Condemning the killings and threats to their colleagues, veteran journalists the other day emphasised constitution of a high level Judicial Commission to probe the illegal picking and killing of journalists. This call was made at a seminar titled "Mortal threat to journalists: the price of writing truth in Pakistan" organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here.
Prominent journalists including, Shafqat Munir, Pervez Shaukat, Umar Cheema spoke on the occasion and raised their voices for the journalists community. They observed that journalists do not safe and secure in performing their duties.
Addressing the seminar, Shafqat Munir lamented frequent killings of journalists and lashed out at the intelligence agencies. He warned the intelligence agencies not to dub journalists as 'agents of enemies.' He called upon the journalist community and intelligence agencies to follow professional ethics in carrying out their duties as per rule of law and standard legal procedures.
He urged the journalists to adopt professional approach in their stories, covering all shades and point of views. He added there was no excuse for torturing or killing a citizen for speaking truth. Pervez Shaukat, President Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) stressed the need to form a "Press Complaints Commission" on permanent basis to handle any complaints about unethical journalistic practices.
Talking about the killing of Saleem Shahzad, he said it was 74th incident of such kind. He asked the government, COAS and other top officials to take notice of the situation to remove concerns of journalist community. "We have set June 10 deadline for setting up the Commission after which we will undergo countrywide protests from June 15," he warned. He said that journalists were facing a lot of troubles and difficulties in Pakistan.
He added not only the local intelligence agencies were the matter of concern but there were CIA, MI-6, MOSSAD, RAW and Taliban's ethnic militants groups were also the enemies of journalists. He urged the media houses' owners to take steps for protection of journalists and ensure their life insurance along with life saving training.
Pervez Shaukat asked the government to take measures for ensuring security of journalists as human rights bodies have declared Pakistan as a dangerous country for journalists. Umar Cheema, a victim journalist vowed that he would continue writing the truth, saying he was ready to pay the price for it. He appealed the journalist community to wage joint struggle, in this regard. Like the other journalists, he said he was striving to make Pakistan a better country. "Every institution of the country has to be transparent, accountable and must have some code of conduct and ethics," he said.