By IPS Correspondents
LAHORE, May 10 1999 (IPS)

Rights activists and journalists have called for a countrywide protest on May 13, Freedom of Expression Day, to protest the government’s increasing intolerance of dissent leading to the arrest of a well-known editor last week.

Najam Sethi, chief editor of the popular Lahore-based English language ‘The Friday Times’ weekly was whisked away from his residence late Friday night by armed police who threatened to shoot when asked for a warrant, his wife Jugnu Mohsin said.

The government has refused to reveal his whereabouts, despite a habeas corpus writ filed Monday by his lawyer Asma Jahangir, and said that Sethi was arrested because of his “traitorous” tendencies and “involvement with RAW (the Indian Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency)”.

He is accused of expressing anti-Pakistani sentiments in a lecture delivered Apr. 30 in New Delhi where he travelled on the invitation of the India-Pakistan Friendship Society chaired by ex-Indian prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral.

But Sethi’s supporters say the salient points of the lecture in India have been published several times in Pakistan by ‘The Friday Times’ in editorials as well as an article on Jan. 1 this year titled ‘What is to be done?’

In addition this lecture has also been delivered by Sethi to Pakistan’s premier defence institution, the National Defence College, where he earned accolades for his intelligent analysis and patriotism, from the commandant and other senior army officers.

“If the army has no doubts about Sethi’s patriotism, who are these people to doubt it?” asked a furious Mohsin, publisher of the ‘The Friday Times’ addressing a meeting after her husband’s arrest.

Vowing to fight on for press freedom, she said that she feared that Sethi might be physically harmed or killed. If anything happens, “I will hold Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and (his brother) Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif personally responsible.”

Mohsin also expressed apprehensions about attacks on the weekly’s office and Vanguard Books (publishing house run by Sethi). “I could also be arrested. But if anything happens … it is up to you to continue the struggle for full freedom …”

An emergency meeting convened by the Committee for Free Press, at the Lahore Press Club May 8, condemned Sethi’s “unlawful arrest” and demanded his immediate release.

Pakistan’s independent media has had several run-ins with the Nawaz Sharif government, which has resorted to a series of arrests and harassment recently of journalists who have been aiding the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to produce a documentary on government corruption.

The first to be detained was Mehmood Lodhi of the independent English-language ‘The News’ daily who was taken into custody for two days and asked about the documentary film being made by the BBC with permission from the government.

Both Sethi and Hussain Haqqani, columnist and opposition leader who was detained by intelligence agents on May 5 and whose whereabouts are not known, had been interviewed by the BBC team.

Pakistan’s independent press has been a watchdog on the government ever since the return of democratic rule in 1988 after more than 10 years of military rule with the sudden death of general-turned-president Ziaul Haq.

In fact May 13 is observed as Freedom of Expression and Press day to commemorate the ‘black day’ in 1978 when three journalists were flogged by the military rulers for protesting against the closure of an opposition newspaper.

Twenty years later, Pakistan’s press freedom is “selective”, commented veteran politician Nawabzada Nasrullah, president of the Pakistan Awami Ittehad party, at a meeting called by the Committee for Free Press before Sethi’s arrest.

“The press is free to write anything about the opposition, but that is all. This is naked dictatorship,” Nasrullah, widely respected as a long-time upholder of democracy observed.

“This government has passed the 14th Amendment which disallows members of parliament from voting against their party’s decisions, and the 13th Amendment which strips the president of his powers. The attempt to pass the 15th Amendment failed (late- 1998); that would have given the government the powers to decide what is morally and religious right or wrong,” he said.

Soon after the government got embroiled in a very public fight with the country’s largest newspaper group, Jang, which had

turned sharply critical of the government, backing off only after the Supreme Court stepped in.

“What they (government) want is kingship, Mughal-style,” commented Nasrullah.

Several journalists have complained that they are being harassed and intimidated. Imtiaz Alam, a Lahore-based editor of ‘The News’ who has been receiving hate calls for some time for his dissenting columns, had his car set on fire on May 5.

Ejaz Haider, news editor of ‘The Friday Times’ and outspoken anti-nuclearist, was also threatened. On May 4 he was warned to “Put up bullet-proof windows on your car”.

Peshawar-based publisher of ‘The Frontier Post’ Rehmat Shah Afridi was arrested in March, and falsely implicated in a case of drugs, he says.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a press release of Apr. 6 questioned the “government’s record both of selectivity in the choice of its targets and its demonstrated desire to curb freedom of the press.”

Excerpt: