Disorder on Murree Road is a regular feature. Custodians of law themselves are to blame to a large extent for this as they have scant regard for the law of the land. As a result, basic rights of the citizens are violated. A recent event amply proved this. FIA and police personnel misbehaved with a woman journalist, Mariana Babar, and two male journalists, Shakeel Sheikh and Rana Mobashar. She was also beaten with a stick and injured. Her colleagues were hit with rifle butts. Moreover, cases were registered against 80 unnamed employees of the Jang group. Their fault was they had demanded that the press must remain unshackled. Their basic right, freedom of expression, was ruthlessly violated.

The treatment meted out to a woman journalist is most shameful, especially when the government always claims that it stands for decency, Islamic values and freedom of speech.

About days ago, Mariana Babar's pet dog was found poisoned to death. On Monday evening, when she was roughed up by personnel of law enforcement agencies, she heard one of them saying in Punjabi: Let us treat her the way we treated her dog. The remark was highly shocking and reflected the attitude of those whose task is to maintain law and order. The treatment meted out to a group of newspapers in Rawalpindi on Monday, particularly in the wake of relief given to it by the superior judiciary, was appalling. Its premises were cordoned off by members of law enforcement agencies as if those working there were criminals. This belied the government's claim that it stood for freedom of the press. Moreover, police and FIA men intercepted trucks carrying newsprint for newspapers and took them to some unknown destination. Reportedly, the law enforcement agencies had no written orders to seize the newsprint. All this was done on verbal orders.

The siege of the newspapers premises continued all over the night and also the following day. The police used batons to disperse the sympathizers from the political parties, include the Tehrik-i-Insaaf, who wanted to go to the office of the newspapers to express their solidarity with the press workers.

The Rawalpindi district is probably the symbol of mis-governance in Punjab. Dacoities, murder and other crimes, especially those against women, are rampant. The last two years were perhaps the worst so far as incidence of its crime is concerned. Despite the promulgation of ant-terrorism law last year the situation worsened. According to crime figures relating to the Rawalpindi city and district, 214 people were murdered, 673 burglaries were committed, 46 women were raped and 240 kidnapped. Moreover, there were 762 cases of theft and 632 cases of car-jacking.

(Dawn 5.2.1999)

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