PAKISTAN: MEDIA COMPLAIN OF HARASSMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT

(31 Jan 1999) English/Nat Pakistan's largest circulation Urdu-language newspaper may be forced to suspend publication for the first time in 51 years. The Jang group - which publishes "The Jang" newspaper - accuses the government of a campaign of harassment which began after it published allegations of widespread corrupt practices by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his family and government members. Sharif has denied the allegations. His government says the group's owner owes (B) billion of rupees (millions of dollars) in fines for evading taxes and customs duties. Hundreds of journalists converge on the streets of Karachi, saying freedom of the press is under serious threat. Maliha Lodhi, editor of the Jang group's English-language newspaper "The News", says the group may be forced to suspend publication of its Urdu-language paper within days. She and other Jang group editors say the government has harassed the group ever since the publication of a series of articles alleging widespread graft in the Sharif administration. The government insists that the case revolves around this man, Jang Group owner Shakil ur-Rehman. Officials with Sharif's anti-corruption unit have ordered Rehman to pay two (B) billion rupees (four (M) million U-S dollars) in back taxes and frozen the group's bank accounts. But Rehman says the government has also demanded that the group dismiss 16 of its journalists and editors, including the influential Lodhi. Last Thursday, protesters converged at the Government House in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, where they chanted press freedom slogans. Security was high in a port city that suffers daily street violence, but this protest ended peacefully. At a news conference the same day, Rehman said he had filed a case against the government with the country's Supreme Court, saying the time for a deal with the Sharif administration had passed. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Now it will be very difficult for us to compromise with the government. I don't think there's any chance. And we'll do our utmost for the freedom of press through the Supreme Court, not through the government." SUPER CAPTION: Shakil ur-Rehman, Owner of Jang Group of Newspapers But Saif ur-Rehman, the man who heads Sharif's anti-corruption team, says the journalists are distorting an open-and-shut case of tax evasion to gain public support. SOUNDBITE: (English) "It's not a matter of the freedom of the press. They are trying to project it as a matter of freedom of press, but it's a tax evasion case. Whenever we put a hand onto any corrupt or any tax evader, he always makes a story." SUPER CAPTION: Saif ur-Rehman, Chairman of Accountability Department Saif ur-Rehman denied asking the group to fire any of its editors, but admitted the administration complained over reports he called factually incorrect. Reporters at the Karachi office are still at work and say they'll keep publishing stories that may not be to Nawaz Sharif's liking. The newspaper group is running an advertisement campaign against the government under the heading "press under siege". One of the advertisements pictures Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, quoting him on the value of press freedom. It was a point not lost on opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who has called on the country's judiciary to take up the case immediately. SOUNDBITE: (English) SUPER CAPTION: Benazir Bhutto, Opposition Leader and Former Prime Minister For now the newspapers are still being printed, but that could change within days. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...