Prominent journalist Matiullah Jan has been arrested alongside journalist Saqib Bashir from the parking lot of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad on Wednesday night.
Abdul Razaq Jan, son of Matiullah Jan, claimed in a video message that Saqib Bashir had been released after a while. However, his father was still “missing.”
Matiullah Jan’s son stated that he was informed about the “abduction” of his father by Saqib Bashir at around 4 AM.
Veteran journalist Hamid Mir took to X (formerly Twitter) to claim that Matiullah Jan was detained at Margalla Police Station.
“We are informed that he [Matiullah Jan] is required in an FIR along with Ali Amin Gandapur and Bushra Bibi,” Hamid Mir wrote.
However, no official response has been issued by the authorities.
Matiullah Jan was also apprehended during the PTI-led govt in July 2020 from Islamabad sector G-6 but was released after a while.
Last week anchors Imran Riaz Khan and Sami Ibrahim were condemned for making homophobic and rape jokes just because the ‘boys club’ could not have a decent debate and in return thought it was okay to make fun of child abuse and rape. The anchors, in order to avoid being interviewed by journalist Matiullah Jan, insinuated that the interviewer was raped in the army barracks back when he was a cadet at the Pakistan Military Academy. Imran and the group of journalists around him, including anchorperson Sami Ibrahim, could be heard laughing and ridiculing Jan, who then challenged them all to invite him on their shows. This incident made us see so-called ‘civilised men’ making rape jokes, clearly reflecting how a sensitive subject like rape and abuse was nothing more than a joke for them. The men seen in the video laughing about someone being raped are not only disgusting, but triggering for those who have actually gone through sexual violence.
Recently, two advertisements of a perfume company in India glorifying rape culture were taken down by the Indian ad regulatory body, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). In one of the ads, four men can be seen entering a store. They are shown having a dispute over who will take a ‘shot’. There are four of them, but only one ‘shot’ is available. During this debate, instead of the bottle of body spray, a woman is shown and it looks like they are having an argument over who will first rape the woman. The woman even turns around in anger, believing the four men are talking about her. However, she is then shown relieved, when one of the men picks up the body spray called ‘Shot’.
What is most appalling in the scenarios discussed is how normally it is being engrained in our society that promoting rape or making rape jokes is a trait of masculinity. We need to understand that women and men are afraid of sharing their ordeal when they are sexually assaulted because society ridicules them instead of showing empathy. The question remains, why? Why is society not accepting of the person who has been raped? Why do we find the need to ridicule and shame them? When will people understand that it is the rapist who needs to be rebuked, punished, and questioned, not the survivor. The day our society learns to provide the strength where it is required and stand with the survivors of sexual assaults, no one will be frightened to talk about their horrific experiences. It is time to stand up for all victims.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry, while speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday, lost his cool and called journalist Matiullah Jan “kiraye ka aadmi [ a hired man]. The statement of the former minister came as he was questioned about First Lady Bushra Bibi’s friend Farah Khan.
Here is what happened.
Fawad Chaudhry: “I will take questions later … Commando Saab one minute …. Statement of facts has been submitted by Prime Minister…”
Matiullah can be heard speaking in the background, “Where did Farah Khan go? Why did she run away from the country?”
Fawad Chaudhry: “I will talk first, and then you will speak.”
Matiullah kept asking his questions and that’s when Fawad called him out and said, “Kiraye pay aatay hain is tarha kay loug, [People like him are hired].”
Matiullah got angry at being called ” a hired man” and then said that it was actually Fawad who is a ‘kiraye ka tattu,” [a hired fool] and that’s when the heated argument geared up.
Fawad and Matiullah abusing each other
Though other journalists tried to settle the matter, both Fawad and Matiullah hurled continuous derogatory remarks and abusive words at each other.
Fawad was asked to apologise but refused. His refusal to offer an apology ended up with journalists announcing that they are boycotting media talks of all PTI leaders.
Talking to The Current, Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Qadir Mandokhel said that he has been pursuing a petition against Faisal Vawda for 2 years 9 months. “Now it’s just a waste of time.”
Mandokhel gave the example of an illegal building and a petition against it. “Agar building hee masmaar kar di toh kya faida abb iska” (If the illegal building has been demolished, what’s the use of pursuing a case against it). Mandokhel is referring to the fact that Vawda is no longer an MNA but a Senator now.
Mandokhel says he has high hopes from Sindh High Court where the petition on senatorship is still pending. Mandokhel says he wrote to the US Consulate but he was told by them that they do not reply to individual queries.
Mandokhel says Vawda hasn’t submitted his reply and questions why. He also questioned why the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is not doing much about this case.
On Thursday, none of the petitioners appeared before the ECP, meanwhile, Faisal Vawda did.
Vawda, while talking to senior journalist Matiullah Jan, seemed confident and said, “This seems more of a political case, and a political case has no standing. Everyone seems to have backed off for now.”
“The ECP is fully looking into the details of my case and is also providing me with a lot of chances to my rivals. But my all rival parties have disappeared,” added Vawda.
The ECP has three petitions related to the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Faisal Vawda, who is a former member of the National Assembly as well as a recently-elected Senator. The commission is yet to make a decision.
Petitioners against Vawda contend that he had dual citizenship when he filed his nomination papers in the 2018 general elections, a fact that he had concealed at the time. Therefore, they say that he should be disqualified.
Former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) chief Bashir Memon has claimed during his tenure, the “highest office” had ordered him to file a terrorism case against members of the social media cell of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz, after a picture of First Lady Bushra Bibi was found circulating on social media.
