On the very first day of his assuming charge as the Sindh senior minister, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza made a blatant attack on the freedom of press by forcibly stopping a private TV channel’s field team from covering his elaborate protocol convoy. Mirza’s guards snatched the TV team’s camera, mike, bullet-proof jackets, helmet and DVs, while the former Sindh home minister added insult to injury by hurling abuses at the media men.
The incident took place early morning on MA Jinnah Road, near the Light House area. Mirza was headed somewhere secured by more than a dozen police vehicles. On Mirza’s directive, his guards, both in plain clothes and official uniforms, forcibly stopped journalists from covering the incident, and also threatened to kill them.
A few minutes into the incident, police tried to put the TV team into a van, with Senior Minister Mirza himself grabbing the reporter, Shoaib Burney, and cameraman Zubairuddin by the identity cards hanging around their necks and trying to drag them inside the vehicle. Police refused to register an FIR on the abused team’s request.
Journalists across the board called the Mirza’s emboldened act a direct attack on the freedom of press and expressed their utmost grief and anger.
Is Dr Mirza trying to give credence to the allegations levelled by USA that the government was involved in killing of Saleem Shahzad. How can a sitting minister behave in such a rogue manner with media. This reflects poorly on this government, which has failed miserably to protect lives of citizens.
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