 at Kuhna Police Station Khanewal, several assailants stopped and threatened a car carrying media reporters, including Zia-Ur-Rehman Farooqi, a correspondent for 7 News in the Khanewal district of Punjab.

Armed individuals opened fire on the journalists, hitting Zia-Ur-Rehman in the head. The other journalists in the car managed to escape unharmed, while the assailants fled the scene. Zia-Ur-Rehman was brought to the District Head Quarter Hospital in Khanewal, before being shifted to Nishtar Hospital Multan for further treatment. The journalist died of his injuries on April 28.

Zia-Ur-Rehman was allegedly attacked for his critical reporting of land grabbing schemes in the area, with the FIR lodged under Section 7 of Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act and the country’s penal code.

In another incident, renowned journalist Khawar Mughal, of 92 News, was tortured during a public gathering in Lahore by members of the PTI political party. An FIR was lodged at Lari Addah Lahore police station against Mughal’s assailants, who tortured him before stealing his media firm logo and breaking his microphone and camera.

At PTI public events in Islamabad and Karachi, journalists were tortured and female journalists, including Zamzam Saeed of Samaa TV, were the subject of targeted harassment.

Gharida Farooqi, a distinguished journalist and anchorperson, was harassed by PTI members on social media and through online assaults, cyberbullying, character assassination, and threats of death and rape.

"I've reported to the FIA regarding rude, harassing, disparaging banners against me held at Lahore Public meeting and put up on social media," Farooqi told the IFJ. “From now on, there will be no tolerance. Anyone who spreads false information about me will now be reported to the FIA. I expect the FIA to take speedy action against all of the perpetrators."

The PFUJ strongly condemned the armed attack on journalist Zia-Ur-Rehman Farooqi and asked that Punjab Police arrest and detain the offenders. Rana Muhammad Azeem, PFUJ Secretary General, demanded the perpetrators be arrested, or else a nationwide demonstration would be called.

Pakistan authorities must conduct a swift and impartial investigation into the police assault of journalist Jahangir Hayat, as well as the detention of Hayat and his family, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On May 1, police officers in the Icchra area of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, assaulted and detained Hayat, a chief reporter for the privately owned daily newspaper Daily Business, according to a report by his outlet, video of the incident shared on social media, and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Police also detained Hayat’s wife and seven-year-old daughter, and released the family after about 45 minutes, according to those sources.

Hayat told CPJ that he believes the assault and detention were acts of retaliation for his work as a journalist, including his reporting on crime and alleged police malfeasance, which CPJ reviewed.

“Punjab police officers’ assault and detention of Jahangir Hayat, as well as their detention and harassment of his family, underscores the significant dangers that Pakistani journalists face for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Authorities must conduct an immediate and impartial investigation into this incident, hold the perpetrators accountable, and demonstrate that such attacks will not continue with impunity.”

Hayat and his family were walking to their motorcycle when the journalist noticed that speedometer of his motorcycle had broken; he approached a police van nearby for help because he thought it had been vandalized, he said.

Hayat told CPJ that he showed the officers his press card as a form of identification, and the officers then recognized him, cursed at him, and one officer, whom Hayat identified as the station house officer of the Icchra Police Station, said he would “get rid of his journalism.”

Icchra Police Deputy Superintendent Zakaria Yusuf then arrived at the scene and ordered the officers to detain the journalist, Hayat told CPJ, saying the officers hit him in the ribs with their pistols, grabbed his neck, and threw him into a police vehicle, and escorted his wife and daughter into the vehicle as well.

The officers held the family in that vehicle for about 45 minutes and then brought them to the Icchra Police Station, where authorities released them without charge after a group of journalists gathered at the station’s gate, Hayat said.

The journalist sustained injuries to his ribs and neck from the attack, for which he took painkillers, he said, adding that his daughter was traumatized from the incident.

On May 9, Hayat registered complaints with the offices of Lahore Capital City Police Officer Bilal Kamyana, Senior Superintendent of the Lahore Police Operations Mustansar Feroze, and Inspector-General of the Punjab Police Sardar Ali Khan, the journalist said, adding that no action had been taken against the officers involved in his detention and assault.

