Speakers at a conference on "rising intolerance and freedom of expression" on Thursday, organised by the South Asia Free Media Association, condemned extremists for threatening newspapers.
They also passed a resolution saying no paper or television channel should give coverage to extremist groups and also announced a peaceful protest outside the Lahore Press Club on July 21 against the rising intolerance in society.
They said freedom of expression is every person's right and no individual or group had the right to impose their thought by force. They also criticised the role of agencies patronising religious extremist groups and demanded that the ruling coalition to implement the charter of democracy in which they agreed that the agencies be made accountable to government.
A senior journalist Irshad Ahmed Haqqani said he supported the right of expression and freedom of thought, saying, "But our society is suffering from the disease of intolerance. But he was pessimistic by saying that he did not see the trend of practising tolerance in the next 20 years in Pakistan.
South Asia Free Media Association Secretary General Imtiaz Alam said a majority of people in Pakistan were moderate and that they showed it by voting against extremists in the February 18 elections.
He accused the agencies, that since the day one after the creation of Pakistan, of patronising extremist groups by funding them and recently they funded these extremists groups by giving them Rs 350 million and they were working on the agenda of making them self-reliance. He said they were doing so because of international pressure that one day they had to stop funding them. He demanded the accountability of these secret agencies.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairperson Asma Jahangir said everybody had the right to criticise everyone and there should be tolerance in society. She criticised President Pervez Musharraf, saying he was deceiving the nation by saying he was fighting terror while he told Americans he was an ally against the so-called war on terror. "He is patronising the extremists. We condemn the attack on the Red Mosque but we don't give anybody the right to impose the so-called Shariah on people," she added.
She said the opinion of every person should be respected and that these extremists wanted a civil war and stressed the need to establish the writ of the state in the country. Human Rights activist IA Rehman said nobody condemned these extremists except the late Benazir Bhutto. He said, "A theocratic state and Pakistan cannot go together."
Newspaper Editor Najam Sethi said his paper was threatened by clerics of the Red Mosque and they inquired about their editorial policy. He said, "Our policy is based on respecting views of others and we believe in the freedom of expression."