Still in chains
Sardar FS Lodi
The ongoing government campaign to suppress and throttle the Jang Group of newspapers will surely be remembered as yet another shameful and sordid chapter in the history of the present Muslim League government. The Jang Group is one of the three largest newspaper groups in the country and the only one publishing a daily abroad as well.
The Pakistan press inspite of being bruised and battered over the years and facing all the restrictions placed upon it and having the might of the government forces, overt and covert, arrayed against it, has survived and continues to breathe. This is largely due to the personal courage, dedication and commitment to democracy and the freedom of the press by brave journalists who continue to uphold these principles often at great cost to themselves. Consequently the press is doing a commendable job in informing the public about events in the country. In other words both the good news and the bad news is put up before the people and that is how it should be.
The allegation of tax arrears against the Jang Group is at best a cheap ploy unworthy of a Muslim League government that claims to represent the bulk of the population. This justification being put across by the government has not fooled the people at home and observers abroad about the real intentions of the government: the suppression of dissent in any form and from any quarter. We fail to realise that dissent and open discussion is at the heart of democracy where it has long been claimed that it is a citizens constitutional right to criticise his government when it steps out of line. This right is protected by law.
It has been observed that whenever a government strives to attain absolute power by every possible means, a free press is the first casualty. But absolute power is abhorrent to the spirit of democracy where a system of checks and balances has been created for this very purpose. A free press and an independent judiciary are the two most important ingredients of the process we call "checks and balances", which helps to maintain individual liberty and prevents arbitrary actions by the State. In fact a free press and an independent judiciary are the two most important pillars of democracy, responsible for providing justice and upholding the rule of law. When these pillars are targeted for two long and eventually tumbled and destroyed, what would be left, but the ruins of a failed state ready to be feasted upon by vulturous adversaries from within and without.
It has been reported in a section of the press that the government wishes to induct its own people in important decision making positions of the Jang Group of newspapers which is being resisted by the Group. Does this not make the government's flimsy excuse of tax evasion by the Jang Group fall flat on its face. It is certainly the government's intention to coerce the newspaper to conform to the party line and support all measures, legal and illegal (mostly the latter), being employed at present to gain and retain absolute power, come what may.
We have a long history of press bashing and do not seem to be learning any lessons. Zamir Niazi, a senior journalist and an indomitable and courageous fighter for the freedom of expression and press, says in his book The Press under Siege that the first big offensive against the press was launched in 1952 when the students set ablaze the press and office of the Morning News at Dhaka on February 21, 1952. This incident was the trend-setter, he feels, and was followed by numerous attacks over the years on the offices of the newspapers and journalists themselves, many of whom lost their lives in the line of duty.
In his well documented book, The Press in Chains, Zamir Niazi explains how a severe and last blow was given to the freedom of the press when General Muhammad Ayub Khan took over the government on October 5, 1958, dissolved the National Assembly and the Noon ministry, abrogated the Constitution, banned all political parties and prohibited all press criticism of his regime. "This heralded the beginning to a completely chained press for all times to come." On April 18, 1959 progressive papers were taken over by the government. The following year, Press and Publications Ordinance was passed "to emasculate the press". In 1963 amendments were made to the ordinance to further stifle the already enfeebled press. Latter in 1964, National Press Trust was formed and a writers guild to bribe journalists. "In those dark days", writers Mr Niazi, "of naked dictatorship, oppression and suppression, the solitary voice, which upheld the rule of law, freedom of expression and civil liberties, came from the frail figure of Justice MR Kiyani." One wonders if there are any more Justice Kiyanis left in the country.
After Field Marshal Ayub Khan and General Ayub Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over as President on December 20, 1971. He promised freedom of expression and that of the press This was of course not to be. Mr Niazi explains how the suppression started and continued to increase. Journalists were arrested and newspapers closed down. Never in Pakistan's history were so many journalists and other newspaper workers arrested or jailed in the Punjab as by the first elected government of the Peoples Party, writes Mr Niazi.
On July 5, 1977 General Zia ul Haq took over the government for 90 days and "brought in a new era of freedom of press and expression". According to a Reuter report, the newsmen could not believe that the fundamental rights had been resurrected. But the lights went out on October 17, 1979 writes Zamir Niazi, when general elections were indefinitely postponed, political parties dissolved and "those newspapers and periodicals which (had) been working against the interest of the country and poisoning the minds of the people under the cover of journalism (had) been closed down. Censorship (had) been imposed on all media of mass communication". There was nothing left to mourn about. This era came to an end with the death of General Zia ul Haq in 1988.
Since democracy and representative government has stood restored in the country for over a decade, one would have hoped, so would a free press, freedom of speech and an independent judiciary. But unfortunately during this period there was an "increasing menace of physical violence from political parties against newspaper establishment", their offices, and journalists. This running battle has continued over the years, but the present threat posed by the government is likely to threaten the very foundations of the sacred and time-honoured principles of the freedom of the press, which is also guaranteed by the Constitution, which every member of the National Assembly promises on solemn oath to protect and uphold.
As a defence expert who has been associated with the nation's higher defence planning I would like to remind the government that a free press is essential for national defence as well. Public support, which is of considerable importance for troops facing the enemy in battle, cannot be generated and is not forthcoming without correct news being conveyed to the people. We have suffered on this score previously an so let us not repeat our past mistakes.
While we are busy crushing the press, attacking and burning their offices, killing and injuring journalists, we must remember that all we are dong is illegally preventing the fourth estate from performing its national duty of keeping the public informed. The second and third estates have already been neutralised. If all other estates (the legislature, the judiciary and the press) are silenced by the executive, then the only method left to provide a semblance of checks and balances would be too hazardous to contemplate. In any case the media is only a reflections of the peoples will. As the Times of London said in its editorial under the title "At war with the Media" in its issue of September 11,1993, "the press does not have its own agenda; it is the forum in which public opinion finds expression".
It is earnestly hoped that saner counsels will prevail in the corridors of power in Islamabad. By persecuting the press, the government is damaging its democratic credentials at home and abroad and the future of democracy in the country.