Following publication of this article, Feroze told CPJ via messaging app that police had opened an inquiry into the incident, and would make its findings public upon its conclusion.

CPJ was unable to identify contact details for Yusuf. Kamyana and Khan did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.

On Sunday, March 27, a group of around 10 men assaulted Rana, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Daily Ausaf, in the Bhakkar district in the northeast Punjab province, according to a bystander’s video of the incident; a statement by the National Press Club in Islamabad, Pakistan; a statement by the Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists, and Rana, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

Rana told CPJ that on March 22, he published a report, which he has since deleted, on his Facebook page – which has around 35,000 followers– alleging that relatives and political associates of Ameer Muhammad Khan, a member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) for the ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Punjab province, were engaging in criminal activities. Rana said that in response to his report, police raided the home of one of Khan’s close political associates, who is also a member of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

On March 27, Rana was shopping in a local store when a group of 10 of Khan’s relatives and political associates pulled him onto the street and held him by his wrists, repeatedly whipping him with ropes, and pouring a chemical usually used for painting on his eyes and ears, the journalist told CPJ. Rana said he lost consciousness five minutes into the attack, and the attackers then left the scene.

On the day of the attack, police registered a first information report, which opens an investigation, against 10 individuals, six of whom are named, at the local Kallur Kot police station, according to a copy of the report reviewed by CPJ.

“Police must launch an immediate investigation into the assault against journalist Zahid Shareef Rana and not allow any possible political pressure to derail it,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities need to put an end to Pakistan’s long record of impunity for crimes against journalists, including beatings, disappearances and murder. With the attack on Rana caught on video, police can offer no excuse for a failed investigation.”

Rana said he received medical treatment at a local hospital following the attack, adding that he sustained lesions all over his body and has lost hearing from the chemical poured into his right ear.

Rana told CPJ that he was previously targeted on January 5 after conducting a live interview with an opposition politician with the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party, who accused Khan of corruption and abuse of power.

Rana said that about an hour after the interview aired, a car repeatedly attempted to ram into the vehicle he was traveling in, hitting the back twice before his friend managed to drive away. Rana, who documented the incident on his Facebook page at the time, said the car’s license plate was publicly registered to Khan’s first cousin.

The same day, police at the Kallur Kot station registered a first information report about the incident, Rana said, adding that the perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice.

CPJ emailed the office of MPA Khan and the Bhakkar district police office but did not immediately receive any replies.

Pakistan authorities must investigate the recent abuse of an ARY News crew by intelligence officials and ensure those responsible are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On Tuesday, at the Karachi office of the Intelligence Bureau, the country’s civilian domestic intelligence body, IB officers held ARY News host Syed Iqrarul Hassan and his reporting team at gunpoint, forced them to strip naked, and beat and electrocuted them, according to Hassan’s account of the incident given to ARY News, a video interview with the journalist at a hospital posted to Twitter by ARY TV host Waseem Badari, and news reports.

The news crew was at the Intelligence Bureau to report on an official who allegedly accepted a bribe, when a group of agents detained the team for about three hours, during which they beat them and electrocuted some of the journalists on “sensitive” parts of their bodies, according to those reports.

Following the incident, Intelligence Bureau Deputy Director-General Iftikhar Nabi Tunio ordered the suspension of five IB officials “for mistreatment of ARY News Team and mishandling the situation,” according to those reports and a copy of the order posted to Twitter.

“Pakistan’s Intelligence Bureau took a useful first step by suspending the officials allegedly responsible for beating and abusing ARY News host Syed Igrarul Hassan and his crew,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The next, and more important step is for the agency to break Pakistan’s terrible record of impunity in crimes against journalists by investigating and punishing those responsible for this attack. Pakistani officials need to know that crimes against journalists will no longer be tolerated.”

Hassan required multiple stiches to his head and suffered a dislocated shoulder, he told his employer. CPJ was unable to immediately identify the other members of Hassan’s ARY News team. CPJ called and texted Hassan, but he did not immediately respond.

Hassan hosts the Sar-e-Aam show, an investigative crime program that conducts sting operations, according to those news reports.

CPJ was unable to find contact information for the Intelligence Bureau, which reports to the prime minister’s office. CPJ emailed the prime minister’s office seeking comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.

