[sacw] PAK: editor (Najam Sethi) barred from travel abroad

[aiindex@mnet.fr]

June 24, 1999
=46YI
(South Asia Citizens Web)
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

=46rom: Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001 USA Phone: (212) 465-1004 Fax=
:
(212) 465-9568 Web: www.cpj.org E-Mail: info@c...

June 23, 1999

SENT BY FAX =97 to 011-92-51-920-5532

His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan

Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by evidence t=
hat
your government is continuing to persecute Najam Sethi, chief editor of the
English-language weekly newspaper The Friday Times. In the last few weeks,
various government agencies have blocked Sethi from leaving Pakistan,
confiscated his passport, and filed more than two dozen cases of tax evasion
against him and his family.

Early this morning at the Lahore International Airport, officials from the
=46ederal Immigration Authority (FIA) prevented Sethi from boarding his sche=
duled
flight to London, where he was due to accept an award from Amnesty
International
recognizing "Journalists Under Threat." According to Sethi, FIA officials
informed him that he is barred from traveling abroad for as long as his name
appears on the government's Exit Control List. They told him his name had be=
en
added to the list on June 2, which is the same day the government dropped al=
l
charges against him and ordered his release.

Sethi was arrested at his home in Lahore on May 8, and detained for several
weeks in the custody of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
agency, the
army's intelligence unit. Government statements indicated that Sethi was bei=
ng
investigated for "anti-state" activities, including his alleged collaboratio=
n
with Indian intelligence operatives. CPJ believes that Sethi's arrest stemme=
d
>from The Friday Times' consistent calls for the administration to answer to
charges of high-level corruption, coupled with the editor's recent work with=
a
BBC television team investigating these allegations.

Just after the FIA agents turned Sethi away at the airport this morning, he =
was
approached by an official in plainclothes standing nearby, who asked him to
hand
over his passport. Sethi, assuming that the man was with the FIA, complied w=
ith
his request. The official then took Sethi's passport under the pretext of
making
a copy of it. When he did not return, Sethi asked to be taken to the man's
office, whereupon he discovered that his passport had in fact been seized by=
an
agent from the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The agent, who identified himself a=
s
Inspector Tariq Aziz, told Sethi that the IB would return his passport by ma=
il
after "due verification purposes." Sethi's passport had been returned to him
just two days earlier, on June 21, by the ISI, which had been holding it eve=
r
since Sethi's May arrest.

Meanwhile, Sethi and his family have received at least 28 separate notices f=
rom
the income tax bureau, claiming millions of rupees in back taxes. Sethi says
these notices are nearly all back-dated, so that they are received only afte=
r
the deadline for replying has already passed. He says that the government ha=
s
frozen three bank accounts held by his wife, Jugnu Mohsin, publisher of The
=46riday Times, and ordered the funds to be transferred directly to the
income tax
collections department. According to Sethi, officials are also threatening t=
o
seize his house as well as that of his mother if the taxes are not paid.

As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of our colleagues
around the world, CPJ is dismayed that under your leadership, official power=
s
are regularly used to punish members of the independent press.

CPJ demands that all government actions against Najam Sethi be ceased, and h=
is
fundamental right to travel freely be quickly restored. Pakistan's restricti=
ons
on Sethi's travel violate Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which guarantees freedom of movement to all citizens.

We thank you for your attention to this matter, and await your response.

Sincerely Yours,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director

cc: American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Congressional Committee to Support Writers and Journalists
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Association of Broadcasting
International Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Newspaper Publishers
International Journalism Institute
International PEN
International Press Institute
National Association of Black Journalists
National Press Club
Newspaper Association of America
The Newspaper Guild
North American National Broadcasters Association
Reporters Sans Fronti=E8res
Overseas Press Club
The Society of Professional Journalists
South Asian Journalists Association
World Press Freedom Committee

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