The former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, who is in jail, has raised concerns about the stifling of the media by the state.
For a year now, Khan has been detained at Adiala Jail, a maximum-security facility in Rawalpindi and charged with multiple offences some which have seen him convicted.
“In Pakistan over the last two years, this country’s media has been silenced and journalists who speak against these measures are suppressed,” he explained on his X account.
This was only after Maryam Nawaz led Punjab government introduced ‘’Punjab Defamation Act 2024,’’ a legislation that purports to tackle defamation but there are concerns that it’s just an instrument to curtail press freedom in Pakistan since its enactment into law.
The founder of PTI party stressed how important it is for the state to have independent media. He said “Independent media is one of the most important pillars of the state. This acts as watchdogs watching over government actions making them realign.”
Khan brought in Protection of Journalists and Media Law under his government implying efforts were made to make press freer. “My government tried to change this environment by bringing in the Protection of Journalists and Media Law but it has been sidelined since then engineered VoNC,” he explains.
This was actually referred to his ousting due no confidence vote in April 2022 that occurred following leakage of a diplomatic cable.
On Tuesday, Khan gave examples of journalists who had suffered severely because they criticized military involvement in politics. He observed “Arshad Sharif had to go into exile due to serious threats against him before being brutally murdered like that by cold blooded killers at Kenya. Others including Dr Moeed Pirzada,Sabir Shakir,Wajahat Saeed Khan have been forced out.”
“Imran Riaz Khan was kidnapped and tortured for more than six months while Siddique Jan, Sami Ibrahim, Arif Hameed Bhatti and Adeel Habib faced constant pressures. It is an orchestrated person to perfect this system of oppression which is in clear violation of our Constitution as well as international conventions,” Imran Khan said.
Khan has also criticized the media crackdown, citing it as a direct attack on democracy and freedom of expression. He remarked “The assault on the media through intimidations, harassment and oppressive ordinances is equally an assault on democracy and freedom of speech.”
On its part, Pakistan’s journalist organizations have taken the issue of Punjab Defamation Act 2024 to Lahore High Court.
