Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday questioned progress on recovery of the missing persons in the country.

“I hear the head of Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances held a long televised press conference today. Missed it, any announcement on how many missing persons have been found? Any progress against those involved in this crime? Is ka ehtisab kon karay ga?” he posted on his Twitter handle.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement issued on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Bilawal Bhutto said that threats to the freedom of press are mounting in the third world countries as the new tools and tactics are being tested to gag the media in developing democracies. He said the policy of carrot and stick by the government has been let loose at different tiers of media houses and professionals in these countries, adding that Pakistan is no exception.

Bilawal said a vibrant and free media is necessary for a progressive democracy, adding that his party together with bona fide journalists and media persons will resist every kind of intimidation against the freedom of the press in the country. The PPP chairman said that his party had thrown away the draconian press and publication laws imposed by the dictatorial regimes and will continue to act as an umbrella for press freedom in the country despite facing worst kind of victimisation under different pretexts.

Bilawal pointed out that journalists and the PPP leaders and workers have fought shoulder to shoulder against the dictators and anti-democratic forces during the last five decades. “Dictators unleashed the world’s most expensive media trial against our leadership but they could not break the bond between the journalist fraternity and the jiyalas,” he added.

The PPP chairman pledged that being a true representative of every nook and corner and every segment of the society, his party will continue to join hands with the journalists for protecting and promoting freedom of press in Pakistan.