Police arrested a prominent Pakistani journalist and government critic at his home on unspecified charges on Wednesday, his colleagues and local media said.

Mohsin Baig, editor for the news outlet Online, had just days earlier suggested on a TV talk show that Prime Minister Imran Khan had showed favoritism by granting an award to a government minister with whom he has a close friendship.

Khan had ranked Minister for Communication Murad Saeed as the top performer among his Cabinet. Saeed lodged a complaint against Baig to federal authorities following the comments, according to the information ministry.

Baig's family told reporters that police and officials from a federal investigation agency raided his house in the capital, Islamabad, Wednesday morning and took him away without giving any reason for the arrest.

Baig's arrest drew condemnation from Pakistani journalists on social media. Witnesses say police were still present at Baig's home, although no other details were immediately available.

The government gave no immediate comment.

Pakistan has long been an unsafe country for journalists. In 2020, it ranked ninth on the Committee to Protect Journalists' annual Global Impunity Index, which assesses countries where journalists are regularly killed and the assailants go free.

Lawyers on Saturday boycotted legal proceedings at the City Courts in protest over a Rangers’ raid on the house of senior lawyer Qadir Khan and “abduction” of his son, who was later shown arrested by police but discharged by a court in a drugs case.

The lawyers did not turn up before judges to plead their cases fixed for the day. Subsequently, a large number of the cases were simply adjourned while the litigants faced a great deal of difficulties.

In a statement, Karachi Bar Association (KBA) general secretary Naeem Memon said the legal fraternity did not attend court proceedings over this incident.

Advocate Qadir Khan’s house was raided and his son, Asad Khan, was taken into custody by Rangers on Jan 6, he said.

Advocate Khan has been representing several members of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), including MNA Ali Wazir, in criminal cases being tried by antiterrorism courts in Karachi.

Later, the Brigade police produced the son of Advocate Khan before Judicial Magistrate Wazir Memon for his remand in a drugs case.

The investigating officer claimed that around 24 grams of heroin was recovered from his possession.

However, a number of the lawyers reached the court and opposed the IO’s request for remand, arguing that he was booked in a false case.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the magistrate discharged the suspect from the case under Section 63 (Discharge of person apprehended) of the criminal procedure code.

Dawn tried to contact a spokesperson for the Rangers for his version but in vain.

Prominent human rights activist Idris Khattak spent years campaigning against enforced disappearances in Pakistan, where critics say the practice has been used by authorities to stifle dissent.

But the 58-year-old himself became the victim of an enforced disappearance in 2019 when Pakistani intelligence agents bundled him into a car in broad daylight and whisked him away to an unknown location.

For seven months, Khattak’s family had no idea where he was or why he was taken. Then, in a rare admission of an enforced disappearance, Pakistan’s powerful military confirmed he was in custody and had been charged with treason.

Now, following a secret trial, a military court has convicted Khattak of espionage and leaking sensitive information to a foreign intelligence agency, sentencing him to 14 years in prison, his family and lawyer say. His whereabouts are still unknown.Authorities have not made the December 4 verdict public, leaving Khattak’s family in the dark over the exact status of his case and conviction.

“First they took my father and then they disappeared him,” Talia Khattak, the 21-year-old daughter of the rights defender, told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal. “Now they have found him guilty but haven’t said what evidence they have against him.”

She added that the family had not been notified of Khattak’s trial. His conviction was disclosed by a liaison army officer during a hasty phone call, she said.

“Without offering any details, they told me that my dad was found guilty of espionage,” she said, adding that she also did not receive any information from her father’s lawyer.

“We are very worried,” she added. “Fourteen years in prison means that my father would be 72 years old when he completes his sentence, if he stays healthy. He is diabetic and needs regular medical attention.”Khalid Afridi, Khattak’s lawyer, told Radio Mashaal that he was also not notified of Khattak's trial or sentencing. He said he found out through “informal means.”

“We are going to file a petition against the verdict,” Afridi said, adding that he would appeal to a higher military court and, if that failed, take the case to the Supreme Court.

