CPJ appeal to Musharraf

NEW YORK, AUG 8. In an open letter to the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Ms. Ann K. Cooper, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), writes:

The CPJ is deeply concerned about the safety of Mr. Hayat Ullah, a correspondent for the Urdu-language daily Ausaf in Mirali, North Waziristan Agency. Mr. Hayat Ullah is currently in hiding after North Waziristan authorities ordered his arrest for reporting on clashes between local tribal groups.

According to Mr. Hayat Ullah, officials began attempting to curb his reporting in December 2000, after he wrote an article for Ausaf about an attack on the office of the North Waziristan political agent. (In Federally Administered Tribal Areas such as North Waziristan Agency, the political agent is the chief federal administrator in the territory.) At that time, political agent Mohammad Mushtaq Jadoon summoned Mr. Hayat Ullah to his office and complained that the report had exposed the weakness of the local administration. Mr. Jadoon warned Mr. Hayat Ullah never to publish such stories, and ordered him to apologise and to submit all articles for approval by the local administration before sending them on to Ausaf.

In June 2001, without consulting Mr. Jadoon, Mr. Hayat Ullah began reporting on persistent clashes between two tribal groups in the area. He told CPJ that Mr. Jadoon's assistant threatened him with arrest on July 5. And on July 24,

after he reported on Mr. Jadoon's criticisms of local tribal elders, he received a telephone call from another official notifying him that his arrest was imminent. On July 26, Hayat Ullah fled his home in Mirali. Mr. Hayat Ullah told CPJ that local authorities had issued an arrest warrant under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), a legacy of British colonial rule that grants virtually unchecked powers to government administrators in tribal areas.

The CPJ urges Your Excellency to guarantee that Hayat Ullah will not be arrested and to order an immediate inquiry into the harassment of journalists in North Waziristan Agency.

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