Almost three months before the high profile Shahzeb Khan murder on December 25, 2012, a dead body was found in the same affluent area of Defence Housing Authority on September 26, 2012. The man murdered was identified as Ghulam Asghar Wagan.
The story, like the victim Wagan himself, got killed and went unreported, said a police officer associated with the case, who wish not be named.
In both cases, the accused killers belonged to highly influential families. However, different media coverage yielded different results. The killer of Shahzeb Khan – the lone college going son of a police officer of DSP rank – was the son of a feudal lord Sikandar Jatoi from rural Sindh. On the other hand, one of the nominated murderers of Ghulam Asghar Wagan – brother of a police officer of SP rank and an employee of the local government department – turned out to be the nephew of a stockbroker who was also chairman of a business group.
Though Shahrukh Jatoi was eventually jailed due to extensive media and civil society pressure despite the enormous influence wielded by his landlord father, the nephew of the stockbroker, who maintains cordial relations with the media owners and journalists alike was never arrested and is enjoying protective bail from the Sindh High Court. According to interim charge sheet, the FIR (No 437/12) was lodged at the Darakhshan police station of Karachi. Five of the accused, Rizwan, Syed Moazam, Syed Sagheer, Pervez Ali Shaikh and Muhammad Waseem, are behind the bars on judicial custody and two accused, Metho and Feroz, are absconding. Meanwhile, the stockbroker’s nephew, Muhammad Akber, son of Muhammad Ameen, is out on bail.
Unlike the Shahzeb Murder case which was resolved within months, the Wagan murder case has been being in pending for nearly three years. According to the investigators, due to the ‘ideal’ relationship the suspect`s family maintains with the media, the case has not been on papers and television screens.
However, though the suspect’s influence earned him an emission from the highly vigilant ‘media eye’ of Pakistan, the same wealth became a source of fast resolution of the case for investigators. “On one hand the enormous financial influence of his family helped him escape media coverage, which at that time could be crucial for the case, but his expensive ‘Tundra’ became a clue for investigators to reach him,” said a senior cop.
The accused allegedly drove a few feet inside the plot which captured the marks of the tire of his vehicle. Upon taking the snaps of tire’s marks the investigators visited showrooms at Tariq road area of the city where the strange tires marks were identified that of Toyota `tundra`, which the four in Karachi could’ve imported.
The lane towards suspect further narrowed when they got information through customs that two of them are white color, the one identified by waiter in the branch of a famous fast-food chain. The broken glass at right side was the final clue which concluded that the white tundra belong to a highly influential business family of the city.
It was a big murder story but there was no one to cover it. Senior journalists say though the financial element in ‘killing’ of just stories is not confined to any specific country, It’s impact over the stories is seen more often in the developing and under developed countries, they say. “Many incidents, despite having close relation with journalism, don’t make it to the newspaper”, concur Khursheed Tanveer, Vice President Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and a senior journalist who has worked with the leading English dailies of Pakistan.
The negative aspect of it, he says, is that the society loose check and balance. To him there are many stories which seem to have been deliberately ignored. “The story of Pakistani supermodel Ayan Ali is not that, which is being shown on media” opines Tanveer, adding the economic element seems killing the real story behind her case.
Idrees Bakhtiar, a senior journalist who has worked with Herald and BBC before joining Geo News revealed, “I filed a story on the transactions of a Bank chairman but it couldn’t be published.” To Bakhtiar though not bigger than life threat, financial element has been killing stories that could be of great interest for the readers.
Pakistan is a country familiar with all sort of serious threats from state to non-state actors and from IS to Al Qaeda and Taliban to sectarian proscribed organizations every threat stands right in front of the journalists, challenging their valor. The International Federation of Journalists terms Pakistan the most dangerous country for media, with 14 journalists killed during last year alone.
But it’s not confined to the proscribed outfits as violent political gangs have equally turned dangerous for the fraternity, particularly in Karachi. Earlier this year the paramilitary rangers raided headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Karachi and arrested Fasail Mota, the convicted killer of TV reporter, Wali Khan Babar, who was killed in January 2011 on his way home from office.
In some cases state actors have also been alleged to have eliminated the journalists challenging their wisdom. “Despite such a volatile situation we see reports which demonstrates the fearlessness of the Pakistani journalists,” says Zia Ur Rehman, a Karachi based reporter covering conflicts and militancy for an English daily.
To Rehman it is hard to establish a figure but given the dominantly finance driving nature of Pakistani media economic interest seems to be ‘bigger killer’ of the news stories than life threats. Though many still insist that life threats are killing more stories, there are many there who concur with Rehman.
The writer is a Karachi based Investigative Journalist.
He can be reached at [email protected]
Twitter @NKMalazai