International

CPJ concern over Pak. editor's exit

NEW YORK March 2. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Saturday said that it was alarmed by the resignation of Shaheen Sehbai, the influential editor of The News, one of Pakistan's leading English newspapers.

Mr. Sehbai, in a resignation letter addressed to his boss on Saturday but circulated among colleagues and friends, said he was leaving his post under pressure from the Government, warning that officials were sending a message to the press to ``Get in line, or be ready for the stick.'' In his letter to Mir Shakeelur Rehman, publisher and editor-in-chief of paper, Mr. Sehbai accused the Government of pushing Mr. Rehman to fire him and three reporters. Mr. Sehbai said Mr. Rehman had asked him to fire three reporters because their reporting had angered officials.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Sehbai said he would rather quit than dismiss the reporters. ``CPJ is extremely worried about any signs of Government interference with the free press in Pakistan,'' said the CPJ executive director, Ann Cooper. ``The Pakistani press has been one of the few institutions strong enough to help check the military Government.''

Mr. Sehbai distributed a copy of a letter from Mr. Rehman along with his resignation letter. Mr. Rehman's letter held M. Sehbai responsible for an article that "was perceived to be damaging to our national interest and elicited (the) severe reaction of the Government,'' according to Reuters.

Mr. Sehbai said in his resignation letter that the article in question was one that appeared on February 17, authored by the reporter, Kamran Khan, which concerned the prime suspect in the abduction of the slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

In the article, Mr. Khan, who also reports for The Washington Post, wrote that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had told investigators he was also involved in the Dec. 13 suicide squad attack on the Indian Parliament.

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