Karachi - Pakistan's newly elected coalition government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party made freedom of the media a major issue when it took two TV news channels off the air.
The channels, ARY One World TV and GEO TV, confirmed they had been taken off air after showing footage of the beating of former chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim by Pakistan Peoples Party workers in the provincial legislature assembly.
The officials of the both channels confirmed that their networks were off air throughout the country after airing the footage of the former chief minister and the newly elected member of the provincial assembly, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, by the PPP workers. He was dragged and beaten on Saturday when he entered in the provincial assembly to take oath. Sources said his life was saved only when he sought refuge insidet the parliament and was sent home under the police protection without taking the oath.
This morning he tried again to take his oath of office but the Pakistan Peoples Party workers, who had overwhelmed security arrangements at the provincial assembly, grabbed him and beaten him with shoes. All of Pakistan's TV channels showed the footage but the government chose to close the two major news channels ARY and Geo TV.
"This is the first government in the history of Pakistan which has defamed so quickly,” the news director of SunBiz TV, Muhammad Tahir, told AKI. The minister for information Sherry Rahman was unavailable for comment on the government's action.
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.2048724664
Musharraf's worst fear: US will strike if I quit
4/7/08
ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf believes that if he steps down, the US will launch direct military attacks on Pakistan's restive tribal areas and take away disgraced nuclear scientist AQ Khan for interrogation about his proliferation activities, a daily reported on Monday.
Excerpted
Islamabad - After lying low for some time, leaders of several militant groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday met in Rawalpindi city near here and vowed to continue their "Jehad" in the valley.
The meeting, organised by the Pakistan-based al-Badr Mujahideen at a mosque in the garrison city, was addressed by United Jehad Council and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, al-Badr chief Bakht Zameen Khan and leaders of the Lashker-e-Taiba, Hizbi Islami-Kashmir and other Jehadi groups. "The continuation of the Jehad in Kashmir is linked with the survival of Pakistan," Salahuddin told the 500-strong gathering.
Observers said this was one of the largest gatherings addressed by militant leaders near Islamabad in the past few years. The meeting came just days after PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, whose party is in the ruling coalition, said no terrorist training camps were operating in Pakistan. Salahuddin said the Jehadi groups would be ready for dialogue with India only if "agrees to quit Kashmir and recognise the fundamental rights of Kashmiris".
He told the gathering that they will continue operating in Jammu and Kashmir as long as even a single Indian soldier is deployed in the state. "We in this gathering want to convey a message to Kashmiri Muslims that they are not alone. We are with them. We will not accept Indian hegemony till the last drop our blood," he said as the crowd shouted slogans like "our way of life Jehad Jehad" and "Allah is Great".
He claimed that the "Jehad" in Kashmir is passing through a "sensitive period" because its traditional supporters had turned their back on it and the base of the movement was now in "Azad Kashmir".
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=435084&sid=SAS
Nuclear scientist says he confessed to 'save' Pakistan
April 7, 2008
ISLAMABAD — Detained Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said he took the blame four years ago for passing atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in order to "save his country".
Khan, who has been under effective house arrest since confessing on television in 2004 to running a proliferation network, added that the country's new government had not yet contacted him about his possible release.
Khan was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf after his confession but has remained in detention. Musharraf denied any state involvement in Khan's activities but has rejected international requests to quiz the scientist. "I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself," Khan told AFP in a telephone interview from his Islamabad villa late Sunday.
Excerpted
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hKZQFrI-rPtBKI4GfHYs4eg3eKkQ