Speaks out at New York Dinner as
Police in Pakistan Persecute Family
Musharraf threatens Pakistani Journalists
in US
Special
SAT Report
NEW YORK: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf publicly
threatened two senior Pakistani journalists, now living in the
US, in front of several hundred Pakistani expatriates at a dinner
speech in New York on Sept 13.
“They
have left Pakistan and have started a Web Newspaper and are spitting
venom against my government,” Musharraf said in direct menacing
tones while referring to SA Tribune Editor, Shaheen Sehbai and
writer and analyst Hussain Haqqani, following investigative reports
published by the South Asia Tribune.
“One
of these journalists,” he continued referring to, Hussain
Haqqani, now a Carnegie Endowment Scholar, “came to me seeking
a job and when I refused, he started writing against me in foreign
newspapers.”
“I
will not be blackmailed by these journalists,” Musharraf
said in what was a historic moment as a President of the country
was speaking against two journalists in a foreign land and threatening
them.
As
a direct result of his threats, which could be misinterpreted
by any one endangering the lives of these journalists, US officials
formally conveyed to them warning alerts.
These
officials, who cannot be identified, asked the two journalists
to remain on the alert for any suspicious activity around their
houses or work places and to call emergency numbers immediately
if tailed or targeted by any one.
The
warning by President Musharraf at a public speech came as police
continued the persecution campaign in Pakistan against the extended
family members of Shaheen Sehbai, Editor of the South Asia Tribune.
One
of the family members, 18-year old student Imran, son of Mohammed
Asif, has been in Rawalpindi jail for the last about 20 days and
has been denied bail by a judge who publicly admitted before senior
lawyers that he was under pressure of the military authorities
not to grant bail to the boy.
Imran
has been arrested in a fake police report lodged by a Translator
of the Army GHQ, who complained that Shaheen Sehbai committed
a “robbery” in his house 18 months ago in a shanty
town of Rawalpindi, when he was Editor of the largest Pakistani
English newspaper “The News”. Sehbai remained in Pakistan
for 13 months after the socalled "robbery" but no report
or even a complaint was lodged by anyone against him.
A
Senior police officer, DIG Israr of Rawalpindi, admitted before
some friends of Sehbai that the whole case was baseless and absurd
but the Military Intelligence was behind it and hence the judge
was unable to give bail to Imran.
A
Police Party has also been dispatched to Karachi to arrest another
Sehbai relative who has also been named in the police report.
The
charge of dacoity and kidnapping is so ridiculous it cannot stand
in a court of any law for a moment, but under military pressure
the judges are helpless, the senior police official said.
In
a statement in Washington, Sehbai said he feared for his other
family members as they may be targeted and persecuted because
of his journalistic work. He appealed to all journalistic, human
rights, bar associations and other public interest organisations
to raise their voice against this brazen attacks on innocent family
members which belie all claims of Press freedom in Pakistan.
Sehbai’s
lawyer, well known politician and Advocate Syed Zafar Ali Shah
is now moving the case to the Punjab High Court to seek justice
for arrested boy Imran and others.
For
Other Stories, CPJ and RSF Statements, Click Here
