Daily Times

KARACHI: A meeting of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Civil Society Organisations on Friday expressed serious concern over pre-election curbs on freedom of expression and mounting pressures on independent media and civil society organizations.

The meeting was convened at the office of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday. During the meeting, participants voiced their concerns on the issue of alleged political engineering. It was discussed in the meeting that the state apparatus was involved in benefitting a particular political party.

“Complaints have been received from candidates and their polling agents that they are being pressurized to withdraw from the election process,” said a participant before adding that media outlets were also complaining about how they were being asked by media advisories to promote a particular narrative.

The meeting fully endorsed the statement issued by the civil society of Lahore and resolved to struggle for provision of all fundamental rights to the citizens. The meeting decided to hold a bigger meeting of Karachi’s civil society on Sunday at PMA House to further discuss the challenges and current problems.

“Independent media is facing curbs, even the media persons are constantly being pressurised by certain powerful quarters. Media has been compelled to adopt self-censorship in their news and current affairs programmes. Pressure is further mounting on the media ahead of General Elections and even those media houses that accept self-censorship have now started feeling the pressures,” said a participant before adding that the only reason why no resistance was being shown by media houses was because they were ‘divided’.

The participants also pointed out that Press Clubs was being pressurised into not allowing press conferences especially the ones regarding the missing persons issue. The participants said that the situation would worsen after elections as the country’s economy was in a very bad shape. “There would be further curbs on the non-government organsiations after the elections,” stated a participant.

The participants said that in the past, people had resisted dictatorship. “Even newspapers used to leave blank space in case of censorship from martial law authorities but now the situation has changed and media is buckling to pressure tactics,” stated a participant.

The speakers said that judiciary was also under control and the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) was not providing justice to the people. “It is the duty of the high judiciary to protect the fundamental rights of the people,” said a participant.

During the meeting, participants also underlined the need to find a new alliance. “Universities are not allowed to promote critical thinking. Students unions are not allowed in the colleges and universities and a particular narrative is promoted in the educational institutions,” lamented a speaker.

The participants said that people’s attention had been diverted from major political issues to smaller issues like overflowing gutters and shortage of water in urban areas. They opined that urban middle class had been made conservative and negative.

During the meeting, speakers expressed serious concern over proposed introduction of essential services ordinance in PIA and termed it ‘a violation of fundamental right of association’.

While concluding the meeting, the participants appealed to people to cast their votes to those candidates who were talking about their fundamental rights.

The meeting was attended by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Executive Director Karamat Ali, HRCP Sindh’s Vice Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) Head of Social Sciences Dr. Riaz Shaikh, Mir Zulfiqar Ali of Workers Education and Research Organisation (WERO), Nasir Mansoor of National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), Prof. Tauceef Ahmed, Shaikh Majid, Sohail Balcoh, Qazi Khizar of HRCP, Shujauddin Qureshi of PILER and several others.

Published in Daily Times, July 21^st 2018.