Khattak was tried by a military court behind closed doors even though he is a civilian. Attempts by Khattak’s lawyer to have the trial take place in a civilian court have twice been rejected.

Rights groups have condemned the secrecy surrounding Khattak’s case and conviction, saying it violates the activist’s right to a fair trial and prevents his family and lawyer from planning any legal recourse.

Rights activists suggest Khattak was arrested because he spoke out against the arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances committed by the military, which has an oversized role in domestic and foreign affairs.

Criticism of the army has long been seen as a red line, with activists and journalists complaining of intimidation tactics including kidnappings, beatings, and even killings if they cross that line.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing, did not respond to calls from Radio Mashaal seeking comment.

‘Baseless’ Charges

Khattak spent years compiling a list of the victims of enforced disappearances in the tribal belt in northwestern Pakistan, home to the country’s largest ethnic minority, the Pashtuns. Khattak himself is a Pashtun.

A former militant stronghold, the restive area has been the scene of brutal military offensives and terrorist attacks that have killed thousands of civilians and uprooted millions more since 2003. Khattak had also campaigned against the army’s alleged abuses in the southwestern province of Balochistan, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings of political activists and suspected separatists, arbitrary arrests, and torture.

A former consultant with Amnesty International, Khattak was traveling from the capital, Islamabad, to his hometown of Nowshera when his car was intercepted by intelligence agents in November 2019.

After a monthslong legal battle and a social media campaign by his family, Pakistan’s Defense Ministry admitted in June 2020 that Khattak was in the custody of the Military Intelligence, a spy service.

The ministry said Khattak was being charged with treason under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), a law that criminalizes espionage and the disclosure of government secrets. Rights groups say the colonial-era legislation has been used to suppress free speech.

The OSA also gives military courts jurisdiction to try civilians for some offences, including espionage.

The conviction against Khattak is believed to stem from a meeting with Michael Semple in July 2009, more than 10 years before his enforced disappearance.

A court order described Semple as an agent for Britain’s MI6 intelligence service. At the time of the meetings, Semple was a fellow at Harvard University and had been a high-ranking United Nations and European Union official in neighboring Afghanistan.

Khattak was convicted of providing information to Semple about Pakistani military operations in the country’s tribal areas.

He was expelled by the Afghan government for "unauthorized activity” in 2008. Semple is currently a professor at Queen's University in Belfast.

Yameema Mitha, Semple’s Pakistan-born wife, has denied that her husband was an MI6 agent, saying the allegations were “fictitious.” Semple himself has not publicly commented on the allegations.

“This is baseless,” Talia Khattak told Radio Mashaal. “At the time my father disappeared, he was researching civilian casualties from Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas. He had also interviewed family members of victims of enforced disappearances.”

During Khattak’s two-year detention, his daughter has been allowed to meet with him only three times.

“Our meetings were only brief,” said Talia Khattak, who is a university student. “We weren’t allowed to speak in Pashto, our native language, during our meetings. We were also not allowed to speak about the case. Papa always tried to stay strong and asked me to focus on my studies.”

‘Shameful Two-year Process’

Rights groups have condemned Khattak’s secret trial and conviction.

“Khattak’s conviction under these circumstances is the culmination of a series of egregious abuses that began with his abduction, seven-month enforced disappearance, and subsequent secret trial that violated due process and fair trial standards,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on December 6. The rights group called on Pakistani authorities to “quash the verdict and sentence against Khattak,” and instead conduct his trial in a civilian court, if there was “any credible evidence that a crime has been committed.”

In a statement issued on December 4, Amnesty International said that, if confirmed, Khattak’s conviction will be the “culmination of a shameful two-year process that has been unjust from start to finish.”

The rights group said that “enforced disappearance has been used as a tool to muzzle dissent and criticism of military policies.” The individuals and groups targeted in enforced disappearances include members of ethnic minorities, political activists, and human rights defenders.

In 2011, the Pakistani government created a commission to document and investigate cases of enforced disappearances. The commission has since received complaints in over 8,000 cases, of which around 2,200 remain unresolved. But the body has been criticized for failing to “address entrenched impunity.”Last month, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament passed a bill that, for the first time, defined and criminalized the practice of enforced disappearances. But rights groups have criticized the proposed law and said it would not do enough to hold perpetrators to justice.

