Musharraf
Personally Threatened ARY TV to Stop Shahbaz Interview
By
Shaheen Sehbai
WASHINGTON:
“I am General Musharraf. If you do not stop from telecasting
Shahbaz Sharif’s interview on ARY TV, it will be war with
us and “main aap ki aisee ki taisee kar doonga”
(I will tear you up in pieces).
This
is how Pakistan’s military dictator personally took charge
of the operation against Shahbaz Sharif and telephoned ARY TV’s
popular anchor Dr. Shahid Masood in London, a couple of minutes
before he was to do a live interview with Shahbaz Sharif on the
night of May 9.
A
stunned Dr. Shahid Masood and Shahbaz Sharif looked at each other
as ARY TV’s scheduled time for the interview clicked past.
No interview was telecast as Musharraf had already sent intelligence
goons to the ARY’s Pakistan studios who were already threatening
to kidnap, harm and destroy everything.
“I
was sitting with Dr. Shahid Masood and Musharraf personally called
and threatened him,” a disturbed Shahbaz Sharif told the
South Asia Tribune on telephone from London, a few hours before
boarding the flight for Abu Dhabi and on to Pakistan.
This
revelation of Shahbaz Sharif, that Musharraf himself was giving
threats on the phone, was not to be reported by me if Shahbaz
Sharif had been allowed to stay in Pakistan and not been deported.
Once he was sent packing to Jeddah, the reporting ban did not
apply.
“Musharraf
really gave the ARY senior anchor a real stick and threatened
that his relatives will be kidnapped in Karachi and we will do
everything,” Sharif told me on the phone.
When
I tried to counter check his statement with ARY’s Dr. Shahid,
he himself was not available but sources at the TV Channel confirmed
that Dr Shahid had received the threatening call from Musharraf
himself minutes before the interview was to go on air. Musharraf
sounded really furious and in a mood to go for the kill.
The
General was in a state of panic and the Dubai owners of ARY TV
were also contacted and threatened. After urgent consultations,
they decided it would not be safe and wise to start a head on
confrontation with the Army General.
“Do
you want war with us,” Musharraf was reported to have said
repeatedly. “Then prepare for war if you telecast his interview.”
Dr
Shahid Masood was embarrassed as his TV channel could not air
the interview. After a short while he went on air with a vague
explanation and sort of apology to his viewers for not ‘managing’
the interview. He did not give any detail of what happened but
vowed that “his TV channel would continue its struggle for
media freedom.”
The
panic visible in the Musharraf camp was not just confined to the
threats he gave to ARY TV. In Lahore the office of the CNN was
surrounded by police and its correspondent Mohsin Naqvi was arrested.
SA
Tribune learnt that another popular channel, Geo TV was also planning
an interview with Shahbaz Sharif but when Information Minister
Sheikh Rashid called the Geo owners, the interview was dropped.
ARY TV refused to heed to Sheikh Rashid and so Musharraf himself
had to pick up the phone.
Roughing up the media was part of the strategy of the Musharraf
junta to harass the politicians and the people. Respected BBC
correspondent Zafar Abbas, who accompanied Shahbaz Sharif to Lahore
from Abu Dhabi was picked up by two policemen and beaten. All
his equipment, including his lap top and tape recorders were taken
away and not returned.
Paris-based
media watch dog organization, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters
sans frontières) lambasted Musharraf for its heavy-handed
treatment of the media. It said in a statement intense official
pressure was brought to bear on private ARY Digital TV, a CNN
journalist was arrested and police reacted violently to journalists
trying to cover the event in Lahore.
"The
way in which the Pakistani authorities tried to hide the return
of this opposition politician shows the Pakistan governments¹
lack of openness in free expression and democracy in general,²
the international press freedom organization said in a letter
to information and broadcasting minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
The
organization demanded an explanation for the pressure applied
to the privately-owned media to stop them covering the event and
called for punishment of police who manhandled journalists in
Lahore.
ARY
Digital TV at the last moment on 9 May pulled an interview with
Shahbaz Sharif, president of the opposition PML (N) party, intended
to mark his return from exile. Executives of the British-based
channel told RSF the decision was the result of ³huge government
pressure². The presenter gave no explanation but said, ³We
believe in freedom of expression.²
RSF
reported that police on 11 May placed producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi,
of the US cable channel CNN in Pakistan under house arrest to
prevent him interviewing Shahbaz Sharif. The security forces used
the pretext of a bomb alert to enter his Lahore home without permission.
”Also
on 11 May police prevented journalists from reaching Lahore international
airport in the east of the country to witness the politician¹s
return. Reporters, including a BBC crew, who traveled in the same
plane with Sharif, were arrested, questioned searched or roughly
treated by commandos who surrounded the plane after landing.
”Police
manhandled Zafar Abbas, BBC correspondent in Islamabad, and took
his passport and journalistic equipment. He and a BBC cameraman
were then put into a police van for one hour. Police also seized
a video cassette.
”A journalist on an English-language daily and a reporter
from an Urdu daily were beaten at a police checkpoint at the airport
entrance. Secret service agents deployed to pick out journalists
in the airport zone. Security forces also checked and harassed
opposition supporters in Lahore to forestall any pro-Sharif demonstrations.
Sharif himself was expelled to Saudi Arabia after spending less
than two hours in Pakistan.”
