Govt tried to stop Observer story in Jang newspapers
By our correspondent
KARACHI: A spokesman of the Jang Group of Newspapers has said the FIA raid on Jang Rawalpindi is part of the government's vindictive policy, which it has been following for the last six months against the Jang Group and other newspapers.
Last month, the APNS and the CPNE in its joint meeting, while expressing grave concern over the situation, had passed a resolution in which certain government departments were condemned for attempting to crush the press freedom. The meeting also appealed to the prime minister to personally intervene for ending such attempts in the interest of press freedom and democracy.
The spokesman further said that in the past, customs authorities had also committed such acts against the Jang Group. But later on when the allegations against the group proved baseless and concocted, the authorities had to withdraw the notices displayed at the godowns. The spokesman said certain senior officials made efforts to pressurise the Jang Group newspapers not to carry the news story about non-payment of £11 million loan by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family which was published by the British newspaper 'The Observer'. The high-ups, till late at night, exerted pressure at all the stations of Jang Group to block the publication of the said report. They also threatened that if the report was released, things would get real tough for the group.
The Jang Group of newspapers is being victimised for the last many months due to which the daily pages of Jang were decreased and the publication of many editions was discontinued. "On appropriate time, we shall make public the details of the official victimisation," the spokesman concluded.