Rights groups have described the heavy toll on the families of the disappeared and their difficulties in obtaining information about their detained relatives.

Talia Khattak said despite the immense pain the ordeal has inflicted on her family, they will not give up their fight to secure her father’s freedom.

“I will knock every door and use all legal options to release him,” she said.

The government of the Pakistan-administered portion of the disputed region of Kashmir has barred entry to the leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), an organization that campaigns for Pashtuns in the South Asian country.

A notification issued on December 22 said that PTM head Manzoor Pashteen would be barred from entry and from speaking at public events for three months.

The PTM campaigns against violations of human rights and seeks to locate missing persons who are believed to have been detained by the Pakistani intelligence agencies.

In December 2020, the government of Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan also banned Pashteen from entry. In March, the authorities expelled him from the province after he attended a condolence ceremony for slain political leader Asad Khan Achakzai.

Some 35 million ethnic Pashtuns live in Pakistan, many near the border with Afghanistan where the military has conducted campaigns against the Pakistani Taliban.

Thousands of Pakistani Pashtuns have been killed and millions displaced by the Pakistani Army’s campaigns since 2003.

Kashmir is a disputed Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan, each of which administers part of it. The two countries have fought two wars over Kashmir, and a UN-negotiated cease-fire has been in effect since 1965.

On January 7, the Islamabad High Court will frame contempt charges against The News International’s owner, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, and two of its staff, Aamir Ghauri and Ansar Abbasi, for publishing an affidavit accusing Pakistan’s former Chief Justice, Saqib Nisar, of corruption. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned by the court's decision to commence punitive proceedings against journalists and calls for the annulment of all charges.

Senior journalist with The News International, Ansar Abbasi, published a report on November 15 last year containing an affidavit accusing former Chief Justice, Mian Saqib Nisar, of misconduct while in office. The affidavit was prepared by the former Chief Justice of Gilgit-Baltistan, Rana Shamim, and alleged that Nisar conspired to deny bail to several leaders of the PML-N opposition leadership before the 2018 elections.

On December 28, the Islamabad High Court moved to frame contempt charges against Abbasi and Ghauri, with the case slated to continue on January 7. If successful, the charges would effectively punish journalists for conducting their professional duties, seriously jeopardising the future of reporting and the media’s freedom of expression in Pakistan. Owner of Jang Geo Media Group, which oversees The News International, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was also implicated in the proceedings. Renowned for its critical investigations of Pakistani politicians, Jang Geo Media Group is one of Pakistan’s largest media groups. Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman has previously served eight months in prison in 2020 for a decades-old property deal.

Before publishing the article, Abbasi verified that the affidavit was genuine, and was prepared by Shamim. Abbasi said in court that he only intended to report the existence of an affidavit, not about the veracity of the facts narrated in it.

Pakistan's press clubs' and journalist bodies have expressed great concern for journalists and editors targeted for reporting which is critical of authorities. According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, Pakistani media workers suffered under the harshest clampdown on dissent by any government during 2020 and 2021.

On November 24, unknown assailants targeted female journalist, Ambreen Fatima, attacking her as she drove with family in the eastern city of Lahore. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemn the attack on Ambreen Fatima and call on the Pakistani government to immediately arrest the perpetrators and develop a security mechanism to ensure the safety of journalists in Pakistan. According to the first-information report (FIR), Ambreen Fatima, a senior journalist with Urdu-language newspaper Nawa-I-Waqt, along with her daughter and sister, left their home in a car and were attacked on an adjoining street. The unknown aggressors reportedly broke the car’s front windshield with an iron bar and hurled death threats at Fatima and her family before fleeing.

The incident comes days after Fatima’s husband, Ahmad Noorani, published an explosive story with Fact Focus on the controversies surrounding former chief justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar. Noorani is an investigative journalist in self-exile in the U.S. after he was assaulted in Islamabad in 2017. He is known for reporting critically on Pakistan’s administration.

The IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, found that several key safety-related challenges adversely affected journalists and media workers in Pakistan. Compared to other South Asia countries, Pakistan had the highest number of journalist killings through the report’s monitoring period and the second-highest number of non-fatal attacks on journalists.

