Posted by NEWS on 13/10/2004, 20:52:34 This is how Pakistans military dictator personally took charge of the operation against Shahbaz Sharif and telephoned ARY TVs popular anchor Dr. Shahid Masood in London, a couple of minutes before he was to do a live interview with Shahbaz Sharif on the night of May 9. A stunned Dr. Shahid Masood and Shahbaz Sharif looked at each other as ARY TVs scheduled time for the interview clicked past. No interview was telecast as Musharraf had already sent intelligence goons to the ARYs Pakistan studios who were already threatening to kidnap, harm and destroy everything. I was sitting with Dr. Shahid Masood and Musharraf personally called and threatened him, a disturbed Shahbaz Sharif told the South Asia Tribune on telephone from London, a few hours before boarding the flight for Abu Dhabi and on to Pakistan. This revelation of Shahbaz Sharif, that Musharraf himself was giving threats on the phone, was not to be reported by me if Shahbaz Sharif had been allowed to stay in Pakistan and not been deported. Once he was sent packing to Jeddah, the reporting ban did not apply. Musharraf really gave the ARY senior anchor a real stick and threatened that his relatives will be kidnapped in Karachi and we will do everything, Sharif told me on the phone. When I tried to counter check his statement with ARYs Dr. Shahid, he himself was not available but sources at the TV Channel confirmed that Dr Shahid had received the threatening call from Musharraf himself minutes before the interview was to go on air. Musharraf sounded really furious and in a mood to go for the kill. The General was in a state of panic and the Dubai owners of ARY TV were also contacted and threatened. After urgent consultations, they decided it would not be safe and wise to start a head on confrontation with the Army General. Do you want war with us, Musharraf was reported to have said repeatedly. Then prepare for war if you telecast his interview. Dr Shahid Masood was embarrassed as his TV channel could not air the interview. After a short while he went on air with a vague explanation and sort of apology to his viewers for not managing the interview. He did not give any detail of what happened but vowed that his TV channel would continue its struggle for media freedom. The panic visible in the Musharraf camp was not just confined to the threats he gave to ARY TV. In Lahore the office of the CNN was surrounded by police and its correspondent Mohsin Naqvi was arrested. SA Tribune learnt that another popular channel, Geo TV was also planning an interview with Shahbaz Sharif but when Information Minister Sheikh Rashid called the Geo owners, the interview was dropped. ARY TV refused to heed to Sheikh Rashid and so Musharraf himself had to pick up the phone. Roughing up the media was part of the strategy of the Musharraf junta to harass the politicians and the people. Respected BBC correspondent Zafar Abbas, who accompanied Shahbaz Sharif to Lahore from Abu Dhabi was picked up by two policemen and beaten. All his equipment, including his lap top and tape recorders were taken away and not returned. Paris-based media watch dog organization, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) lambasted Musharraf for its heavy-handed treatment of the media. It said in a statement intense official pressure was brought to bear on private ARY Digital TV, a CNN journalist was arrested and police reacted violently to journalists trying to cover the event in Lahore. "The way in which the Pakistani authorities tried to hide the return of this opposition politician shows the Pakistan governments¹ lack of openness in free expression and democracy in general,² the international press freedom organization said in a letter to information and broadcasting minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The organization demanded an explanation for the pressure applied to the privately-owned media to stop them covering the event and called for punishment of police who manhandled journalists in Lahore. ARY Digital TV at the last moment on 9 May pulled an interview with Shahbaz Sharif, president of the opposition PML (N) party, intended to mark his return from exile. Executives of the British-based channel told RSF the decision was the result of ³huge government pressure². The presenter gave no explanation but said, ³We believe in freedom of expression.² RSF reported that police on 11 May placed producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi, of the US cable channel CNN in Pakistan under house arrest to prevent him interviewing Shahbaz Sharif. The security forces used the pretext of a bomb alert to enter his Lahore home without permission. Also on 11 May police prevented journalists from reaching Lahore international airport in the east of the country to witness the politician¹s return. Reporters, including a BBC crew, who traveled in the same plane with Sharif, were arrested, questioned searched or roughly treated by commandos who surrounded the plane after landing. Police manhandled Zafar Abbas, BBC correspondent in Islamabad, and took his passport and journalistic equipment. He and a BBC cameraman were then put into a police van for one hour. Police also seized a video cassette. A journalist on an English-language daily and a reporter from an Urdu daily were beaten at a police checkpoint at the airport entrance. Secret service agents deployed to pick out journalists in the airport zone. Security forces also checked and harassed opposition supporters in Lahore to forestall any pro-Sharif demonstrations. Sharif himself was expelled to Saudi Arabia after spending less than two hours in Pakistan. Link: STOP BUSHARRAF
Musharraf Personally Threatened ARY TV to Stop Shahbaz Interview
WASHINGTON: I am General Musharraf. If you do not stop from telecasting Shahbaz Sharifs interview on ARY TV, it will be war with us and main aap ki aisee ki taisee kar doonga (I will tear you up in pieces).
Source: Sout Asia Tribune (SAT)
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