The Hindu : Pak. Editor quits due to Govt. `pressure'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 03, 2002

International

International

Pak. Editor quits due to Govt. `pressure'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD March 2. In what could prove to be an embarrassment to the Musharraf regime in Pakistan, the Editor of a major English daily has quit his job accusing the Government of pressuring him to sack three of his reporters.

Among the three reporters allegedly targeted by the Government is the one who had filed some very damaging reports — from the Pakistan point of view — on the basis of the reported confessions made by Omar Sheikh, the prime suspect in the Daniel Pearl case.

The news of the resignation of the Editor of The News, Shaheen Sehbai, was made public by the New York-based Committee of Protection of Journalists (CPJ). Subsequently, Mr. Shebai himself confirmed it to the international and national media in separate interviews.

The CPJ is reported to have obtained his letter of resignation addressed to the proprietor of the newspaper. In the letter, Mr. Sehbai is believed to have said that he was quitting due to pressure exerted on him by Government officials.

The Government, however, denied the allegation and its spokesman maintained that Mr. Sehbai had quit following differences with the management over `bias' in the editorials as well as controversial reports by some of the staffers.

Mr. Sehbai has said the proprieter of The News had asked him to fire reporters Kamran Khan (Karachi), Amir Mateen (Washington) and Rauf Klasra (Islamabad) because their reports had angered officials. Mr. Sehbai, who had earlier served as the Washington correspondent of another Pakistan daily Dawn, said that he would rather quit than sack the reporters.

An article in the daily, perceived to be against the national interest by the officials, proved to be the last straw. The proprietor of The News sent him a letter questioning the propriety of publishing such an article.

Mr. Sehbai, in his resignation letter, has said that trouble began after a news report authored by Kamaran Khan appeared on February 17, revealing the confessions of Sheikh. The report had quoted interrogators of Omar Sheikh as saying that he had, in his confession, admitted his role in the recent terrorist attacks in India, including the one on Parliament.

It was on the basis of this report that the Indian Government had demanded that Pakistan share details of the confessions made by Omar Sheikh. Pakistan had promptly denied the contents of the report as `fictitious'. According to Mr. Sehbai, after the report the Musharraf Government stopped all advertisements to The News and intensified pressure on the newspaper's staff.

The February 17 report was not the only damaging report in the newspaper on the basis of the confessions made by Omar Sheikh. Just a few days before, in another report the paper had claimed that Sheikh had revealed that Pearl's kidnapping was planned and executed by a fellow Jaish leader, Mansur Hasnain alias Hyder. He is believed to have told his interrogators that he was the chief architect of the hijack of the Indian Airlines plane in December 1999.

Kamaran Khan wrote that Sheikh also provided Pakistani police with "unsolicited'' details about his connections and relationship with Aftab Ansari, the chief suspect in the Kolkata shooting case, who was subsequently extradited from UAE to India.

Sehbai's resignation came at a time when both the U.S. and Pakistan held talks for the extradition of Sheikh to the U.S. to face trial on a host of charges including his alleged links with the September 11 suicide attacks as well as his role in kidnapping several American citizens, including Pearl.

Commenting on Sehbai's resignation, the CPJ executive director, Ann Cooper, in a statement on the CPJ web site said the organisation was "extremely worried about any signs of government interference with the free press in Pakistan. The Pakistani press has been one of the few institutions strong enough to help check the military Government''.

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