Pakistan's top court has granted bail to a lawmaker from the restive tribal belt who was arrested nearly a year ago on sedition charges he denies.

A Supreme Court three-judge bench in Islamabad ruled that Ali Wazir could be released from prison on a 400,000-rupee ($2,083) bond, his lawyer told RFE/RL on November 30, after a lower court in Sindh Province had rejected his bail application.

However, lawyer Salahuddin Gandapur said that Wazir would not be released pending a ruling on another bail plea in a separate case.

Wazir, who is also a leader of the civil rights Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), was arrested on December 16, 2020, and charged with making an "anti-state speech" during an unsanctioned rally in Karachi earlier that month in which he criticized the country's powerful military.

Another case was filed against him for allegedly inciting people against the state during a PTM meeting in May 2018. He denies both accusations.

Qadir Khan, who is representing Wazir at the anti-terrorism court in Karachi where the case is pending, told RFE/RL that he will now file a bail application in that case.

The PTM has campaigned since 2018 for the rights of Pakistan's estimated 35 million ethnic Pashtuns, many of whom live near the border with Afghanistan, where the military has conducted campaigns against militants. The group has attracted tens of thousands of people to public rallies in recent years to denounce the army's heavy-handed tactics, which have killed thousands of Pashtun civilians and forced millions more to abandon their homes since 2003. International rights groups say the authorities have banned peaceful rallies organized by the PTM and some of its leading members have been arbitrarily detained and prevented from traveling within the country. Some members have also faced charges of sedition and cybercrimes.

Muhammad Zada Agra was shot dead in Sakhakot by two unidentified gunmen on November 8, days after he spoke out against alleged corruption and drug syndicates in the region. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) strongly condemn Muhammad Zada Agra’s assassination and call on the Pakistani government to immediately arrest the perpetrators and to create proper security mechanisms to ensure safety for reporters in Pakistan. Muhammad Zada Agra was gunned down outside his home in Sakhakot, a day after Pakistan’s national assembly passed the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill, 2021. Agra was reportedly running a social media campaign against drug cartels and other criminals in the region before his death. He allegedly informed authorities about the threats to his life but was offered no protection.

According to a video circulating on social media, Agra recently participated in a meeting with the deputy commissioner of Malakand, where he spoke against the drug mafia and exposed their activities in his region.

After Agra’s murder, protestors gathered in Sakhakot and staged a sit-in on a major road with his coffin, chanting against local authorities. Following this unrest, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government suspended the deputy and assistant commissioners of the region.

According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, the continuing spate of physical attacks is chief among the safety concerns for Pakistani journalists and media workers. Agra’s killing comes days after the brutal murder of outspoken Pakistani blogger, Nasim Jokhio, sparking concern for journalists and media workers’ safety despite legislative developments to ensure their protection.

On November 3, Nazim Jokhio’s body was found at the farmhouse of a ُPakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker in Malir, after publishing a video of a foreign guest poaching an endangered species. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) strongly condemn the brutal murder of Nazim Jokhio and demand that the Pakistan government administer justice.

On November 2, Jokhio was abducted from his home and taken to the farmhouse of Jam Awais, a member of the provincial assembly (MPA) of the ruling party, sources told the IFJ. According to a local police officer, Khalid Abbasi, Jokhio’s tortured body was found at the property on November 3. Awais was arrested by authorities on November 5. He and two other suspects, Haider and Mir Ali, were booked under Section 302 and 34 of the Pakistan penal code.

Jokhio published a video on social media of one of Awais’ foreign guests hunting the houbara bustard, a critically endangered migratory bird, the killing of which is banned under international nature conservation laws.

Before his death, Jokhio made a video statement alleging that he was attacked and threatened. Jokhio claimed to receive calls demanding that he delete the footage or face repercussions. “I am not afraid but this video statement of mine should be kept on record. I am receiving threats and I will not seek an apology,” he said in the video. Jokhio made a formal complaint with police following the incident.

Jokhio’s relatives incited protests after delays registering Awais in an FIR, blocking the national highway connecting Karachi to Thatta. Opposition leader, Haleem Adil Sheikh, criticised authorities for stalling the investigative process, calling the delays in the post-mortem and registration of the FIR ‘shameful’.

