Sir: An article titled “Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military” was published in Dawn a few days ago. I found nothing in it written against the establishment but still some forged material against Almeida is being circulated in the social media, blaming him for writing against the military, thus threatening the national security. Some social media pages have also threatened the Dawn News, especially Almeida, to face even severe consequences than that faced by Geo News in the past. In my personal view, this is bad. These pages, apparently, are trying to assassinate the character of the columnist Almeida, an Oxford graduate, which are the attributes of the ones who cannot digest the bitter truth. In most of the states, journalists are constitutionally protected, and the latter is practically ensured. But in states like Pakistan, it’s all the opposite. The protection is only limited to paperwork because article 19 of the constitution has never been practically implemented. This can be imagined by the fact that Pakistan has been ranked third deadliest country, by International Federation of Journalists, as 115 journalists have lost their lives since 1990. Further, since the publication of the article in Dawn newspaper’s front page regarding the apex meeting, the situation among the state institutions and civilian government has apparently turned into a quagmire. For rejecting the claims made, three different rebuttals were issued by different government officials on the very same day, followed by a detailed and briefed one after four days which was issued after the Army Chief called on Prime Minister in Islamabad. Following this, Almeida’s name was immediately put on Exit Control List (ECL). A state where writing an article becomes a more heinous crime than the abrogation of the constitution is bound to become corrupt. For, the one who abrogated the constitution twice, the highest level of crime, is enjoying the luxuries outside Pakistan because his name was deliberately crossed out from the ECL by the existing government, and was allowed to run away so that he skips the trails of courts. In a nutshell, I request the authorities concerned and the government to ensure that article 19 of the constitution is practically implemented, and action against aforementioned social media pages is also taken according to the Cyber Crime Bill passed recently. NASRULLAH ALI Islamabad