Monday, May 31, 2021
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemns police brutality on teachers in Peshawar
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that police
brutality against teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is highly condemnable. He said that on one hand KP government is cutting staff allowances and on the other, the government is claiming economic growth.
He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf federal government has given less of its budget to the universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demanded that more than 15 teachers sustained injuries while protesting for their rights by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police and should be given free medical treatment. He asked where is the justice in handcuffing 22 teachers including grade 21 Ph. D professors.
Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demanded the immediate release of arrested staff of universities in the KP province. He said that on the one hand, the budget of KP universities has been reduced and on the other, students are being burdened by increasing university fees. He deplored the baton charge and tear gas shelling on respected teachers.
Pakistani talk show host Hamid Mir suspended after critical comments on the military
In response to the suspension today of Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, host of “Capital Talk” news program, by the Geo News network following Mir’s critical comments about the Pakistan military at a rally on Saturday, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:
“Forcing a popular news talk show host like Hamid Mir off the air after voicing criticism of Pakistan’s military—and support for a fellow journalist—only underscores the lack of true press freedom in Pakistan,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Critical comments about key state institutions are an important component of democracy, not a scourge to be eliminated.”
Mir’s suspension followed comments about the military at a rally outside the National Press Club in Islamabad in support of journalist Asad Ali Toor, according to news reports, video posted on Twitter, text messages from Mir to CPJ, and a statement issued by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, which was posted on Twitter. Toor was assaulted at his home last week, as CPJ documented.
A Geo News representative, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, told CPJ in a telephone conversation that Geo was in the process of drafting a statement for public release on Mir’s suspension.
Mir survived an attempt on his life in 2014, when he was hit by six bullets in Karachi, as CPJ reported at the time.
https://cpj.org/2021/05/pakistani-talk-show-host-hamid-mir-suspended-after-critical-comments-on-the-military/