prime
minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, chief minister, Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif
director general, ANF and director ANF, Punjab for conspiring against him.
He claimed that they wanted to kill him in fake police encounter or through
any other agency on some pretext.
This was stated by the son of Rahmat Shah Afridi and director of the Frontier publication, Jalil Afridi, in an emergency press conference at Peshawar Press Club on 30 August. He read out the letter of his jailed father, Rahmat Shah Afridi, faxed to him from the district jail , saying that he was implicated in a false and fabricated drug smuggling case by the present rulers in connivance with a certain intelligence agency over political differences.
Quoting his father, Jalil Afridi said, "after my arrest, the same intelligence agency tried to blackmail me and damaged my reputation through third rate tactics. Later, the rulers through the same agency pressurised me to agree to their policies over different issues. Now that they have failed, I fear that they are going to eliminate me through the same agency in a fake police encounter or through other means, after they set me free. If such drastic action occurs, the entire responsibility would rest with the above mentioned people."
Jalil Afridi said, "my father advised me that before it happens, I should immediately request the high court to order the jail authorities not to hand him over to any agency, police or the ANF unless the court orders". Before addressing the press conference, he also faxed the same message of his father to the president of Pakistan, prime minister, chief of army staff, General Pervez Musharraf Chief justice of Pakistan, Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, governor and chief minister NWFP, APNS and CPNE, asking them to take notice of the serious threats his father has been receiving from the rulers.
Jalil Afridi once again quoted his father saying that he would not change the independent policy of his papers -come what may. "Once my father told me that I will not change the policy if they hang me to the fan", he said adding that how could his father change the policy on Kashmir when he had seen the injustices and other cruelty of the Indian government with the innocent people and women of Kashmir by himself. He said his father was ready to die but whether they had the right to take the life of his father in such a way. The only crime of my father is to expose them."
Reiterating his commitment to unveil the corruption and misdeeds of the sitting rulers and to continue the independent policy of his papers, said that the same rulers had offered millions and billions to his father in only to keep his mouth closed but they never succeeded in their mission. He said, "Shahbaz Sharif had visited his house in in 1988 and presented Rs 140 million to my father only to keep his mouth closed. My father asked him to take tea and please leave because he was guest in his house. He also reminded him that he fixed a little price for him. They have also offered other facilities to his fathers but when they failed in their mission, they were now trying to pressurise him on such tactics. They want to close their papers by not giving them their due share in advertisements and clear their dues. He said that since his father had been arrested, the Frontier Post had received Rs 2, 91, 000 as advertisements. It, he said was strange that the Urdu daily Maidan had been included in the media list by the federal government but the provincial government has refused to include it in the media list. He said the government would never succeed in its mission to close down their paper and he vowed that it would be published at every cost, even if they had to reduce the number of pages. Their papers, he said, would publish the same stories and continue the same policy.
(Courtesy: The Frontier Post, 31 August '99)