Memon, a career civil servant of the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) cadre, resigned from service in November last year, days before he was supposed to retire, in protest against being posted out close to retirement.
Memon had resigned the same day the government, while booting him out of office, appointed incumbent FIA director general Wajid Zia, also a PSP, in his pace.
In an interview with journalist Matiullah Jan, the first part of which was uploaded on the latter’s YouTube channel on Monday, Memon said: “There was a picture on social media, regarding which they [said] that a terrorism case should be filed.”
“It was a picture of the first lady [uploaded] on social media. How is this terrorism? There is a definition of terrorism in law. It was a normal picture, how was that terrorism,” he questioned.
It merits a mention here that the first lady clads a burqa and strictly adheres to face veiling. She also keeps out of the public eye and has rarely accompanied the prime minister on his domestic and international visits.
During the interview, then Jan asked Memon to name the authority who gave him the order, he said that he was summoned by the “highest office in Pakistan”.
When the host wondered if Prime Minister Imran Khan had attended the meeting Memon was summoned for, Memon refused to take names. “I said the highest office,” he reiterated.
“[They told me] to take action on this against [Maryam Nawaz’s] social media cell. I didn’t say that this couldn’t be done. I said, under which law? Because we have to work according to the law.”
He claimed that the government’s “expectations” which it had from the FIA “are [now] being fulfilled”.
In response to another question, Memon declared that the government expected the FIA to “do exactly what NAB [National Accountability Bureau] has done [with the opposition leaders]”.
“Especially regarding his [Nawaz Sharif’s] son-in-law captain Safdar […] just what NAB is doing with him,” he said.
Memon also said that the authorities wanted FIA to pursue corruption cases against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, his sons and his entire family including his relatives. The members of the Sharif family are being investigated in several cases of graft and abuse of authority.
The anti-graft agency arrested Shahbaz last week after the Lahore High Court rejected his bail petition in a money laundering case which also involves his family members. The agency accuses him of having laundered billions of rupees of black money during his tenure as the chief executive of Punjab.
When asked why he refused to pursue those cases, Memon said: “There were two reasons. One, I didn’t have the inquiries. Second, this was the mandate of the provincial anti-corruption [unit].”
The former FIA chief recalled that he was sent to Lahore where a meeting was convened by Punjab chief secretary Akbar Durrani and attended by all secretaries as well. Memon added that he was provided with the record of the case he had been asked to take up.
“End of the day, I told them that all of this is the mandate of provincial anti-corruption [unit]. They can do this, we cannot. Because FIA is a law enforcement agency. A law enforcement agency will [handle issues related to] law. We will remain within our mandate. We can’t go and jump around, in my opinion,” Memon said.
Memon said that the cases that were first referred to FIA were later transferred to the NAB. He said that the reason behind referring the cases to FIA first may have been that “they (authorities) feel that we are more competent”.
“However, I always said that this is what the law says and this is what it doesn’t. We have to work according to the law,” he told Jan. He further said that after NAB picked up the cases which were initially being probed by FIA, he was “relieved of that pressure”.
“Regarding NAB cases, whenever I hear the remarks and the verdicts that are given […] I say that God wanted to protect my dignity. In this age, all you care about is your respect,” he said.
He also talked about a “peculiar case” against PML-N leader Khawaja Asif, in which it was alleged that the latter was working for a company in Dubai while he was defence and foreign minister. The former FIA official said that it was suggested that a treason case against Asif should be lodged over the allegation.
“I’m not saying that [this is not possible]. But we need evidence for that,” he said and added that there was no available evidence when he was told to file the case. When asked who told him that such a case should be filed, he said it was said during a cabinet meeting and was included in the minutes.
“Cabinet had asked to carry out an inquiry. We did that but could not find evidence,” he explained.
He also mentioned a meeting, which was also attended by the prime minister, in which officials of government regretted that Karachi Electric was “ruined”. Memon said that FIA had proven that K-Electric had to return Rs87 billion to Sui Southern Gas Limited and that the money should be recovered.
“In his (prime minister’s) opinion, FIA did wrong by conducting this investigation [against KE]. That this investigation should not have been conducted,” Memon claimed.
No official from the government has so far commented on Memon’s claims.
Journalist Matiullah Jan, who is a vocal critic of the government among other quarters, has gone missing from Islamabad, his family said on Tuesday, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
According to Jan’s wife, Kaneez Sughra, who was speaking to Independent Urdu, his car was found with keys still inside.
Jan was due to appear in the Supreme Court (SC) this week after it took suo motu notice of a contemptuous tweet by the journalist.
Amnesty International South Asia called for authorities to “establish [Jan’s] whereabouts immediately”.
We are extremely concerned for the fate and wellbeing of @matiullahjan919. He has been the subject of physical attacks and harassment for his journalism. The authorities must establish his whereabouts immediately. #ReleaseMatiullah
— Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office (@amnestysasia) July 21, 2020
In a tweet, the organisation said it was “extremely concerned for the fate and wellbeing” of the journalist, who it said has been the subject of “physical attacks and harassment for his journalism”.
Meanwhile, a CCTV footage showed Jan’s car being intercepted. It also showed a scuffle breaking out between the journalist and the reportedly armed men who took him away.
He can also be shown throwing his phone away, which a woman was seen handing over to one of the unidentified men.
Federal Minister for Information Shibli Faraz, later in the day, said the government was aware of the abduction and efforts were underway for the journalist’s safe return. The development was also confirmed by Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, who said that she was in contact with the capital city’s police in this regard.
Chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), on the other hand, has reportedly taken notice of the abduction and directed authorities to present Jan before the court on Wednesday.
