[wp_ad_camp_1] The attacker must be taken to task in legal terms
By Zaib Azkaar Hussain
Karachi
In a shocking incident, Masroor Sial, a local leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) physically attacked and tortured senior journalist and Karachi Press Club (KPC) President Imtiaz Khan Faran during a live talk show that led to grave resentment among the journalists and writers across the country.
The incident obviously reminded of an earlier shocking incident of slapping a senior journalist Sami Ibrahim by a federal minister Fawad Chaudhry. The video of the recent incident is being widely shared on social media that exposed the real cruel face of the so-called leaders of people who are not sparing the journalists for their questions on the bad governance. Ironically these elements claiming to be the representatives have no experience to patiently listen to the questions and respond towards them soberly and humanly.
In the video, both Masroor Sial and Imtiaz Faran are seen engaging in a debate on a (‘News Line with Aftab Mugheri’) show when suddenly and unexpectedly Masroor Sial stands up and uses to slapping and punching Imtiaz Faran.
It seems that the sudden attack did terrify the host and the entire, crew and guests as well, who it seems remained in a state of shock instead of quickly moving and saving Faran from the high-handedness of Sial. It consumed too much time when the two were separated by other guests on the show and the crew on the set.
Another shocking seen was to further persuading Faran to sit at the show and take part in the debate instead of allowing him to immediately boycott and leave. It seemed very strange to sit over there on the part of Faran. However he clearly told the attacker that he was so arrogant and violator of human rights due to his affiliation with a party that was in power.
The KPC office bearers and governing body members, the Journalist Unions from Karachi to Khyber and almost all leaders of major political parties have condemned Masroor Sial for his very negative act and demanded his removal from the party and apprehension so he could face a trial. At this juncture many journalists and political leaders are calling up the bad incident of Fawad’s slapping against Sami and terming it as ‘the PTI’s style’ to victimize journalists. However the journalist community has taken a resolute stand to not to compromise the victimization of Imtiaz Faran against Masroor Sial.
This was very surprising that Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry had night slapped senior anchorperson Sami Ibrahim at a wedding ceremony in Faisalabad following an argument in wake of the ongoing spat between the two. It is very strange that a minister takes such a negative step against a journalist and later tries to create an impression whether it was a personal matter between two persons. A person who has been holding a public office, cannot satisfy people by terming the matter a personal one.
Since Fawad Chaudhry was holding a public office, he should have thought before an illegal action that his unlawful act could instigate other influential people to express their anger in the same way against their opponents. Ultimately it happens in the case of another senior journalist Imtiaz Faran when a follower of Fawad demonstrated his ‘power’ on a live TV show.
Regardless of the fact whether senior journalist Sami Ibrahim was faulty or an accuser for none, a federal minister should have maintained patience and preferred to take a legal way against the accuser instead of handling the matter with a feudal approach. Article 14 of the Constituion guarantees the inviolability of dignity of man in this country. This law refrains from torturing anyone under any pretext. The same law has now been seriously violated in the case of Imtiaz Faran which was not tolerable by the journalist community anymore.
