Anti-Terror Clause: Press slates case against journalist

Gilgit police booked the Islamabad-based reporter under the anti-terrorism act

ISLAMABAD: The National Press Club (NPC) and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Monday voiced concerns after the Gilgit-Baltistan police filed a case with anti-terror clauses against a journalist. Gilgit police had booked Shabbir Siham, an Islamabad-based reporter, under the anti-terrorism act on the complaint of G-B Information Minister Iqbal Hassan on March 20 for allegedly publishing ‘fake news’ and extorting the minister. In a statement issued on Monday, NPC and the PFUJ said that G-B police had been surrounding the journalist’s house in Islamabad and harassing his family for the past three days. The statement said that the journalist had been missing during this time and his family feared that he might have been picked by the G-B police. The union and the press club have called an emergency meeting on Tuesday over the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2017.