Famous Pakistani female journalist Asma Shirazi was harassed by a slew of online followers and supporters of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) party following a column published on BBC Urdu. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns online harassment against media and urges authorities and social media companies to act accordingly relating to any threat, intimidation and abuse by online users in breach of protocols and calls for due police investigation.

BBC’s journalist Asma Shirazi, known for critical remarks against censorship of journalists, was allegedly harassed and trolled on social media in response to a recent articlethat said the current PTI-led government was responsible the downfall of the economy. Organized troll campaigners channeled the attack online, accusing Asma of insulting Prime Minister Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi in the article.

Dr Shahbaz Gill, a spokesperson and special assistant to Prime Minister on political communication, tweeted in response to her article while another senior leader and minister of PTI, Hammad Azhar, expressed his disappointment with the article. “Sad to see @BBCUrdu allowing their platform for such pathetic insinuations”, his tweet said. Another high journalist accused her of being associated with anti-government political party PML-N while many other journalists threw their support behind her.

The PTI official Twitter account posted a video conversation between Asma and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif accusing her of “obedience” to a “certified chor [thief] and absconder”.

Asma has faced online harassment in the past. She was the target of harsh online abuse after interviewing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2018. In July 2019, she and other journalists critical of the PTI were targeted online.

According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, several well-known Pakistani female journalists and commentators have been routinely trolled for their opinion, which makes it “incredibly difficult” for them to carry out their professional duties.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is accusing Pakistani government officials of inciting a “violent smear and hate campaign” on social media against a columnist with the Urdu-language services of the British broadcaster BBC.

The week-old campaign against Asma Shirazi “is being conducted by supporters of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI)…who have evolved into a formidable government weapon for intimidating critical journalists,” the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said in statement on October 26.

RSF said the campaign was triggered by comments made by government officials about Shirazi’s latest weekly column, dated October 19, in which she expressed concerns about Pakistan’s deteriorating economic situation and the lack of a response from the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In a tweet posted the same day, Commerce Minister Hammad Azhar accused Shirazi of making “pathetic insinuations.”

“Asma, sister, you should directly join the PML-N,” he wrote, referring to the main opposition party.

At a press conference two days later, Shahbaz Gill, the prime minister’s special assistant for political communication, accused the journalist of crossing “ethical limits” and of bias, alleging that she has “good ties” with PML-N deputy leader Maryam Nawaz, according to the Dawn newspaper.

“By publicly smearing Asma Shirazi’s work in this way, without any grounds, the government’s representatives clearly orchestrated the hate campaign that followed their statements,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“This type of harassment is unworthy of a democratic government and must stop,” he added.

Shirazi was a recipient of the prestigious international Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism in 2014.

In January, she was one of 10 journalists working for BBC Urdu and the Urdu-language service of the London-based Independent newspaper who were subjected to online hate campaigns and death threats.

In August 2020, a group of Pakistani women journalists issued a statement denouncing a coordinated campaign of online attacks against them.

Pakistan is ranked 145th out of 180 countries on RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Shahid Zehri, a reporter for a local TV news channel Metro News 1 was killed on October 10 when a bomb exploded in his car in the Hub area of Balochistan province. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), urge the Pakistan government to ensure those involved in the attack are promptly brought to justice.

Journalist Zehri, 35, and friend, were travelling to Karachi by car when a bomb detonated around midnight on October 10. Both suffered critical injuries. CCTV footage confirms the bomb was attached to the journalist’s car where it exploded. Some reports suggested it was a homemade device.

The injured journalist and friend were initially taken to Hub Civil Hospital then subsequently brought to Karachi for treatment. The journalist, Zehri, was declared dead at Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital in Karachi.

Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility of the attack. The group also claimed that the journalist was spying on them. IFJ understands Zehri was a strong voice for the Hub Chowki, often reported on unrest in the region. Pakistan’s Baluchistan province has not enacted any legislation protecting journalists.

According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-2021, nine journalists were murdered in Pakistan in 2020-2021.

Pakistan: Police baton-charged students protesting against online entrance exams.