Islamabad [Pakistan]: Pakistan has no constitutional governance and attacks on journalists and free speech are rampant in the country, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Fazlur Rehman said on Wednesday.
“At this time, there is no constitutional governance in the country and attacks on freedom of expression are rampant, journalists are being ambushed,” Pakistan’s The News International quoted Fazlur as saying during a press brief in the National Assembly. “We believe that government bodies NAB and FIA have become political institutions, who have lost their standing, as they are being used against the Opposition,” he added.
Recently, the NAB started a fresh inquiry against Pakistan’s Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif soon after his bail was extended by the court.
“Shehbaz was arrested in a clean water case but was booked in the Ashiyana housing scandal and then was involved in the sewer line of Ramzan Sugar Mill. Now the National Accountability Bureau has been pressurised by Imran Niazi to file a new case against him,” Dawn quoted PML-N leader Ataullah Tarar Tarar as saying.
Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had said that the Pakistan government has been continuously threatening opposition leaders through constitutional bodies.
For a long time, Pakistan’s government has been targetting multiple key leaders and journalists in the country through its administrative bodies resulting in no constitutional governance in the country.
In July, an international media watchdog report listed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on a list of the world’s 37 worst rulers in the area of press freedom. The report titled “Press freedom predators gallery – old tyrants, two women and a European”, said how the military and intelligence of the country plays a major role in curbing press freedom in the country.
According to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Pakistani military had reasserted the “deep state over civilian power.”
“Deep state” is a euphemism for what in Pakistan means permanent supremacy of the armed forces and the feared military intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
