Column

Saleem Shahzad, the bureau chief of the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online in Pakistan, went missing in Islamabad on May 29 and his body was found two days later in a canal in Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab province. The body bore marks of torture and it was obviously targetted killing, which deepened the mystery surrounding his disappearance and death.

As Saleem Shahzad had recorded his apprehensions through email messages to the Human Rights Watch and certain individuals earlier about the veiled threats that he claimed to have got for his reporting work from officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), it wasn’t surprising that suspicion immediately fell on the country’s premier secret service run by the powerful military.

Due to the widespread belief that the ISI cannot possibly be made accountable, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) insisted on the formation of a judicial commission headed by a serving Supreme Court judge to have any chances of seeking justice for the slain journalist.

The issue of the judicial commission is still unresolved as the PFUJ rejected the initial PPP-led federal government decision to appoint Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmad, Chief Justice of the Federal Shariat Court, as its chairman. The largely attended dharna, or protest “sit-in” by journalists, politicians and civil society activists outside the Parliament building in Islamabad subsequently pushed the government to change the composition of the judicial commission and appoint the Supreme Court judge Justice Saqib Nisar as its chairman.

But a new dispute arose due to the government’s failure to fulfil the legal requirements of consulting the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry before making the appointment. Many have termed the government move as deliberate in its bid to bypass Chief Justice Chaudhry whose judgments it has often ignored, but others felt it was another instance of the incompetence shown by the ruling PPP since coming to power in the 2008 general election. Disappointed by the government’s inaction, the journalists’ body, the PFUJ, later approached the Supreme Court requesting the setting up of a proper judicial commission to probe Saleem Shahzad’s murder.

The formation of the judicial commission cannot put an end to the threats facing the journalists in Pakistan. It may not even fix responsibility for Saleem Shahzad’s assassination or make those found guilty accountable. Providing justice to the wife and two children of the slain journalist could turn out to be an impossible task in view of the dismal past record of both the government and the judiciary to bring the killers of the other journalists to justice.

In the case of tribal journalist Hayatullah who was kidnapped and killed in his native North Waziristan in June 2006, a judicial commission had investigated his murder but its report was never made public. His family had publicly blamed the security forces for his murder and this meant that those guilty would never be identified and punished. Due to the falling standards of law-enforcement in Pakistan, it is widely believed that a murder or any other incident of violence cannot be properly investigated through normal channels and, therefore, demand for constituting judicial commission is invariably made in most such cases. Such commissions in the past have helped governments to defuse the situation, but have largely failed to prevent recurrence of such incidents or provide justice to those wronged.

The press and journalists in Pakistan have always worked in difficult conditions due to lack of democracy and violation of human rights. Military rulers understandably placed curbs on the media, but some of the democratically elected leaders fared no better as they adopted tough measures to stifle freedom of the press by cancelling declarations of newspapers and magazines, imprisoning journalists and using government advertisements for political purposes. During military dictator General Ziaul Haq’s rule, four journalists were lashed with whips as punishment for criticising his person and his government. General Pervez Musharraf is credited with opening up the Pakistani media and allowing television channels to proliferate, but it was also during his rule that independent TV operators such as Geo and ARY were banned and media organisations supporting his government were amply rewarded.

Though there were curbs on the media in the past, incidents of violence against journalists were rare prior to the US-led and Pakistan-backed “war on terror”. The 76 Pakistani journalists who lost their lives since January 2000 were mostly killed in violence linked to this war being increasingly fought in Pakistan. Both militants and the military have been blamed for some of the deaths of journalists, mostly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Journalists have also been killed in bomb explosions and airstrikes and during violent public protests while discharging their professional duty. Others have been target-killed in mysterious circumstances. When young newsman Shafiullah belonging to North Waziristan died in the June 11 suicide bombing in Peshawar, the Tribal Union of Journalists President Safdar Dawar said he was the 11th tribal journalist to be killed since the beginning of the “war on terror”. In fact, the casualties have been the highest among the underpaid and ill-equipped journalists working in the two Waziristans and other tribal areas due to the conflict there on account of military operations and presence of Pakistani and foreign militants. Journalists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, another conflict zone, have also suffered death and injury and have to perform their work in hostile situations. The low-intensity conflict in Balochistan, where Baloch separatist groups are fighting the state, has also claimed journalists’ lives. There is no conflict in Punjab, Sindh and the federal capital, Islamabad, but members of the media there also face threats from political and religious groups, feudals and criminals. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that Pakistan has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

The level of threat to journalists has definitely increased due to the volatile situation in Pakistan and there is little hope of any improvement in the situation. The number of journalists in Pakistan has increased to 17,000. Those crossing the line risk meeting the fate that befell Saleem Shahzad.