We are currently witness to the fiercest, most long drawn out confrontation seen in Pakistan between the state and the press another outstanding example being the takeover of Progressive Papers Limited, including The Pakistan Times in 1958. But that was during martial Law days. What's happening now is being done by a democratically elected government with the biggest mandate ever.

The government, predictably, is using all its means to harass, intimidate, and malign the Jang Group, its owner, and its journalists, including through intelligence agencies and daily diatribes on television. Jang publications, less predictably, have come out in the open about the pressures they are facing. Journalists and newspaper organisations have joined in what they perceive is a fight for press freedom. Opposition parties have jumped into the fray.

But the people are still asking if it is really a matter of press freedom or of taxes. Why has a newspaper organisation known for its pragmatic and business-oriented policy taken this extreme stance? What has given Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman the guts to stand up and fight now?

The answer to the last question could lie in an observation made by Asma Jehangir during a charged meeting at Press Club last week: Mir Shakil's departure from past policy has been made by the long and sustained fight for press freedom by working journalists, unions and human rights groups.

It could also lie in the fact that this is a fight for the Group's very survival. If Jang publications continue to dwindle in size due to shortage of newsprint, they will lose readers, and business newspapers make most of their money from the advertisements they print, not from subscriptions and sales. Rivals will gleefully jump into the vacuum not just already established newspaper rivals, but new ones.

Remember when one of the Sharif scions took a reeky trip to India a couple of years ago, to check out, among other things, the possibility of importing newsprint from next door instead of further away? And let's not overlook the recent buying up of a daily newspaper by a ruling party loyalist.

So how did matters come to this pass? The tension had been building up since last year, particularly July-August 1998, coinciding with Nawaz Sharif's announcement of the controversial 15th Constitutional Amendment (the Shariat Bill unconditional support for this being one of the government's demands in its negotiations with Jang). And the planned launch of Geo, an offshore South Asian Satellite channel backed by the Jang Group.

The government feels that the Jang Group is a monster in the making, with its move into the electronic media challenging the official monopoly on truth, says The News Senior Editor Imran Aslam, who is associated with the project.

The government's total control over the electronic media is a major hindrance to the freedom of expression and information. In a nation where only about 30 per cent of the population are functionally literate, the Jang Group's virtual monopoly on the print media it is estimated to publish some 55 percent of all reading material in Pakistan makes it a force to be reckoned with.

Information Minister Mushahid Hussain's claim that the Group was blackmailing the government because of its refusal to allow the Group to move into the electronic media doesn't hold water. We don't need government permission, states Imran Aslam. Geo is operated by an off-shore company.

What Geo does need to run, however, is money. Lots of it. And by hitting the Jang Group's milch cow, the government has ensured that the Group is too tied up running from pillar to post for newsprint and to unfreeze its bank accounts to even think about moving ahead with the project.

The newsprint crisis is visible in the suspension of several weekly Jang publications, and the reduction of daily The News and Jang to skeletons.

It is important to understand the issue of newsprint, a rare commodity in Pakistan, which imports rather than manufactures it. In this free market age, the government retains controls over its import. Newspapers and periodicals pay 5 per cent duty (as compared to commercial importers who pay 10 per cent) and are allowed a quota according to their need, as certified by the government Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC).

Newspapers have traditionally inflated circulation figures, allowing them to import more newsprint than needed. The surplus is probably sold in the black market a side trade that many publication houses indulge in, with the authorities conveniently looking the other way.

In December, the FIA raided the largest paper market, Rehan Paper Mart in Karachi, and unsuccessfully attempted to implicate the Jang Group in cases of illegally selling its newsprint quota. Everyone sells newsprint, but it just so happens that the Jang Group has not been doing this, at least in recent years, admits a senior officer.

As for the tax issue, journalists organisations hold that these cases should be handled by Income Tax tribunals. But the government continued harassing the Group even after an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ruled in its favour, prompting the infamous remark on the audio-cassette: If I had directed him even the judge's father would not have ruled in your favour.

As Opposition Senator Aitzaz Ahsan asked, why are income tax cases being fled selectively, and why is no action being taken against the Prime Minister who paid no more than Rs 477 in taxes last year, while Senator Saifur Rehman himself has paid zero income tax.

The tax issue also doesn't hold water considering the offer made to Mir Shakil: sack and replace certain journalists, support the government on various policy issues, don't publish news against the ruling family and its business interests, and the cases can be withdrawn.

The government has been unable to convincingly deny that these demands and threats were made. Instead, there was a feeble suggestion by Minister for Information, Senator Mushahid Hussain that a five-member committee, comprising leader of the house and opposition in the Senate and journalists, be set up to look into the matter. As independent observers have pointed out, there should be nothing for any ad hoc committee to negotiate on the matter of tax claims three exist judicial tribunals for the purpose.

There is a widespread feeling that after muzzling the other institutions, the government has turned to the press. The APNS decision to support the Jang Group and go to court on the issue of press freedom is a welcome one. After all, at stake is not just the survival of one group, but of press freedom and democracy as a whole, because, as is widely being commented, if Jang Group capitulates, no other newspaper will dare to defy government diktat for a long time to come.

(The News 6.2.1999)

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