Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday expressed disappointment over two elected MNAs not being allowed to hold a press conference at the National Press Club (NPC) in Islamabad a day earlier.
“Extremely disappointed to hear that two elected MNA were not allowed to hold their press conference at the National Press Club Islamabad,” Bilawal posted on his Twitter handle. “While censorship has reached new heights in Naya Pakistan, press clubs have always been sanctuaries of free speech even under the worst dictatorship,” he added.
A day earlier, independent MNA Mohsin Dawar had taken to Twitter to claim that he and fellow MNA Ali Wazir were not allowed to hold a press conference at the NPC ‘despite having a booking’. However, the NPC in a press statement issued on Saturday clarified that the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leaders’ press conference did not receive media coverage on Friday as no prior booking had been made for the event at its premises.
The press release noted that MNAs Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, who belong to the PTM, and former senators Farhatullah Babar and Afrasiab Khattak had issued statements condemning the alleged cancellation of the presser. It said the press club’s president, Shakeel Qarar, had arrived at the venue when the press conference could not be held and explained the situation to the PTM representatives and others. The statement quoted Qarar as saying that ‘neither any office holder of the NPC was behind the [move to] sabotage the PTM press conference, nor was any office holder aware of the whole situation’. According to Qarar, the PTM had not made any prior booking at the press club’s reception, which was why an invitation for the press coverage hadn’t been issued. The press release said the NPC president invited those who had arrived for the press conference for tea and after offering them hospitality, ‘respectfully sent them from the press club’.