Senior journalist and group editor of The News, Shaheen Sehbai on Saturday resigned from the Jang Media Group.
He declared his decision on his Twitter account, “I QUIT THE JANG GROUP: Friends, I have resigned as the Group Editor of The News. I will give reasons soon. As they say ‘enough is enough’.”
The senior journalist in his resignation stated that the policies of the paper are politically biased and one-sided.
His resignation letter to the Editor-in-Chief said:
“With a heavy heart but with a clear conscience, I have to send this letter for your immediate approval. I am resigning as of today as the Group Editor of The News, which I have served with full dedication, commitment and honesty since mid 2007.
I will not go into the details of the reasons of my resignation but I feel that I can no longer sustain the moral and ethical pressure as Group Editor, justifying decisions which were not taken by me but which have caused immense damage to the credibility and financial stability of the newspaper.
If need be I may explain the reasons later, but suffice it to say that I find the policies of the newspaper lop-sided, heavily tilted politically and unnecessarily engaged in a dangerous conflict with national institutions, specially at a time when the country is at war with terrorists, their supporters and financiers and the corrupt elements in all spheres of the society who are using the money looted through corruption to fight the state.
I may also add that in formulating and implementing these self-defeating policies the views and suggestions of professional editors, at all levels, including myself, have been consistently ignored.
As Editor-in-Chief it is your right to run the newspaper as you like, but for professional journalists there is always a limit to which they can go along. I know many editors feel the same way but I have decided to call it a day, today.
Please accept my resignation, remove my name from the newspaper masthead and direct the HR and Accounts Departments to complete whatever formalities may be required.”