By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The chief justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, on Saturday ordered an inquiry into the alleged harassment of journalists by the country’s Federal Investigation Agency, amid accusations of a smear campaign against the judiciary.
Justice Qazi Faez Isa, a vocal critic of the military’s involvement in politics, took notice of the issue after the Press Association of the Supreme Court (PAS) and the Islamabad High Court Journalist Association (IHCJA) demanded the withdrawal of notices issued by the cyber wing of the FIA to around 47 people, including journalists.
The notices asked them to appear before the agency and explain their “explicit and malicious campaign against honorable judges of the Supreme Court.”
The journalists said the notices were a violation of their constitutional rights and an attempt to intimidate them from reporting on the court’s proceedings and decisions.
Justice Isa formed a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by himself, to hear the matter on Monday and summoned the attorney general, the chairman of the media regulator, the director general of the FIA, and the chief of the Islamabad police to appear before the court in person.
The case will be taken up along with another one filed in 2021 by the PAS, seeking protection for journalists from harassment and threats.
The FIA’s notices came in the wake of a ruling by the Supreme Court on Jan. 13, which upheld the decision of the election commission to deny the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), its trademark election symbol of a bat. The court agreed with the election watchdog that the PTI had failed to comply with its rules in conducting an intraparty poll.
The ruling sparked a backlash from the PTI and its supporters, who accused the court of being biased. Some PTI leaders and activists launched a vitriolic campaign on social media, targeting the judges with personal attacks and allegations of corruption.
Some of the journalists, informed about the FIA’s notices, said they had merely reported on the court’s verdict and the ensuing criticism, without endorsing or participating in the smear campaign.
They, however, said they had not received the notices at their postal addresses but learned about them through social media.
The FIA’s cyber wing has been accused of cracking down on dissenting voices and activists on social media, often invoking vague and draconian laws against cybercrime and electronic defamation.
The harassment of journalists is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan, which ranks 150th out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Journalists in Pakistan face threats and violence from various actors, including the state, the military, the intelligence agencies, the militants, the religious groups, and the political parties.
At least 97 journalists and media workers have been killed over the past 30 years, and more than 3,500 journalists have been the victims of enforced disappearances since 2011, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
