Cabinet Meeting
Discusses South Asia Tribune
Beware US Press,
the Pakistani President is coming after you
Special SAT Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's military ruler has started cleaning and
oiling his legal guns to get the "Foreign Press" who,
he says, is defaming him and his ministers.
At
a cabinet meeting on Oct 30 last, General Musharraf and his “presumably”
outgoing civilian cabinet discussed the attacks on the President
by the Foreign Press, including Washington Post's Jim
Hoagland, and New York Times, besides South Asia
Tribune, and decided that the battle should be taken to the
US courts against all of them.
SA
Tribune has obtained the minutes of the Oct 30 Cabinet meeting
in which first a General Discussion on the prevailing political
situation was held, followed by the attacks by the Press on the
President and his Ministers and then came specific items on the
cabinet's agenda.
Immediately
after the cabinet meeting, all Pakistan newspapers were issued
an "anonymous" advertisement by the Press Information
Department of the Information Ministry (as reported in SA
Tribune last week,
Click Here for Story) warning against reprinting any item
published by the this Web Newspaper.
The
advertisement was widely condemned by newspapers and media organizations
including the Paris-based international body Reporters
Sans Frontieres which sent a letter to Information
Minister Nisar Memon on the issue. No response from the Minister
was, however, made available to the RSF or to the public.
Click Here for RSF Press Release
"It was an unprecedented attempt by the Government to block
reproduction of any thing published by a foreign newspaper, simply
because it was exposing General Pervez Musharraf or his ministers,"
a senior journalist in Islamabad said. Pakistan Daily 'The
Nation' criticized the ad editorially. Click
Here to View Editorial
But
the entire cabinet, specially Railways Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi,
who had been accused of corruption by PML Information Secretary
Mr Siddiq ul Farooq recently, wanted immediate action against
the SA Tribune. The Minister did not show any regret
in the cabinet meeting at his behaviour against Mr Siddiq ul Farooq
who was kidnapped and beaten up by ISI operatives, immediately
after the ex-ISI chief had issued threats on ARY TV channel. He
also did not show any rermorse for using unbecoming and vulgar
language in an interview with the BBC Urdu Service on the subject.Click
Here to Hear Interview
The
Science and Technology Minister Dr Atta ur Rehman was also for
action against SA Tribune as several stories recently
had exposed his Ministry.
The
Cabinet discussed the SA Tribune for some time and then
it was decided that the matter should be referred to the Pakistan
Embassy in Washington so that legal action could be considered
against the SA Tribune and other newspapers including
the Washington Post’s well known columnist Jim
Hoagland, who had written a scathing column against General Musharraf
recently. Click
Here to view Article
The
discussion of the cabinet on action against SA Tribune
and other newspapers was then recorded in the minutes of the cabinet
in these words: “The Cabinet also discussed the recent campaign
of character assassination of the President and members of the
cabinet in the Press. It was suggested that cases should be registered
against the newly promulgated Defamation Law against those who
were trying to tarnish the image of the President and the ministers.
The possibility of registering a case against the international
Press for publishing slanderous articles against the President
may also be discussed with our embassy in USA.”
Click Here to View Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting Page1 |
Page2
Legal
advisers of the SA Tribune, reacting to the Government
threats, rejected government claims that the newspaper had slandered
or defamed President Musharraf or any cabinet minister. “All
news stories were duly substantiated with documents and evidence,”
they maintained.
Giving
any opinion about any person or government was the basic right
of newspapers and journalists and these opinions were balanced
by publishing different points of view, they maintained.
If
the government wanted to provide its point of view for publication,
it was welcome to do so but so far neither any spokesman of President
Musharraf nor the government had provided any official point of
view or clarification regarding any news report or article published
in the SA Tribune.
One
clarification was, however, received on behalf of the Minister
of Science and Technology, Dr. Atta ur Rehman and it was duly
published in SA Tribune, the legal advisers maintained.
Click Here to View Ministry Clarification
